Beauty pageants in neoliberal China: A feminist media study of feminine beauty and Chinese culture

The purpose of the study is to examine contemporary Chinese ideologies and ideals of feminine beauty through the beauty pageant phenomenon, and investigate the relationships between feminine beauty and gender discourses, class dynamics, national identity, global consumerism. It is guided by mass communication theories and grounded in feminist perspectives.;This dissertation combined three qualitative research methods. Textual analysis of Miss Chinese Cosmos 2011 and Miss World China 2011 examined media presentations of beauty pageants for dominant messages and meanings about gender, beauty, consumerism, and globalization. Focus groups with thirty-eight Chinese college women provided insights into how urban young Chinese women negotiate the beauty pageant phenomenon in China. In-depth interviews with eight contestants in a regional Miss World China pageant allowed for a close look at the lived experiences of those who played a central part in the phenomenon.;The findings of the investigation revealed that certain stereotypical gender beliefs were perpetuated in the Chinese beauty pageants. Pageant contestants were portrayed as submissive and unambitious, and their bodies were sexualized and objectified for the male gaze. Physical appearance was deemed the only redemption and final achievement for women. Tallness and thinness were the idealized in the Chinese beauty pageants, although a "delicate and soft" thin body ideal was preferred in China compared to the "fit and toned" thin body ideal in the West. A pro-Western beauty ideology was prevalent among young Chinese women, in which they believed certain attractive female facial features (e.g., big eyes, high nose bridge, and small chin) were essentially Western. The commercial nature of beauty pageants was bluntly represented in the pageant shows and highly internalized among the young Chinese women, suggesting a largely justified beauty economy in neoliberal China. Pageant conspiracy was popular in China due to the broadening socioeconomic gap and emerging consumerism, and the dream to become a celebrity and consequentially marry up was believed to have motivated young women in participating in pageants.