When the Gendered Millennial Goes Global: A Cross-National Reading of the ‘New Woman’ in British and Chinese Television Ads

Abstract

This paper compares the similarities and differences between Chinese and British advertising representations of the new woman. The comparison is both transnational and historical. This paper analyses the characteristics of new women to observe the construction process of modern gender discourses in the Western and Eastern contexts in the contemporary globalized world. Second, it explores how feminism (as a globalized idea) affects the way of shaping the new female characters, which is to examine the influence of modern feminism on the construction of new women’s gender identities in the British and Chinese society. This research regards feminism as a cultural object modified in cross-cultural communication; therefore, this paper also analyses the complex relationship among globalization, cultural integration, feminism, social development, and gender from the perspective of the construction of new woman’s identities.