Discussion Why all the CEO male leads?

I swear there’s only one character type in cn romance novels for the male lead. It’s always the obsessive, pushy, CEO who won’t take no for an answer. It feels like they’re one big hive mind that has zero idea about the topic of consent. I mean, for female leads, at least there’s two categories, which are overpowered assassin/ hacker (only those two occupations are available) or normal civilian, innocent “white lotus” who is saved left and right from said CEO. I don’t hate these novels, but I have an odd sense of deja vu...

 

Its literally a Cinderella story. Prince Charming and an outcast/ normal girl.

 

I totally understand what you are saying. I really don’t understand when that sort of guy became what people assumed what woman fantasize about.

 

There are plenty of good romance CNs, but you have to dig deeper to find them. There are even great novels with likeable CEO MLs or those belonging to other professions who are not forceful, and more independent minded FMCs who are not hackers, assassins or white loti.

 

A sadist/stalker/freak is beautified and "deemed normal and acceptable". I wonder why they can't just be normal people too. I mean, must they always be princes or generals or marshals or CEOs?

 

Yes! Like Su Hang in Please Confess to Me, he's basically a puppy in front of his wife (ﾉ*>∀<)ﾉ♡

 

Well, you have to remember where China is now and where it came from.

In Europe, you can have Prince Charming, but in Imperial China before the Communists came along, the best you could be was "Concubine No. 329175" so marrying a prince ain't that nice an ending in China. Then at the current moment where China starts off with more or less a clean slate, the people "living it up" currently are "CEOs" riding the post Communist industrial boom, so in short, the only "high flyers" in Chinese society right now are business owners due to the clean sweep the Communists did of the previous system and the fact that the previous system wasn't seen in a good light either.

I bet if we looked at the time period between WWII and 1990, the "handsome male lead" in novels then would most likely be "Party Officials", just that without the internet, the rest of the world never saw that part of literary history.

 

Cause women tend to like men who has both income stability and looks. And black bellied CEO is the fad in china even the guys personality is sh*t. It just the same old tall dark and handome only having fair skin and rich.

 

coz its patriarchy

 

This phenomenon is not restricted to Chinese romance novels. Rich pushy billionaires are both common and popular in western romance novels too. There's a greater variety of MLs — though you see more MLs in Chinese novels too if you know what to look out for — but liiiiiike... How freaking popular was Christian Grey of 50 Shades fame? And alpha male is a popular description used for domineering male leads in Western romance that predates ABO by decades. Bodice rippers got their name from a trend that treated consent as optional.

There's plenty of articles on why these kind of male leads are popular — and I think that the reasons are generally the same across cultures, though different depending on the contexts — and if you're truly interested, I'd definitely check it out!

As for those female leads... 1) is a power fantasy, 2) probably has something to do with cultural expectations of perfect womanhood. You see #2 in a lot of telenovelas for example. But again, there's a lot more variety if you know what to look for.

 

Think it's more than that though.
1- Some of the authors are female, yet they write this.
2- I don't see a lot of the FLs going for male street sweepers.

Like the others said, I believe it's an offshoot of the Tall, Dark and Handsome line of writing, just limited by China's previous clean sweep of their system, so the only "rich" men now are "CEOs".

 

The same principle as why most ML is a Duke (somehow almost always northern one) in KR or first/crown prince in JP

 

It's the highest position a male lead can get in a non fantasy setting. What woman would lust for a dirty mechanic living in a shitty apartment? The male CEO is an archetype at this point.

 

Because most readers its intended for are gold diggers

 

I don't really read novels with those pushy MLs but yea, CEO troupe is still prevalent even in ones where the ML is docile and kind.

 

theyre written for women and women eat that shit up, who are you complaining about

 

Well... its all about self insert fantasy.

Average girls will read about super alpha males and bad boys—who could get any girl they want, but somehow will fall heads over heels for the FMC. It makes them feel good. I mean... isn't it the same with Tinder and stuff? Except that the CEO in real life will never settle with them, will just go for some pump and dump. But if we wanted reality, then we wouldn't be here reading webnovels to begin with.

Its the same with us guys too, right? The hottest girl in class falling for some average mob, just because he passed the salt to her? Or some guy going to isekai, getting some OP skills and getting all the chicks? And whats their excuse? "Oh... he's so nice and kind..." Except in reality, nobody likes niceguys and simps. But hey, its all self insert fantasy, and there is nothing wrong with that.

So yeah, its pointless to get annoyed with the CEOs and Dukes. Let the girls have their fantasies, and let us guys have ours. Simple.

 

Right, there is a necessary need for stories that are simply written to satisfy "cravings" and fantasies people tend to have. But I think the problem is when majority of romance novels or action/adventure novels, (Isekai can be a subgenre of that) are only about wish fulfillment. Its like yea I get duke stories people like them but why is the whole romance market so saturated with them? Its like most romance stories barely have substance, and thats my problem I guess. You can have your fantasy novels but give me some good ones too, you know?

 

One that I read that I felt didn’t have the typical, weak girl with power posesiva man was Rebirth of the Film Emperor’s Beloved Wife. Although when I first read the title I though it was going to be the same old troupe, it wasn’t. In the novel the FL is actually the cold possessive CEO and the ML is really just living for her and trying his best so that he can be by his side. It’s a truly enjoyable novel. Also I apologize if my English is hard to understand, it’s not my first language.

 

That might be asking for a bit too much lol. Most of the "good" easy writing routes have already been taken and being creative enough to create a whole new believable world is a much higher barrier that most "worker" authors both are unable and cannot afford to climb since creative new works takes much longer than "a chapter a day" novels (eg. Moby Dick took 4 years to write) and they need the "daily" income for expenses.

Same with movies and anime these days, it's hard to get something that isn't well troddened before, which is why all the remakes (Ghostbusters, Battlestar Galactica, A-Team, Mission Impossible, Charlie's Angels, Transformers etc).

"Good" is a higher bar to cross than most people realize.