The rise of the neoliberal Chinese female subject in go lala go

Abstract

Built upon feminist critique of neoliberalism, this paper will examine a prominent medium through which neoliberal feminist ideology is disseminated: Go Lala Go. The essays argues that the film co-opts the discourse of neoliberalism, and reworks it to construct neoliberal female subjects. First, the author explores what kind of role neoliberalism has enacted in the formation of an emergent type of female subject in China. Then, the essay demonstrates how the contentious process of neoliberal feminism affects young career women’s identities. More than career guides promoting different techniques for making women more successful at their workplaces, the film communicates to women by engaging neoliberal rhetoric in a connotative manner to cultivate a compelling female identity. It offers self-help advice and tactics to work around discrimination without directly confronting it. Instead of fighting for structural reforms, the film advocates strategies for pay raise, promotion and negotiations as updated, professionally themed etiquette lessons. In particular, the essay compares the ways in which the film adopts different varieties of neoliberal rhetoric in Chinese cultural contexts and conditions. China offers a challenging case study on the intersections of gender discourse and neoliberalism in transnational context. This essay on contemporary Chinese women will create interesting parallels with recent U.S. analyses of the emergence of neoliberal feminism and expose its contradictory logic. The Chinese experience in turn would add complexity and depth to the critical engagement with neoliberal feminism.