(Un)Doing gender norms in postfeminist China: the case of male beauty influencer Li Jiaqi

In response to the growing trend of male beauty influencers, this article examines the case of Li Jiaqi, known in mainland China as the "Lipstick King". Based on a critical multimodal discourse analysis, we combine (post)feminism and queer theories to decode the contested processes in which Li (re)negotiates and (re)constructs the dominant gender regime in postfeminist beauty culture. Our analysis shows that Li's gender performance is shaped by and shaping diverse and multi-scalar social forces, including the rampant platform economy, consumerist social-class and cosmopolitan imaginaries, and heteronormativity. These different spheres of power conflict and converge, creating space for Li's gender transgressions. The destabilisations challenge the dominant gender relations on the one hand and are highly contingent, conditional and unevenly distributed on the other. These particularities highlight the unique aspects of postfeminist beauty consumption in a non-Western context, and enrich postfeminist literature and marketing studies.