Behind ‘mansplain’: The Challenging of Colonialism in Girls’ Response in a Chat Group

In this paper, I look at how the intersectionality of feminism and colonialism on Tinder – one of the biggest dating Apps – contributes to the production and circulation of gender tensions in modern China. To do so, I have been staying in a particular chat group for half a year, created by a female Tinder user who shows strong dissatisfaction with Chinese men on Tinder and now includes more than 300 women holding similar values. They frequently share experiences of using Tinder characterized by taunting, complaining, and swearing towards a particular type of male Tinder users who were “typical Chinese men” in their eyes. During this time, I collected various data: the male profiles, chat records on Tinder and in the group, how and why females rename themselves mockingly targeting such males. I adopt Linguistic Ethnography to analyze the emerging discourses that shape the large gender tensions. I aim to show that the logic underlying why the mocking is always related to western culture. These men are annoyed about Chinese females getting in touch with western men, calling them “easy girl” and teaching women patronizingly. However, they simultaneously use profiles with foreigners, western education backgrounds and introduce themselves in English to show off their charm to win the woman's attention. In response, girls sometimes deliberately provoke these men by praising western men and comment on the resulted conversations in the chat group. Based on this analysis, I argue that the patriotism enacted by these men is challenged by the group whose mocking as a discursive practice, although on the surface aligned with colonialism (e.g., praising western males), constitutes a form of anticolonialism potentially advancing the ongoing gender movement in China. Furthermore, this group's practice points to further research on dating platforms and females on the frontline of gender tension.