Navigating Marriage Anxiety in China: Exploring the Interplay of Traditional Confucian Values and Evolving Gender Dynamics Through a Case Study of Social Media Influencers

Abstract

This paper’s primary goal is to determine if young people’s marital concern in the dynamic gender gap is connected to the post-epidemic Chinese marriage rates’ year-over-year fall. The theory of doing gender forms the basis of this qualitative investigation. The most popular video material and the top five most viewed comments from two influencers who specialize in marriage-related posts were examined in this study using a case study methodology. Based on the differentiation of the content of the two bloggers, this study will therefore analyze influencer C from the perspective of the responsibilities that the man and woman should bear in a traditional marriage and gender inequality, and A from the perspective of the correlation between gender traits and social gender. This research shows that the gender-equalized marriages that most Chinese young people currently expect have been realized to a certain extent in the two netizens. Further evidence that Chinese youth may be holding the two influencers accountable for their expectations of gender-equal marriages comes from the fact that they have garnered 512,000 followers as a result of their defiant actions against the traditional Confucian view of marriage. This further suggests that the traditional Confucian view of marriage is pressuring their own marriages and that they are looking for a way to reject it. The preliminary results of this study may help to shed light on the nature of why young Chinese people are resistant to and even fearful of marriage.