Uploaded November 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Patriarchal Capitalism with Chinese characteristics: Gendered Discourse of ‘Double Eleven’ Shopping Festival
Double 11, or Singles’ Day (双11, 光棍节) is an unofficial Chinese holiday and shopping season that celebrates supposedly people not in relationships. The date, November 11 (11/11) was chosen because the ‘1’ reflect bare sticks or guangun (光棍), an internet slang for single men. Today, this holiday has become one of the largest physical retail and online shopping days in the world.
In her talk, Dr. Bingchun Meng (London School of Economics) will examine the Double Eleven shopping festival as a major discursive site where the hegemony of what she calls patriarchal capitalism with Chinese characteristics is articulated. The state, the market, the corporations and the media, both mainstream and social media, all played an important role in building up a national spending spree that is deeply embedded in the current class and gender structure of China. It is at the intersection of a dissipating socialist ethos, emerging economic stagnation, and ascending consumerism that the sexist discourse in relation to Double Eleven proliferates.
Patriarchal Capitalism with Chinese characteristics: Gendered Discourse of ‘Double Eleven’ Shopping Festival
Double 11, or Singles’ Day (双11, 光棍节) is an unofficial Chinese holiday and shopping season that celebrates supposedly people not in relationships. The date, November 11 (11/11) was chosen because the ‘1’ reflect bare sticks or guangun (光棍), an internet slang for single men. Today, this holiday has become one of the largest physical retail and online shopping days in the world.
In her talk, Dr. Bingchun Meng (London School of Economics) will examine the Double Eleven shopping festival as a major discursive site where the hegemony of what she calls patriarchal capitalism with Chinese characteristics is articulated. The state, the market, the corporations and the media, both mainstream and social media, all played an important role in building up a national spending spree that is deeply embedded in the current class and gender structure of China. It is at the intersection of a dissipating socialist ethos, emerging economic stagnation, and ascending consumerism that the sexist discourse in relation to Double Eleven proliferates.
