ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Commun.
Sec. Culture and Communication
This article is part of the Research TopicReciprocal Gaze: Host-Guest Encounters, Gendered Perspectives, and the Politics of Seeing in TourismView all articles
Why do Chinese Men Delight in Ancient Women's Fights? Scopophilia, Emphasized Identity and Reorienting Male Gaze
Provisionally accepted
- Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
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Amid the ongoing reinterpretation of women's subjectivity in contemporary Chinese society, harem dramas have become a significant genre within domestic television production. Although conventionally regarded as female-oriented entertainment, these dramas continue to sustain widespread popularity while increasingly attracting male audiences, thereby complicating assumptions about gendered viewership. Within this context, this study employs the concept of the "unperturbed gaze" to integrate textual analysis with 41 in-depth interviews, revealing the psychological mechanisms underpinning male engagement with female-oriented harem dramas. The findings demonstrate that scopophilia, simulated identification, and homosocial affinity collectively transform gendered power into consumable experiences and perpetuate the reproduction of hierarchical order through platform amplification. Accordingly, this research proposes a meso-level theoretical framework for understanding the psychological dynamics of male spectatorship and offers productive insights for visual creators seeking to reconfigure narrative plurality and make ethical conflicts more perceptible.
Keywords: Gay gaze, gender relations, Harem Dramas, Male Consumption, Male gaze
Received: 07 Dec 2025; Accepted: 02 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Xu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Teng Xu
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