Talking about the phenomenon of Gu Ailing from the perspective of feminism: "female empowerment" in the new stage of nationalism expansion

(This article is compiled from Clubhouse's online event "Women's Rights Talk about Gu Ailing's Phenomenon Instead of Gu Ailing". The content is a summary of guest speeches.)

With the preparation and opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, "Genius Ski Girl" Gu Ailing has become a hot topic on the Chinese Internet. After she won the gold medal in the women's freestyle skiing event as a Chinese athlete, the media and social networks even criticized her. lively reports and discussions.

This young woman of dual nationality, mixed race, and worth over 100 million has gathered a lot of praise, but there are also controversies from various angles. On the geopolitical level, populists in China and the United States have polarized comments on her. The American right-wing media regards her as a traitor and opportunist. In the context of Chinese nationalism, her naturalization and gold medal She is regarded as a symbol of China's strength, which makes her extremely popular; from the perspective of class, the media's presentation of the elite education she received has aroused public opinion's admiration for "happy education" and "competitive culture", and whether it is It will aggravate the worries of "middle-class chicken baby anxiety"; from a broader class perspective, she is pointed out that as an international elite, she can freely use her floating nationality to achieve personal influence, which is a privilege compared to ordinary people.

From the perspective of gender, on the one hand, Gu Ailing is regarded by many people as a model of "female empowerment" and "female inspiration". Athlete who is more popular with men, or speculate about who her biological father is. At the same time, she was also compared with Xiao Huamei, the "mother of eight children in Xuzhou", which reflects the tension between individual women's successful cases and women's group encounters.

Based on these, we hope to start a feminist discussion. It should be noted that Gu Ailing herself is an 18-year-old young woman, and she is backed by an economic company and her mother as a team. Therefore , our discussion focuses more on the public opinion phenomenon caused by Gu Ailing in the Winter Olympics, rather than criticizing or praising her personal words and deeds .

The Winner-Take-All Era and the Shaping of Multinational Success Narratives

The video of Gu Ailing being interviewed by the British "Guardian" after winning the gold medal was widely disseminated on the domestic Internet. The reporter asked her how to achieve a balance between China and the United States and deal with criticism on social media, especially in the United States. Gu Ailing's answer was regarded as a "model response": "I am just an 18-year-old girl... I am not I don't really care if other people are satisfied." "If someone doesn't believe me or like me, then that's their loss. They can't be Olympic champions."

Combined with some other interviews, it can be seen that the team behind Gu Ailing seems to have mastered a set of skills to deal with the media smoothly. Many netizens believe that Gu Ailing responded forcefully to the "spots" who made things difficult for her and China. But some critics questioned her because of this, for example, they believed that she kept silent about her own privileges and avoided expressing her position on China's human rights issues.

Are these criticisms justified? Maybe you have to ask first, when we talk about the privileges that Gu Ailing has, what exactly are we referring to?

First of all, it may be the wealth and class she owns, the support from her family, and the corresponding cultural capital that she can acquire. These external things are also inseparable from people's inner motivation and the ability to be comfortable in different cultures and self-explain—— Of course, this is not to deny her talent and breakthrough in sports.

At the same time , behind the popularity of Gu Ailing's public opinion is the endorsement of the country. The official media and mainstream social platforms are promoting her, while the voices trying to dismantle her image are eliminated. For example, the public account "Slave Society" was bombed after publishing the article "What does Gu Ailing's success have to do with us ordinary people" No.

From the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, we can see China's strong ambition to present a positive national image by hosting a world-class Games. China is the host country of this year's Winter Olympics. In the previous Winter Olympics, China has never won more than 5 gold medals. In the last one, the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, China only won one gold medal. Up to now, China has won three gold medals in this Winter Olympics, one of which came from Gu Ailing. This is one of the reasons why she is popular in China.

In contrast to Gu Ailing is the figure skater Zhu Yi. She is also of Chinese descent who grew up in the United States, and then left the United States to compete with Chinese nationality. But she made a mistake during the game and was not ranked well. Discussions of Gu Ailing and Zhu Yi on the Chinese Internet are very polarized. On the day Zhu Yi fell in the competition, the popular Weibo search entry #朱易抱了了# had 2 billion views, and many netizens scolded her below. But soon this entry and those abusive comments were deleted, and it was difficult for ordinary people to get more information about her through the news, whether it was positive or negative.

Many athletes in the United States represent other countries in the Winter Olympics, and some athletes directly pointed out that this is because they may not have that much income in the United States. But we rarely see other countries making a fuss about it. As an athlete, Gu Ailing "stands out" and becomes part of the country's image, which is the result of government shaping, screening and review.

In addition, Gu Ailing has the identity of wandering between two cultures and dual nationalities. Although many media and self-media publicize that Gu Ailing "chooses China" and "gives up American citizenship", we now all know that she actually holds the nationality of both countries at the same time. At this point Chinese law gave her the green light. Her ability to grab gold gives her and the team behind her bargaining power.

Many young Chinese in the United States, as well as left-wing people who pay attention to gender equality and racial issues, are willing to express their support and emotional recognition to Gu Ailing. Starting from the perspective of reflection on white supremacy and imperialism, they believe that Gu Ailing's investment in Chinese nationality is a direct resistance to Orientalism, and appreciate that Gu Ailing can proudly tell about her Chinese background and Chinese culture in the mainstream media.

However, Gu Ailing is actually in a different situation from many international students and immigrants caught in the gap between China and the United States. She said in the interview: "When I am in the United States, I am an American. When I am in China, I am Chinese." For many people, it is the opposite: they are American in China because they will be regarded as foreign forces; In the United States, it is the Chinese who suffer exclusion or violence because of Asian hatred and anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States. They are culturally homeless, and it is difficult for them to freely switch identities like Gu Ailing, and proudly show their two cultural backgrounds.

This state of wandering between the two countries while being popular with nationalism has also aroused concerns about "creating gods" and "destroying gods": Maybe she is a national hero today, but tomorrow she will "say a wrong sentence." Words" fell into the vortex that thousands of people pointed at. However, political censorship does not affect everyone equally . Compared with dissidents and feminists who have suffered cyberbullying due to "issues of position", and even lost their stable homes and jobs, Gu Ailing has more choices, and the possible losses are also greater. Very limited. And her success has been fixed by the Winter Olympics gold medal, unless the official no longer recognizes her value in the future, she will be protected before that.

Some voices from foreign media and the Internet demanded that Gu Ailing make a political statement, perhaps based on her privileges to a certain extent, believing that she has the freedom not to tell "lie" about incidents such as "tennis player Mitu", but she Choosing to trade this, and her stated goal of "using sports to connect people" doesn't need to be achieved by supporting an authoritarian government.

Is this request fair? On the one hand, it must be admitted that she does have more freedom of speech than ordinary people who grew up and lived in a Chinese environment, at least she has the freedom to choose whether to express her opinion. But on the other hand, we also have to think about whether there is harsh criticism only for her. Gu Ailing is not the only public figure who talks about human rights issues, nor is she the only American with dual citizenship, but as a woman with a Chinese background, she has been subjected to excessive scrutiny and censorship based on nationalism.

Compared with the real "privileged" Western white men who can express their views on any human rights issue, and the silent masses in China, people who are labeled as Chinese or Chinese between China and the United States, including people like Gu Ailing Everyone faces an embarrassing dilemma. Although this does not mean that they should let go of their own responsibilities, at least we have to judge where the accountability comes from. Those who stay in the comfort zone of white men may not be qualified to interrogate Gu Ailing.

However, even if Fox and the right wing of the United States continue to attack Gu Ailing, their views only represent a part of American public opinion. Many American mainstream media still enthusiastically praised Gu Ailing's "transnational success" at the Winter Olympics. The part of the criticism she received in the United States and the single praise she received in the Chinese media have different weights.

Back to the topic of privilege. "Privilege" itself is a vague concept. Whether it is an internal debate of feminism, or a dialogue from a feminist perspective and other perspectives, we need to further discuss it in depth.

The accumulation of intergenerational wealth, the inheritance of cultural resources and capital, and the global allocation of resources embodied in Gu Ailing are not original sins for a girl. People's anxiety is that when people like Gu Ailing are so calm about the capital they own, the injustice based on chance at the starting point that they rely on to accumulate capital has not been reflected, and the differences that have accelerated in the process of competition have not been recognized. reflect. Successful people look back on the past and tend to attribute all their achievements to their own hard work for granted, but often people "get on the train" due to some accidental factors, and those who "failed to get on the train" have different trajectories from them. This is why the success narrative about Gu Ailing has been questioned.

In today's China, because people feel powerless to criticize class differentiation, they often give up social criticism. They not only accept class differentiation as a matter of course, but also strengthen the rationality of differentiation with infinite admiration and worship. The worship of Gu Ailing has obvious social Darwinian thinking of winners and losers: look at the process from the result and rationalize the whole process, and cover up the inequality in the whole process, and even the institutional abuse of the law.

We have entered an era where winners take all. Smart winners not only have natural advantages, such as good family background and good looks, but also success and honor, and even all good qualities—how terrible. People must and have the right to respond in an anxious, uneasy, and questioning way, but these emotions are projected on Gu Ailing personally.

The business and politics behind the "female idol"

Gu Ailing herself is indeed a very successful woman. Part of feminists' welcome to Gu Ailing may simply be a celebration of a girl's achievements. At the same time, Gu Ailing's image of "independence, self-improvement, and wealth" is also in line with some elitist feminist discourses.

With the development of feminism in China, the commercial field began to frequently use female topics to please the audience. On the other hand, discrimination and violence encountered by women are still common, and it is still difficult to break through the "ceiling" in various fields. Under such circumstances, many women are eager to find female role models and get encouragement and inspiration from them. There’s a gender pride here: Whenever a woman breaks through, it’s seen as proof that we women can do it too. Interestingly, this kind of pride is exactly similar to nationalist sentiment.

But when public opinion compares "Gu Ailing" with "Xuzhou eight-child mother", feminists encounter a moral challenge: There are so many suffering women, why should we pursue Gu Ailing?

Some feminists quickly adjusted their responses, pointing out that the two women should not be compared together, or emphasizing that there is no contradiction between praising Gu Ailing and paying attention to Xiaohuamei. cheers. At the same time, they skillfully introduced the concept of individualism, emphasizing that all labels including nationality and class should be stripped away, seeing Gu Ailing's "pure" identity as an outstanding female athlete, and counterattacking that national, class, etc. The elaboration of perspectives and the dismantling of Gu Ailing's public image are misogynistic acts.

As two women in very different situations, Gu Ailing and Xiao Huamei really have little connection except their gender. It is only because they are the protagonists of hot topics that exist side by side at the same time that they have a contrasting effect. But what we can discuss here is how feminists have responded to this contrast, and why others, like ourselves, have struggled to fit in with these discourses and join in the celebration of women's success.

Faced with labels such as "disabled", "female", and "sexual minorities", we emphasize that we must see the people behind the labels. But the difference is that the attention Gu Ailing has received, and the benefits that follow, are inseparable from the label on her body, that is, the image created for her by the media, public relations and even the country. It is neither possible nor fair to call for "seeing her for herself" under such circumstances.

The most typical example is "Mother and Daughter Gu Ailing, Standing on the Snowy Road of the Times" released by The Paper. This seemingly commercial public relations article presents Gu Ailing’s image almost away from the identity of an athlete. Compared with her achievements and abilities in skiing, it describes her almost perfect life : beautiful and fashionable, family harmony, life In good times, receiving top-notch education is the idol of young people, who can change the fate of more people through influence... and never suffers, guarantees to sleep 10 hours a day, and keeps a bright and bright picture at all times. bullied" smiley face.

After the women's football team won the Asian Cup, media reports on women's football players mainly focused on their status as athletes, emphasizing their sportsmanship and technical level. This is in stark contrast to Gu Ailing's situation. Through media promotion, Gu Ailing presents an image with great commercial value. She also does have over 20 commercial endorsements. Whether it is the team behind her or the media involved in the promotion, it is not an athlete that she hopes to introduce to the public, but an 18-year-old perfect woman, the best idol in a consumerist society. Such an image can quickly be transformed into a sale of lifestyle: tell consumers that by buying Tiffany and Estee Lauder, they can get close to Gu Ailing and her life.

Our era is constantly producing and accepting idols full of elitism. When fans of entertainment stars promote "idols", they are also proud that they were born into wealthy families, went to high school abroad, and have never suffered hardships. There are also many female Olympic champions who have achieved the same achievements as Gu Ailing, but they have not become "phenomenal" popular idols in China. The image of Quan Hongchan is difficult to be given the same commercial value, because she is accompanied by issues such as too heavy poverty, lack of education, and the national system. There are also many athletes who have suffered violence and unfair treatment in the national team, and their past glory after retirement has not improved their lives. The pursuit of winners conceals the cruel side of competitive sports and social reality.

At the same time, it must be seen that appearance is given an exorbitant value in our society. Gu Ailing's ability to win the championship has nothing to do with her appearance, it depends on her talent, professional skills and willpower. And now the Olympic stadium has also become the production place of entertainment stars and popular idols. It is hard to say what this means to the development of competitive sports, but at least it is a deformed orientation to social values. The subtext behind it is: no matter how good you are, you have to look good, and once you look good, your value will skyrocket.

Although Gu Ailing's appearance was accompanied by discourse against appearance anxiety, telling Chinese girls not to edit pictures, they can be as confident in their appearance as her. But at the same time, what she plays in Chinese culture is a popular star who is overly rewarded for being "good-looking", which is defined by internalized Western aesthetics. Society rewards looks and other attributes that people have no way to change. As feminists, we can all realize how much this reality burdens women.

We can also see the development of Chinese nationalism from Gu Ailing. Why her image deserves such a high commercial value, apart from a purely commercial point of view, is also related to China's main theme of emphasizing the pride of a big country and the happiness of the people. The country does not want to be represented by ordinary people or people with tragic fate.

The Gu Ailing phenomenon is a reminder of the new stage of China's nationalist expansion , behind which is the country's huge ability and self-confidence upgrade. What people see today is not only that globalization transfers benefits to the boundaries of authoritarian rule, but also that authoritarianism spreads to the world to reap the benefits of globalization. This is a new phenomenon in the interaction of authoritarian governments and globalization.

Decades ago, Chinese-American singer Fei Xiang parachuted into mainland China with a semi-Western face and became one of the first popular consumer idols to make waves. He brought a song "Clouds of Hometown" to the Spring Festival Gala. Now it seems that this song, in a very lyrical way, implies that China is the ultimate spiritual hometown of Chinese people all over the world. This is not a real narrative, nor is it necessarily recognized by Fei Xiang himself, but through this performance, he satisfies the government's artistic form behind the Spring Festival Gala, as well as the sincere patriotic emotion and psychology of the Chinese people attached to this ideology need.

The cloud of my hometown floats across the sky, it keeps calling to me;

When the breeze blows around me, a voice is calling to me:

Come back, come back, wandering wanderer.

Come back, come back, don't wander around anymore.

——The cloud of hometown

Gu Ailing's image is a "new story". Her innocent face of a younger, warmer, more beloved woman than Fei Xiang conveys the same message: even such a blonde, mixed-race, American-born girl has to parachute and present her Olympic gold medal , to reinforce such an authoritarian nationalism. This show of insincerity was genuinely welcomed and accepted because that's what governments and people across borders need. This also explains from another perspective why only Gu Ailing has been fully publicized by the official media, and the censorship machine is activated for her: Whether it is for our country's ideology or public sentiment, Gu Ailing's value is far higher than Those native Chinese champions.

The controversies from different angles attached to Gu Ailing reflect the uneasiness or expectations of different communities caused by reality. Discussions on social networks, however, tend to be polarized. If our understanding of Gu Ailing's phenomenon can only stay in admiration or criticism of her personally, it is not only anti-intellectual, but also flattening the issue and ignoring the complex and intersecting social reality.

In the public opinion environment where the two poles are facing each other, we don’t want to reflect on any one pole and be used and carried by the nationalist sentiments of all parties, and we can’t assume that feminism can transcend all intersectional analysis; Elephant, which cannot be covered by it all viewpoints, loses the perspective of gender. It is difficult to do this, but we need to explore and reserve space for understanding different perspectives on this basis, and try to make valuable feminist arguments.

From Gu Ailing to Xiaohuamei, a new imagination of women's community

Going on to answer the question: Why, as feminists, are we unable to celebrate a woman's success from the heart? What's more, Gu Ailing is still a woman with feminist tendencies, and her success may have a positive impact on more women.

First of all, "excellence" or "success" are constructions in themselves, and Gu Ailing's success is overvalued in a specific situation. Second, there really isn't enough celebration for success on a platform like the Winter Olympics, for both men and women.

Our country and government have never opposed women's success, which is not inconsistent with women facing all kinds of gender discrimination and gender violence. Conversely, if a woman does rise above the barriers of discrimination and violence to become a good and successful survivor, she will always be rewarded, even if it is discounted compared to what men get. Because China's economic model and social development require "high-quality" women—the concept of "low-quality population" publicly proposed by the government can be seen. Therefore, under a system of gender inequality, women's empowerment is still welcomed by the country.

One of the popular entries about Gu Ailing on the Internet is "Gu Ailing Spirit", which mainly contains beautiful but vague adjectives such as self-confidence, bravery, strength, and tenacity. This is almost the discourse of state feminism, the standard by which the state designates women. Since the 1980s, the "Four-Self" advocated by the All-China Women's Federation refers to women's self-esteem, self-confidence, self-reliance, and self-improvement.

One aspect that feminists cannot avoid is that there is no such thing as pure feminism . The development of feminism with individualistic tendencies that people embrace today is a free ride on capitalism, a by-product of capitalism's willingness or unwillingness. And such a discourse of women's empowerment, represented by Gu Ailing, can be combined with global capitalism, and it can also be fully combined with the needs of authoritarian countries.

It is not only Gu Ailing who has been set up as a role model for Chinese women, but they have a more Chinese face, such as Wang Yaping, the first female astronaut on the Chinese Space Station, and so on. Of course, the first is that these women must survive, and the second is that they must provide value to the system . Li Na, who ran away, and the female tennis player who complained about what happened to her on social media are examples of the opposite.

So from this perspective, successful women cannot take the "Xiaohuamei" on the same "train". The cruelest thing about society is that some people can only be involved in this society and be recognized by society by being insulted, raped, exploited or even mutilated. It can even be said that Xiaohuamei and Gu Ailing are respectively regarded as having the lowest value and the highest value formulated by society. The former, as the life of a woman who has been discarded, can only be exploited by society for their bodies, that is, their sex and childbearing. Features. This is a very divisive female destiny.

As women among them, we empathize with Xiao Huamei and are also infected by Gu Ailing. At the same time, we know that the two of them cannot be put together, and we have to admit that when we empathize with the two of them separately, maybe And dealing with divisions related to one's own feminist beliefs . Feminism can simultaneously include the aspect of pursuing women's success and the aspect of solving the basic survival rights for women at the bottom. It cannot be said that they are completely unrelated, but they may also be divided in actual operation.

Successful women like Gu Ailing will also suffer too much scrutiny in their life and career development. This is of course an important proposition of feminism. However, these successful women overcame their difficulties, and perhaps only the elite women who will be successful in the future can enjoy these achievements, but not more ordinary women and lower-level women.

Similarly, feminists must dare to admit that there is a huge difference in fate between us not only with Gu Ailing, but also with Xiao Huamei. There is a popular saying on Weibo, "We are 10 reincarnations away from Gu Ailing, and we are only one sap away from Xiaohuamei". Ying was originally a city girl whose father was a civil servant in the system. Women from urban families were trafficked to the mountains overnight. This narrative aroused empathy and panic among many women. But as the investigation progressed, it was Xiao Huamei, a woman who had been living on the edge, that surfaced. This is a very sad thing.

Women's fears of violence and of being trafficked are real. But we can't regard Xiao Huamei's experience as "an accident that women may encounter", which is to obliterate her suffering. If we realize that accidents can make a huge difference in the fate of people, then we should also realize that we are not in that "accident", and our class also determines that we will not encounter so many "accidents" .

On this basis, we can try to extend from the topic of Gu Ailing and Xiao Huamei to reconstruct the imagination of the women's community cause that feminism once advocated: not "I may also become her", but "I am not her, how can I Connect with her."

The imaginary feminist community may be a vast ocean, and everyone is a floating island. Some people's islands have met, and some have not. Based on our own wishes, we can also explore different pictures.