Understanding Gendered Resistance in Chinese Rural Students’ Entangled Counter-Storytelling

• In Event: Storying Resistance, Joy, and Radical Possibility

Abstract

This paper examines gendered narratives of entangled resistance to Chinese school meritocracy. Grounded in posthumanist counter-storytelling, the analysis focuses on the experiences of two “successful” rural students who navigate and contest dominant narratives while remaining deeply embedded in them. Through Yulou’s strategic negotiation of masculinity expectations and Pei’s feminine-coded nei-han (inner richness) self-cultivation, the study uncovers subtle yet impactful forms of embodied gendered resistance to symbolic violence.

Authors

• Xuanya Zhou, University of Florida

• Fuyi Feng, The Ohio State University