Opinions about misogynistic themes in Chinese novels targeted towards young girls

Can there be more discussion about the harmful tropes surrounding the typical Chinese novel aimed towards girls/ young women that are somehow so prevalent in so many of them?

I am feeling kinda irritated with the way these abusive relationships are portrayed and romanticised in these novels and am just wondering if anyone else feels the same way or if I am just shouting into an empty echo chamber.
Also I know its contradictory of me to complain about these tropes and still be reading these stories, however I read a lot more when I was a lot younger and now I can just barely sludge through any one of them without gnashing my teeth like 5 chapters in. The thing I have a problem with is how some of the underlying themes within the novels could be internalised by its young demographic and the way they devalue a woman's sexuality and independence.

(I know that these tropes do not apply to all but these are just what have been the most common from what I have read)

Modern Day Romance storyline:

• Situation in which MC is forced to undergo rape/ sexual violence- however MC never thinks to report it to the police or to seek legal justice + it never really highlights the traumatising aspect of the abuse for very long before getting brushed under the table in regards to MC's interactions with the ML later on.
• MC is schemed against by loosely related female relative/ love rival somewhere in the storyline with the threat of drugs/ kidnapping which would result in her being raped either by criminals or old men(who inadvertently become the ML).
• The antagonising of almost all women apart from the MC who due to ''petty female jealousy" resort to scheming to win over the favour of a man.
• MC becomes a victim of poor circumstance either through family dispute/ scheming/ betrayal by relatives or friends, leaving her vulnerable and just ripe for the ML to engage into a relationship with a distorted power dynamic
• In like 99.999% of these novels, regardless of how clever, influential or powerful the MC's background is, it always pales in comparison to the vastly superior ML and this status of dominance is used to further emphasise the unbalanced power dynamic between them.
• The virginal complex of the MC wherein past romances may be allowed(to create tension with ML in the plot later on) however sex must always be this alien concept in which MC sits on her virgin pedestal waiting for the ML to take her off of it.
• OBVIOUSLY THE F*CKING ABUSE of the MC- continuous rape, casual violence and emotional abuse are directed towards MC, often because of some misunderstanding, creating the conflict necessary for her to leave for several years, allowing for the ML to "repent" and to realise his "love" of the MC before she reappears with their child enabling them to reunite and become a "happy family", disregarding all that has happened and allowing the ML to obtain this undeserved redemption.

(Feel free to add on any other common tropes you have noticed in this genre)

 

I think it's absolute shit, rapey, stalker male lead scums and these novels are actually written by women! That's the kind of brainwashing they have going on over there in china.

Women are expected to be submissive and fulfill every whim of their male counterparts like slaves, and if they've ever been in a relationship with past partners they're considered loose women to be looked down upon.

That's the reason why I avoid female mc novels where the romance is with a guy, at least if it's yuri the romance balances out and there's at least some respect there.

 

Books come in all kinds. It's the reader who should learn to exercise judgement/discretion. Just filter out those rapey stuff.

 

Nah, maybe you should've advised them to read JP novels. They are good at shojo feels.

 

the chinese culture places a lot of importance in purity to the point that some woman in china would hide such event even from family, much less telling the police some even commiting suicide in order to prevent that information to be public knowledge (although this should e augmentated by a mental disorder caused by the event)

curently in china, due to 1 child policy, the ratio male/female is about 3:1 (ratio of birth is actually lower but ratio of singles should be around this, see this post for more details) to the point the few family that decide to keep their female child instead of abadoning them (https://www.commdiginews.com/world-...-child-policy-poverty-all-to-blame-23456/)are now better finacially due to several other family competing for their daughter favor

 

You can't really avoid this kind of stuff, there is people that are into these thing and i'm pretty sure its not few either, i can withstand rape in a history but if its the mc... and really its just a easy way to build a story without having to put effort into it

 

3:1? nah
But its pretty extreme. The one child policy is mostly put out of comission for now however. Partially due to the gender imbalance.

On the novels themselves... you are expecting quality... from a CN... oh boy. There arent many of these.

 

It is what it is, I don't really care. If it gets too insufferable I'll just drop it.

 

OP~

I vote with my wallet. Never buy those stuff. Everything you mentioned is why I don't read bg anymore.

If I ever decide to wade through the trash again I'd only pay for books with strong female characters, no matter what genre they are.

Het relationships in general tend to have power imbalances in them that are hard to shake off. I don't need even worse crap in books I read, thanks.

 

First, far from all CN romance novels fall into that trap. Your comments specifically seem to allude to those long ones with short chapters. I'll refer to Rebirth on the Doors of the Civil Affairs Bureau as a recent counterexample.

Second, some aspects you highlight, like power imbalance, can make for very interesting stories. The problem is often with how it's applied and portrayed. And that it's often only in one direction, not the other.

Third, those writers, in a way, normalize vile things and that's the worst thing about it. Not what they write, it's the way they do it. Writers can write about literally everything for all I care, but the way they do can be quite important.

Fourth, even in more normal CN romance there regularly is some sort of sexist undertone. I guess the culture does shine through, as could be expected.

I remember Ye Fei Ye, female writer of awful novels, once said in an author's note she never wrote violent/mean/bad male leads. Oh man, I had a good chuckle.

It's 110-130 boys for every 100 girls, depending on the region in China. This in contrast to the usual 106 to 100. If you want to know the exact numbers, go to the WEF gender gap report. But it's nowhere near 3 to 1. Think critically, don't misinform, don't make cheap comments.

 

"forced" love is at the top of the list along with sub/dom for what women like in their fantasies.

 

If you have literally a billion inhabitants even 110 to 130 is pretty nuts.

 

AaaaAAAAaaaamen

 

true. that is why literally all novels here are for 14+ people

 

the rich, domineering stalker (who is usually mid 30's to early 40's unless it's cultivation, then he's 100's of years older, while the woman is always around 14-22) with a rape=love attitude and the female lead who is strong, smart and independent until the meet the ML, after which they are treated as a child who has to be rescued, indulged or disciplined at the ML discretion, and taken care of. the intelligence, strength and independence is gone and all that's left is slavish devotion bordering on Stockholm Syndrome. i use that term because what woman in her right mind would ever fall in love with the man who stalks, bullies, and rapes her?
that's not even getting into the fact that apparently all Chinese women are devious and cunning and can't be strong without resorting to manipulation and thus need a firm and manly hand to guide and control them.
this is why i don't read most romance novels in general and Chinese romance novels in particular. i tried a for a while but ended up dropping all of them.

 

"In rural areas, the one-child policy was always in effect a 'one-and-a-half child policy,' because couples would be allowed a second child if the first was a girl," she said.

this is what is contrabalacing part of statistic, but the problem is real none the less and as more couple get together the ratio of single will eventually increase beyond 3:1, nevertheless i was wrong in the study that i was remembering but here it is

Only 1 in 4 Chinese men will ever get married in 2030
https://www.zmescience.com/other/feature-post/china-gender-imbalance-243423/

 

And that's the reason why I don't read male x female romances, be it light/web novel, manga, manhua etc..
BL all the way.

 

I don't read a lot of Chinese modern romance novels for the type of relationships described by OP.

I think it's fine for a female MC to be what is generally considered as "weak," but I think that she should at least have some strong points. A story with a female MC that basically relies on the ML to solve all her problems isn't an interesting story in my opinion.
I think it's fine for the ML to have a domineering personality (although not really my preference), but I'd like a female MC that has a similarly strong personality that doesn't play second fiddle to the guy.

In general, I think Chinese novels with female MCs and romance typically have a trend of the male being "better" than the female MC. In some novels, there is a huge disparity, but other novels have them closer to equal ground.

A lot of the modern Chinese romances with all the rape of the MC and whatnot are typically with more weak-willed female MCs, which may be a sexist stereotype of women having to be "gentle" and whatnot. I think even the Chinese novels with MCs that have stronger personalities also play into sexist tropes. In general (even for Western novels), "heavy punishment" (whether it is to punish a character for their misdeeds or to make the reader feel pity for a character) tends to be murder for men and rape for women.

Quick Transmigration: Cannon Fodder's Records of Counterattacks has an arc which parodies the type of novel OP described, but in an Ancient China setting. Perhaps, OP may enjoy it.

 

Yeah, i agree with the base sentiment of this thread. It is a huge issue with a lot of CN novels for women. There are very few that are either legit balanced or where the imbalance is favored towards the women. That's why ive kinda stopped reading most of those CN novels for women.

Two that sorta break that mold a bit, in my opinion at least, and are favorites of mine are Eight Treasures Trousseau and To Be A Virtuous Wife. Especially ETT because our dear ML is, admittedly, a bit whipped in certain aspects

Side Character Transmigrations with the awesome and badass Sheng-ge is a good example of subverting the whole trope.

 

what about if we talk about chinese novels targeting towards men?..
belive me, as a man... who reads novels while hearing about domineering attitudes, stalker'ish tendency, jealousy that borders on the line of mental illness, while gifted with a pretty face that makes it all okey in the end, because the girls falls in ETERNAL love with this shit...
I tell you, we guys have it difficult to meet such high criteria, it's simply beating down on our self-esteem here as men who are not needed anymore as protectors with all the "women oppression, women hating, patriarchy-titles that comes with being a masculine man with the instinct to protect the weaker sex =O we are getting lot of mixed signals here i tell yah