Jun Lei’s presentation “Systems of Ascent: Masculinity and Technical Competence in Chinese Web Fiction” considers how masculine legitimacy is earned in posthuman male-oriented web fiction. With the shift from spectacular self-assertion to technical competence within constraining systems in these works, bodies become mutable, technologically mediated, or ontologically unstable, dislodging masculinity from the naturalized male body and forcing its reconstruction through system-dependent competence. Where earlier works promised rapid accumulation of power, status, and romantic conquest, novels of the past decade tie masculine legitimacy to solving problems, enduring friction, and managing oneself within systems that do not simply bend to male desire. Experience of Becoming a Vampire, Cyber Swordsman, and Starting with the Red Moon present an escalating management logic: of a mutating body approached as an engineering problem, of masculine transcendence captured by cybernetic control, and of the human limit when the system of ascent leads toward godhood and madness. Often the protagonist’s world remains genuinely constraining, with masculine achievement measured by advancement and by knowing where mastery must stop.
Xiaolu Ma’s presentation “Fathers and Sons: Unravelling Yan Lianke's Family Legacy” discusses a 2009 memoir, My Father's Generation and Me by Yan Lianke, and the generational gaps that challenge the discourse of filial piety. Identifying himself as an "unfilial son," Yan embarks on an emotional journey of root-searching that reveals a deep affection for the older male family figures, highlighting the complexities of masculinity in a modern context. The form of memoir serves as a powerful lens for understanding masculinity, home, and modernity in contemporary Chinese non-fiction. Ma also investigates Yan's insights on narrative techniques, his skillful navigation between memoir and fiction to construct a nuanced understanding of manhood. This early memoir connects with Yan's broader exploration of masculinity in contrast to his contemporaries, whose portrayals of rural masculinity often lean towards aggression. Yan’s personal approach offers a refreshing perspective that makes his work more accessible to female readers. This analysis strives to achieve a deeper understanding of how Yan redefines masculinity within the landscape of modern Chinese literature.
Alvin K. Wong’s talk “Queering Masculinity in Cantopop: The Case of Mirror” studies Hong Kong fandom, star studies, and masculinity. Situating Hong Kong boyband Mirror’s popularity in accounts of their rise to stardom, Wong considers queer Sinophone studies as an alternative framework that places their impacts across minor transnational and regional connections. The 2021 TV series Ossan’s Love exemplifies queer Sinophone regionalism, which enables the queer coupling (CP) of the lead actors in the television drama, Anson Lo and Edan Lui (the Danson CP). The rise of Mirror almost happened immediately after the 2019 summer protests. The ensuing Covid-19 pandemic, travel ban, and social distancing measures prevented Hong Kong K-pop fans from traveling to concerts and fan-idols meetings in Korea. Wong offers a queer Sinophone and queer regional analysis of Ossan’s Love for understanding Mirror’s queer fandom. Queer masculinity embodied through Lo’s seductive and gender-bending dance moves and stage presence challenges Hong Kong and Sinophone fans to imagine masculinity beyond state-imposed and economically productive modes of heteronormative manhood.
In “Envisioning Taiwanese Indigenous Masculinity in Badai’s Fiction,” Li Guo discusses masculinity in Pinuyumayan author Badai’s historical novel Di Guan: The Tabalaw Tribe in the Taishō era (2007). In 1916, a Tabalaw tribe accepts a Han family in exile and learns from them rice farming techniques. However, the Han males’ abuse of their women leads to two young women’s suicides, provoking the villagers’ anxieties about erosion of tribal morals by Han patriarchal values. Japanese government’s confiscation of firearms also exasperates indigenous men’s need for hunting and self-defense at times of border disputes. When the tribe’s secret gunsmith finds that his gun is stolen, the Tabalaw males gather to retrieve the weapon, resolve intertribal conflicts and outwit Japanese police’s intervention. The novel depicts Tabalaw men’s efforts of sustaining tribal militancy, assimilating the Han males and teaching them tribal values, drilling the youth as hunters, adapting innovative survival tactics. As Bunun author Topas Tamapima observes, indigenous masculinity in Taiwanese fiction embodies an anti-imperialist consciousness characterized by autonomy, ingenuity, and confidence.
Each panelist speaks 12 minutes. Respondent speaks 5 minutes. The panel will reserves 20 minutes for Q&A.