Online discourse of masculinities in transnational football fandom: Chinese Arsenal fans’ talk around ‘gaofushuai’ and ‘diaosi’

Abstract

This study examines the constructions of masculine discourse by Chinese fans of European football through online discussions. A critical discourse analysis of 50 online discussions by Chinese Arsenal fans shows how these fans use ‘gaofushuai’ and ‘diaosi’ to reproduce, contest, and racialize the dominant masculine order originally embedded in these two masculine terms. It also discovers these fans’ enactment of fluid gender identities in their self-reference to the terms during interactions. Yet the patriarchal assumption still prevails in their discursive struggles, forming football and its fandom as completely gendered practices. This complex process is seen as the negotiation between the globalized European football culture and the local cultural meanings for Chinese masculinities. It offers implications for how the cyberspace of transnational sports fandom can form a site for discursive struggles over the hegemonic masculinity in contemporary China.