| This study is an analysis of Chinese weblog discourse, aiming at understanding how gender identity is shaped and perceived in male bloggers' discourse and female bloggers' discourse. While the topics vary so greatly on the weblogs and identity keeps changing in different social contexts, it is plausible for us to study gender identity in a specific social context. Therefore, the Super Female Voice Contest is selected as the social context. The reason why this Contest is chosen is due to the fact that all the contestants in the show were females and that the winners or the persons who were mostly supported by audiences turned out to be females with masculine tendency. Researchers wonder if the victory of these 'tomboy' winners indicates the change in understanding gender identity in China. Since weblog discourse is a new means of on-line communication, it would be very interesting to study how bloggers construct their own gender identity and perceive gender identity on line. In this study, Critical Discourse Analysis and Appraisal Systems are applied in the analysis of the 48 samples that have been collected. The pronoun usage, the naming used to address the tomboy winners and the emoticons are compared between male discourse and female discourse so that the difference or similarity can be discovered. Then, male bloggers' and female bloggers' attitudes towards the female contestants are analyzed. By analyzing their attitudes, it has been found that female bloggers have a more positive attitude toward the winners and other contestants. Besides, female bloggers like to focus on the discussion of the ability of contestants, while male bloggers like to focus on the normality of contestants. Finally, the perception of gender identity is examined. It has been found that male bloggers' perception of gender identity tends to be traditional, whereas female bloggers' inclines to be new or non-traditional. Explanations from the perspective of social change and ideology are offered.
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