{"id":8016,"date":"2021-09-26T08:00:38","date_gmt":"2021-09-26T08:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1368122"},"modified":"2021-09-26T08:00:38","modified_gmt":"2021-09-26T08:00:38","slug":"how-chinas-ban-on-sissy-men-is-impacting-big-tech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=8016","title":{"rendered":"How China\u2019s ban on \u2018sissy men\u2019 is impacting big tech"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Chinese government has recently taken action<\/a> against what it calls \u201csissy men\u201d \u2013 males, often celebrities, deemed too effeminate.<\/p>\n

On Sept. 2\uff0c2021, government regulators banned their appearance<\/a> on both television and video streaming sites. Using the Chinese derogatory slur \u201cniang pao\u201d \u2013 literally, \u201cgirlie guns\u201d \u2013 Chinese cultural authorities explained that they were rolling out a rule<\/a> to purge \u201cmorally flawed celebrities\u201d in order to \u201ccorrect aesthetics\u201d in \u201cperforming styles\u201d and \u201cwardrobes and makeups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Technically this is a rule, not a law. But thanks to the strong control the Chinese government exerts over industry, the tech companies that give these celebrities a platform have quickly fallen in line<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The international community may view the rule as yet another example of Chinese repression centered on LGBTQ communities<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And this could be true, to an extent.<\/p>\n

However, as someone who studies China\u2019s queer cultures<\/a>, I\u2019m also attuned to the way pronouncements made by the Chinese government often cloak a hidden agenda.<\/p>\n

To me, it\u2019s no coincidence that the ban has come during the intense national campaign against China\u2019s domestic big tech giants, which the government increasingly sees as a threat<\/a> to its ability to keep tabs on its citizens.<\/p>\n

The rise of effeminate male \u2018traffic stars\u2019<\/h2>\n

In the mid-2010s the Chinese government\u2019s grip on the country\u2019s entertainment sector began to weaken after decades of control over who could star on TV and what sort of stories could be told<\/a>. TV dramas, films and talent shows produced by private tech companies started to take off, while ratings and ad revenues of state-owned television stations tumbled<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Beginning in 2016, the government started to censor web videos with the same criteria it had been using for television<\/a>. However, the restrictions seemed to only inspire more creative and subversive expressions of sexuality on video streaming sites.<\/p>\n

For example, images of two men kissing and holding hands were banned. So creators simply used dialogues and gestures, like intense eye contact, to convey homosexual intimacy. Furthermore, these rules didn\u2019t regulate the physical appearance of characters.<\/p>\n

Since 2017, shows produced by the country\u2019s leading video streaming platforms \u2013 many of which mimic the basic format of shows like \u201cAmerican Idol<\/a>\u201d and \u201cThe Voice<\/a>\u201d \u2013 have launched the careers of a number of effeminate male celebrities.<\/p>\n

These shows include \u201cThe Coming One\u201d and \u201cCHUANG 2021,\u201d which appear on Tencent Video, a streaming site owned by Tencent, the Chinese technology conglomerate that also owns WeChat<\/a>. Meanwhile, \u201cIdol Producer\u201d and \u201cYouth With You\u201d appear on another video service provider, iQiyi, a subsidiary of Baidu<\/a>, the Chinese equivalent of Google. The male participants in these shows are often young, dress in unisex clothing, and apply orange-red eye shadow and lipstick, along with heavy makeup that whitens their skin and thickens their eyebrows.<\/p>\n