From “Hyper-feminine” to Androgyny: Changing Notions of Femininity in Contemporary China

In 2005 two young women achieved fame overnight in mainland China. One was Li Yuchun, champion of the first Chaonu, or “Super Girl,” contest (a Chinese version of American Idol). Li Yuchun is skinny, boyish, and presents herself in androgynous (zhongxin) fashion.1 The second was Furong Jiejie (“Sister Lotus,” whose real name is Shi Hengxia), who posted photos of herself on the Qinghua University Internet forum adopting sexually assertive poses to highlight her body shape, accompanied by narcissistic captions.2While Li Yuchun garnered sensational Chinese headlines because of her unexpected success and controversial style, Furong Jiejie also became an Internet celebrity, receiving blanket coverage in newspapers, magazines, and television, though she became a laughing stock. The winners of Super Girl are elected by television audiences throughmobile phone message voting.3 Li Yuchun won 3.5 million votes and became the Super Girl champion of 2005.4 The majority of Li Yuchun’s fans are urban females in their teens and twenties. They voted for Li largely for her alternative style. The popularity of her androgynous image indicates a new trend in gender representation in contemporary China. After decades of rejection of the “masculinized” Maoist image of women and state-sponsored promotion of a return to “hyper-femininity” in the reform era (from 1978 onwards), many young Chinese women have more recently embarked on a new project of “undoing gender.”5