Seminar l Tradition, modernity, and Chinese masculinity: The multimodal construction of ideal manhood in a reality dating show

This study examines the multimodal construction of ideal manhood in 91 men participants’ self-introduction videos in a Chinese reality dating show. We develop a theoretical framework to model identity as evaluative attributes and to explicate how it is constructed by linguistic and visual resources. We identify two versions of idealized Chinese masculinity: (1) modern masculinity, embodied by participants who won a date, highlights wealth, career achievement, sporting prowess, and work-related personality traits; (2) traditional masculinity, embodied by those failing to win a date, highlights Confucian virtues, class mobility, and skills in Chinese cultural heritages. The attributes are constructed through the combination of verbal judgments and visual depictions, which indicates the importance of investigating multimodal resources in studying identity. The outcome shows young Chinese women’s preference for modern masculinity. Meanwhile, the inclusion of traditional masculinity reflects the show’s educational agenda under the present moral and cultural reconstruction in China.