The changing discursive construction of women in Chinese popular discourse since the twentieth century

This paper, through discourse analysis based on discursive social constructionism and ideological analysis inspired by Althusser, explores the changing discursive construction of women in Chinese popular discourse since 20th century. It identifies three related, overlapping, recurring yet distinct kinds of discourses by which women are represented or inteperllated in three different historical periods: (1) awareness and individualization discourse culturally constructed in the Chinese enlightenment period at the beginning of 20th century; (2) desexualized or masculinized discourse politically constructed from the foundation of China to the end of the “Cultural Revolution”; (3) consumerist and ideal discourse economically constructed since the Chinese economic reform. The paper aims to discuss and disclose what each of these discourses reveals or obscures from sight, especially, by examining the underlying and often unconscious assumptions about women that shape gender or reality so as to increase the self-reflexivity of women.