The ‘Masculinity’ Event: Weibo Female’s Functioning Mechanism as A Discursive Group

Abstract

The discursive power contributed by Chinese netizens upon gender issues has tremendously challenged the patriarchal speeches in recent years. An important role played by social media, which will be the main focus of this paper, is inevitable during any public discussion. One of the most successful social platforms, Weibo, is considered influential feminism opinion leaders’ content disseminator. This study examines the function and mechanism that Weibo platform works during a heated debate on the Chinese adolescent education issue. With several typical netizen information spread strategies analyzed, it is argued that the Chinese netizens have developed a highly effective way to criticize or give radical responses to some quasi-masculinity debates described as internet archaeology.