ABSTRACT

This book explores how the traditional ideal of Chinese manhood – the "wen" (cultural attainment) and "wu" (martial prowess) dyad – has been transformed by the increasing integration of China in the international scene. It discusses how increased travel and contact between China and the West are having a profound impact; showing how increased interchange with Western men, for whom "wu" is a more significant ideal, has shifted the balance in the classic Chinese dichotomy; and how the huge emphasis on wealth creation in contemporary China has changed the notion of "wen" itself to include business management skills and monetary power. The book also considers the implications of Chinese "soft power" outside China for the reconfigurations in masculinity ideals in the global setting. The rising significance of Chinese culture enables Chinese cultural norms, including ideals of manhood, to be increasingly integrated in the international sphere and to become hybridised. The book also examines the impact of the Japanese and Korean waves on popular conceptions of desirable manhood in China. Overall, it demonstrates that social constructions of Chinese masculinity have changed more fundamentally and become more global in the last three decades than any other time in the last three thousand years.

chapter 1|13 pages

Introduction

chapter 2|19 pages

Confucius the wen man

Unlikely pin-up boy for ‘brand China'

chapter 3|14 pages

Hero

Re-working the wen-wu ideal for China and abroad

chapter 4|10 pages

Floating Life

Nostalgia for the Confucian way in the suburbs

chapter 6|16 pages

Angry Chinamen

Turtle eggs in Australia and China

chapter 7|17 pages

Globe-trotting Chinese entrepreneurs

Wealthy, worldly and worthy

chapter 9|16 pages

The power of the popular

Reconsidering Chinese masculinity ideals