Communications in Humanities Research

- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences


Communications in Humanities Research

Vol. 10, 31 October 2023


Open Access | Article

The Resistance to the Male Gaze in Chinese "She Theme" TV Series: A Case Study of The Romance of Tiger and Rose

Runjia Rao * 1
1 King's College London

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Advances in Humanities Research, Vol. 10, 1-6
Published 31 October 2023. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by EWA Publishing
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Citation Runjia Rao. The Resistance to the Male Gaze in Chinese "She Theme" TV Series: A Case Study of The Romance of Tiger and Rose. CHR (2023) Vol. 10: 1-6. DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/10/20231209.

Abstract

With the improvement of Chinese women’s economic strength and social status, “she theme” has become a popular trend in film and television. It shows women’s resistance to the male gaze, but there are certain limitations. The “she theme” TV series The Romance of Tiger and Rose set in a unique fictional society that regards females as the primary sex. Taking this drama as an example, this essay analyzes the new form of “she theme” TV series to resist the male gaze. By analyzing the characters’ images, it is concluded that the women in the drama avoid the stereotypical effeminate, fragile and lustful appearance in terms of figure and appearance. The women in the drama are strong, career-minded and occupy a more powerful position in heterosexual relationships. The external images of male characters tend to be lustful and feminine. Additionally, the loyal, sacrificial image of the male in the show conforms to the female audience’s imagination of a rational boyfriend. With its unique social background, the play overturns the social status of men and women. However, once back in the real world, the hidden male gaze remains.

Keywords

male gaze, she economy, the romance of tiger and rose

References

1. Zhou, P. (2015) Interpretation of Female Gaze in Chick Movies from the Perspective of “She Economy”. Collection of Essays on Women Studies, 1, 61-70.

2. Zhang, J. (2015) The Consumption Era of Nan Se and Girls’ Utopia. Masterpieces Appreciation, 19, 87-91.

3. Xiao, M., Li, X. (2021) Media construction of female Gaze landscape under the background of “She Economy”. All-media exploration, 1, 48-50.

4. Wu, W. (2019) Changes of Female Images in Imperial Dramas in Mainland China: A Case Study of Legend of Zhen Huan, Strategy of Yanxi Palace and Ruyi's Inheritance. Theatre House, 11, 71-72.

5. Liu, T. (2020) Mirror and Gaze: A New Perspective of female narration in "She Dramas" - A Case study of the TV series “Nothing but Thirty”. China Television, 12, 95-99.

6. Ai, L. (2022). The network broadcast volume of “scary” sweet pet drama. Retrieved from https://www.sohu.com/a/618854698_121418138 [2023-2-17].

7. Zhao, Y. (2010). Keywords of Western Literary Theory Symbolic Power. Foreign Literature, 1, 102-111+159.

8. Foucoult, M. (1975) Discipline and punish. A. Sheridan, Tr., Paris, FR, Gallimard.

9. Foucault, M. (1980) Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings. 1972-1977. Vintage.

10. Mulvey, L. (2013) Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. In Feminism and film theory, 56-68.

11. Lacan, J. (2004) What is a Picture?. The Visual Culture Reader, 126-128.

12. Guo, S. and Fang, Y. (2020) The theoretical perspective of male sex consumption Phenomenon. Quality and Market, 17, 43-45.

13. Wang, Y. (2017) Male Sex Consumption in the Age of Entertainment: Criticism of “Little Fresh Meat”. Shanghai Art Review, 3, 56-60.

14. Guo, Y., and Yan, J. (2021) On the construction and Confrontation of female gender from the perspective of gaze. Journal of Daqing Normal University, 41(01), 9-14.

15. Wang, H. (2020) An Exploration of the Viewing psychology of ancient Costume Romantic Love Network Dramas under the Theory of Need and Satisfaction - A Case study of The Romance of Tiger and Rose. Audiovisual, 9, 73-74.

Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Authors who publish this series agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this series.

2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this series.

3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See Open Access Instruction).

Volume Title
Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Educational Innovation and Philosophical Inquiries
ISBN (Print)
978-1-83558-043-1
ISBN (Online)
978-1-83558-044-8
Published Date
31 October 2023
Series
Communications in Humanities Research
ISSN (Print)
2753-7064
ISSN (Online)
2753-7072
DOI
10.54254/2753-7064/10/20231209
Copyright
31 October 2023
Open Access
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Copyright © 2023 EWA Publishing. Unless Otherwise Stated