BAT Celebrity Tech-Entrepreneurs and Chinese Masculinities in the Era of the Global Digital Economy

This paper examines the discursive construction of entrepreneurial masculinities as China emerges as a technology superpower, and how the nation and its future are envisioned through these tech-entrepreneurial masculinities. It specifically focuses on three celebrity tech entrepreneurs – Jack Ma (Alibaba), Pony Ma (Tencent), and Robin Li (Baidu). Drawing on discourse analysis of media materials from 2018 to the first half of 2023, the study aimed to analyse three aspects of their public personas: (a) family life; (b) management life; and (c) global-national life. The study’s findings were twofold: first, the masculinities embodied by these tech entrepreneurs were significantly shaped by conventional (albeit evolving) sociocultural gender practices and politics in China; second, their rise reinforced a cosmopolitan longing to ease the nation’s masculinity crisis. However, strict cyber governance and the changing status of these tech entrepreneurs have created a paradox of desires and anxieties centred on these celebrated hegemonic masculinities.