China proposes teaching masculinity to boys as state is alarmed by changing gender roles

Above Video: Tim and Lydia invite the team at China Uncensored (Chris, Shelley, and Matt) to discuss China’s new strategy to make its boys more masculine, thereby fighting the western feminization of men.

HONG KONG — No one invited Bu Yunhao to be in their group for the annual class trip. The other fifth graders at Shanghai Shangde Experimental School made fun of the 11-year-old, calling him “too girly.”

“I wanted to run away, right out of the classroom,” said Yunhao, now 13 and a first-year middle schooler in Shanghai, China‘s largest city.

Some of Yunhao’s classmates made fun of his high-pitched voice and the way he “screamed” when he tried to maintain discipline among his fellow students as a class monitor. Others teased him for spending so much time with girls and said he acted like he was “trying to date” the other boys in the class.

The bullying eventually stopped, but a recent announcement by the government that singles out boys who don’t fit traditional Chinese ideas of masculinity has revived the painful memories. The plan to “encourage masculinity” in male students has inflamed a debate over modern gender roles as China’s government increasingly emphasizes what many consider to be outdated and damaging stereotypes for men and boys.

“Boys don’t need masculinity education,” said Lü Pin, the founder of China’s largest feminist advocacy media channel, Feminist Voices, which was banned by Chinese censors in 2018.

“The concept of masculinity forces every man to be tough, which excludes and harms men with other types of characteristics,” she said. “It also reinforces men’s hegemony, control and position over women, which goes against gender equality.”

In January, China’s Education Ministry published plans to “cultivate masculinity” in boys from kindergarten through high school. The initiative involves hiring and training more gym teachers, testing students more comprehensively in physical education, making health education compulsory and supporting research into issues like the “influence of the phenomenon of internet celebrities on adolescents’ values.”

The plan follows a warning from one of China’s top political advisers that the nation is experiencing a national “masculinity crisis.”

“Chinese boys have been spoiled by housewives and female teachers,” the adviser, Si Zefu, said in a policy proposal in May. Boys would soon become “delicate, timid and effeminate” unless action was taken, he said.

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Proposal on strengthening education aimed at making boys more ‘masculine’ triggers debate

Chinese education authority has recently vowed to enhance physical education and psychological direction in a response to a previous proposal from a top policy advisor calling on the country to strengthen “masculinity” education for boys, which has ignited heated debate on the internet. 

The proposal has won some support, while many on the internet believe it might lead to gender stereotyping. Experts noted that the goals of education should be to train students to be more responsible, and called for a more tolerant and diversified evaluation system for children.

In a Thursday reply to the proposal on “avoiding feminization of teenage boys,” the Chinese Ministry of Education said it will solve the problems from several aspects including enhancing the research on issues related to youth mental health education.

In May 2020, during the national Two Sessions, Si Zefu, a member of the Standing Committee of the 13th CPPCC National Committee and chairman of Harbin Electric Corporation, said that the “feminization” trend of Chinese teenagers, if not managed effectively, will harm the existence and development of China. “Many Chinese teenage boys nowadays have the characteristics of weakness, low self-esteem and timidity, and they tend to follow the pretty-boy superstars,” said Si. 

Si believed this phenomenon could be attributed to the fact that most teachers in schools from kindergarten to high school stage are women, as well as to the frequent appearance of “pretty boys” in TV and films.

The reply from the Ministry of Education triggered a widespread discussion on the internet over the weekend. The related hashtag has been viewed more than 2 billion times with 250,000 comments as of press time on Sina Weibo.

Discussions focus on what “masculinity” is and what the boys really need in education.

By Shan Jie and Lu Yameng

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