Postfeminist paradoxes and age-defying narratives: A case study of Liu Xiaoqing in Chinese television reality show Road of Blossoms (2025)

Amid the rising popularity of Chinese reality shows centering on middle-aged and older women, Road of Blossoms (2025), spotlighting celebrities aged 45–75, garnered significant public attention, with 74-year-old Liu Xiaoqing as its central figure. This study interrogates how the show constructs age-defying narratives through Liu’s mediated persona. Drawing on Erving Goffman’s frame analysis and multimodal critical discourse analysis, we demonstrate how Liu’s televised image, as organized around her pursuit of perpetual youthfulness, hyper-vitality, state-aligned resilience, and curated authenticity, exemplifies postfeminist paradoxes for older women in contemporary China. While ostensibly empowering and challenging stereotypes, her persona reinforces patriarchal beauty norms and state-sanctioned imperatives. Specifically, the show aligns her image with state-mandated “productive aging,” recasting individual positivity, later-life productivity, and self-betterment as markers of socio-economic contribution. By unpacking these dynamics, this study bridges a critical gap in scholarship on aging femininities in Chinese popular media, illuminating how older female celebrities negotiate ideological hybridity and contestations between postfeminist discourses, Chinese beauty ideals, and state-endorsed ideologies.