Feminist Subversion of Linguistic Sexism in Contemporary China provides an in-depth investigation of gender discourse with a focus on social labelling in post-reform China.

The book delves into society’s tendency to perceive women in categories, explores the social and historical context of mainstream media’s role in perpetuating sexism, demonstrates feminist discursive empowerment in cyberspace, and sheds light on the complexities of a feminist awakening in today’s China. Using corpus linguistics analysis, critical discourse analysis, and sociolinguistics analysis, the book highlights feminist subversion of linguistic sexism in public gender discourse, illustrating shifting roles for women from being passive targets of gender labelling to proactive agents rebuking the biased gender order. It offers a fresh perspective that encourages readers to view language as a conduit for belief systems, often operating beneath the surface, and to recognize its role in constructing and challenging gender norms. It also provides readers with a deeper understanding of contemporary Chinese women’s aspirations for agency and their determined resistance against the masculinist nature of state order.

This is a key resource for scholars and postgraduate students of Chinese language and linguistics with a particular interest in media, political and gender discourse.