Claiming queerness on Weibo: Public interaction discourse towards Chinese queer women athletes and their chugui

Abstract

In China, queer remains a sensitive subject, particularly when intersecting with the realm of sports, where nationalist and heteronormative ideologies dominate. In 2021, two Chinese women athletes publicly chugui (Chinese localized term for coming out) by sharing images of their same-sex partners on social media. As the first sportspersons in China to publicly affirm their queer identity, their posts ignited sustained public debate. This study employs critical discourse analysis to interrogate public reactions to their chugui, examining interactive discourse on Chinese social media. We reveal that the athletes' chugui is perceived as a dual threat: to state-sanctioned notions of national honor and to patriarchal norms, exacerbated by pervasive online misogyny and homophobia. The analysis further demonstrates how public discourse constructs a triple marginalization of queer female athletes, intersecting their profession, gender, and sexuality within China's socio-cultural hierarchies. We argue that chugui must be understood in the situated context of Chinese socio-cultural and media landscapes, where soft and romanticized expressions of queerness serve as both a survival strategy and a subtle challenge to heteronormativity.