If You Are the One: Dating shows and feminist politics in contemporary China

Abstract

Dating shows are experiencing resurgence in contemporary China. This study conducts a critical discourse analysis of If You Are the One, one of the most popular dating shows, to examine what are the ways in which women are represented and how the show is both shaped by and constitutive of the ongoing sociocultural practices in contemporary China. The study concludes with the observation of women’s subordination to the collusion between commercialism and patriarchy and of double manipulations of women in media discourses by forces of both market and state. Facing a state–market complex, feminism has a long way to go in China.