How China鈥檚 women claim freedom
For China鈥檚 annual blowout sales event on Nov. 11, when Singles鈥� Day is observed, the e-commerce giant JD.com decided this year to enlist a famous female stand-up comedian, Yang Li, for its marketing campaign. After all, young single women have become a powerful force for equality in Chinese society. They are also big shoppers in what is now the world鈥檚 largest online shopping event. The date, 11/11, called 鈥渂are sticks day,鈥� was chosen three decades ago by a group of university students as a reason for celebration. The four digits symbolize singlehood.
The selection of Yang Li did not go well. The comedian is widely known for a one-line question about men: 鈥淲hy are they so mediocre but still so confident?鈥� The uproar on social media pushed JD.com to apologize on Friday for promoting her.
But the fracas only helped highlight a grassroots movement among young women with good incomes who see marriage as too costly or cannot find men who share their values. Many are also challenging government pressure for them to become wives and mothers 鈥� and reverse China鈥檚 population decline. They are also quietly claiming a personal freedom by touting their solo consumerist lifestyles.
The women find that 鈥渁 new sense of economic liberty helps to define themselves and their place in Chinese society,鈥� wrote two scholars, Chih-Ling Liu and Robert Kozinets,聽in a 2020 essay in The Conversation. 鈥淪ingle professional Chinese women are changing how others see them not through protest or activism 鈥� but through their economic power.鈥�
Many of the women make video blogs for the social media site Xiaohongshu (鈥淟ittle Red Book鈥�) to show off their 鈥渞efined鈥� lifestyle. They are creating an individual identity in a society where the Communist Party increasingly does not see a person鈥檚 private life as private and whose ruling Politburo has no women among its 24 members.
鈥淭hese women frame singledom as freedom,鈥� wrote Guo Jia, a researcher at the University of Sydney, for the website Sixth Tone. One study of the vloggers finds the women are narrating their 鈥渃hoice of living a single life as an autonomous and empowering decision.鈥�
China鈥檚 e-commerce giants certainly know who these frequent shoppers are. And for this year鈥檚 Singles鈥� Day, they once again are trying anything to win them over. Even in a repressive state, freedom to define one鈥檚 identity finds a way.
