Alternative masculinities in Hong Kong

I have always found it fascinating to crowd-watch in Hong Kong. There is always something to see that reminds me that this is not where I grew up, that it was and is a different culture with different motivations and different values.

Being interested in gender, and being male, means that I am always curious about how people 'do' their gender in the everyday, whether it is what they wear, how they walk, what they do, how they relate to others, or any of the myriad ways in which gender plays out in the modern world. It is a good place to start in thinking about the differences between Hong Kong and Australia, because having lived for thirty years in Australia (as a male), I can safely say that I know what expectations there are around gendered behaviour generally in Australia, as well as how it has played out in my life.

The picture on the left illustrates one of those moments where I can be sure that I am living 'elsewhere' (note the man on the right with the light blue umbrella). Although very occasionally you would see someone using an umbrella as a sunshade in Australia, I had never ever seen a man using one, but in Hong Kong it is, if not common, at least a fairly regular occurrence. I've even used one myself this year once or twice, but I feel very strange doing so, because I know that I am breaking some unwritten rule established for me in the process of being inculcated into Australian masculinities.

So it is forever fascinating for me to be in a place with new (gender) rules and norms. Clearly it is okay for men to shade themselves from the sun with umbrellas in Hong Kong, even if men are less worried about sun damage than women here.

There are also very different rules about touching between men here, though I can't say that I can pinpoint them absolutely. My neighbourhood, Tsim Sha Tsui, is quite an ethnically diverse neighbourhood (for example the street behind me is known for its Korean restaurants and stores) and so I don't want to make bold claims about Hong Kong masculinities when I might instead be observing Korean or Japanese masculinities. Nonetheless, there is a great sense of expansiveness for me in Hong Kong to walk down my street and see (in this case, I'm fairly sure) straight men holding hands with their male friends. This simply does not happen in Australia, and even same-sex attracted men are cautious about where and when they do.

I'd love to take photos of some of these difference performances of masculinity, but it feels pretty intrusive to do so, particularly around something as sensitive as gender. I knew I could get away with the photo at the top because this was during a dragon boat race, and plenty of people had cameras out.

This is not to try and imagine that gender relations are all sweetness and light here in Hong Kong. What you gain on the roundabouts, you lose on the swings, as they say. Although it is much more common for women of all ages and classes to work here, this is as much about making ends meet in Hong Kong, and supporting your family, as it is about being a citizen or finding fulfilment in work. I will probably post about feminities in Hong Kong at a later date, but it is probably enough to say now that being a tough, assertive woman is probably even less admired in HK than it was in Australia.

The statistics I've seen about this for the whole of China, suggest that sexist assumptions about women's and men's roles are more entrenched in China that in 'Western' countries. Sadly, in many of those 'Western' countries, while attitudes may be changing, actual practices are not changing as fast. Back in Australia men still take very little responsibility for housework and childcare, and women still have a hard time getting the recognition they deserve at the upper end of company hierarchies. As Arlie Hochschild has suggested, men's failure to take responsibility for domestic duties has been a 'stalled revolution'. 

So if you're male, and you're reading this, get off the computer already, and go do some real (house) work! And if you'd like to read more about these issues, I cannot recommend highly enough this book by Chou Wah-Shan (周華山).