The Gendered Construction of Exemplary Middle-Class Identity: The Hegemony of Chenggong (Success)

Abstract

This chapter looks into women’s constructions of their gendered subjectivity as China’s exemplary middle class. I focus on their individual agency under a powerful neoliberal discourse of a desiring and enterprising self in seeking personal happiness through heterosexual marriage. By examining their criteria and practices in seeking a suitable marriage partner, I reveal the restrictive nature of these practices, which ironically make marriage into both a struggle and a solution for these women. I then discuss how their aspirations towards happiness help to realise the neoliberal ideal that fits within the governance framework of the party-state.