When I saw a tweet yesterday that claimed Chinese-Americans have “unique gender identities,” my first thought was “what the hell?”
Thankfully it’s not another tentacle of the Intersectionality Octopus or a screed about racialized sex toys, but a thoughtful column by a Northwestern University student about being pulled between two competing cultural conceptions of masculinity.
Daily Northwestern columnist Henry Cao starts pretty conventionally – taking aim at Western culture for promoting “physical and psychological dominance” as quintessentially male and elevating “the man at the expense of the woman.”
But then he turns his sights on his own cultural background – where masculinity operates in a dualistic system – and says it has helped emasculate Chinese men in American culture:
The two elements are wen and wu. Wen is associated with the gentleman-scholar; wu is associated with the military man. The wen element corresponds with refinement, enlightenment and attractiveness. The wu element comprises brawny disciplines, such as martial arts and warfare.
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No man is lacking in either wen or wu. Ideally, the scholarly man is no more and no less masculine than the military man. However, wen has been the dominant ideal in Chinese culture for millennia. In Chinese history, the ruling class had been comprised of civil servants, who were the most intellectual people in the land. The warrior class was beneath them. A common saying in China goes, “those who work with their brains rule, those who work with their brawn are ruled.”
Opinion: Columnist Henry Cao argues that Chinese-Americans should recognize their unique gender identities. https://t.co/pWqsskCDEw
— The Daily Northwestern (@thedailynu) May 11, 2016
Chinese men living in the West would only “perpetuate emasculating myths” if they embraced traditional Chinese masculinity, but they shouldn’t try to act like stereotypical American men, which will “not lead us toward acceptance by American society,” Cao writes.
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He urges fellow Chinese Americans to “have an open discussion about gender identity” so men in their community can “openly and safely celebrate male identity” in a culture that’s weirded out by its emphasis on the scholar over the warrior.
At the risk of sounding like a social justice warrior, I think this is a great thing to discuss, regardless of ethnicity. It’s just a terrible idea to try it at your typical university.
From judging all men harassers and rapists because of “toxic masculinity” to a women’s center telling men how to be masculine, pundits of political correctness don’t seem interested in fostering a safe space, as it were, for men to explore what it means to be a man.
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