The Surname War: Chinese Women’s Discursive Resistance Against Patronymy Online

This article employs semi-structured interviews with 42 Chinese women to examine discursive strategies adopted in their participation in the online protest against patronymy, and investigate possible approaches to a feminist political agenda within contemporary Chinese contexts. Three main strategies are discovered and discussed to shed light on the unequal gender power structure that is manifest in the discursive resistant activism: linking patronymy to women’s loss of rights in private and public spheres; defining patronymy as a symptom of effort-reward imbalance rather than a mere gender issue; and framing activism against patronymy as a gender war between women and men. This paper aims to identify the value of these strategies and probe the potential social and political implications of digital Chinese feminism by politicizing what was once seemingly only a personal issue. It also explores the potential advantages and setbacks of these online discourses.