Gender, Sexism, And Marriage Practice In Contemporary China: A Study Of ‘Shengnü’ (‘Leftover Women’) In Popular Media

Abstract

Anxiety about late marriage is a common theme in contemporary Chinese cinema. In the scene above from the 2015 film Let’s Get Married, the tearful protagonist Gu Xiaolei confronts her long-term boyfriend, lamenting his unwillingness to commit as she is growing older. She cries passionately, imploring him to marry before she reaches the “advanced” age of thirty. Throughout the film, Gu Xiaolei is not anxious because she is unattractive or unsuccessful. She is eager to wed because she has internalized a socially expected—and I would argue sexist—timeline for marriage and motherhood that is quickly passing. As a representative of women in Chinese media, the character Gu Xiaolei is not unique; Chinese film and television programming in recent years is replete with female characters like Gu. Their preoccupation with marriage, age, and social pressure reflect enduring, and in this case resurgent, discourses of sexism in Chinese society.