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This article studies young women’s digitally mediated practices of exploring and maintaining intimate relationships in Guangzhou, a Chinese city at the forefront of economic and digital development. We discuss how Chinese young women on a wide spectrum of political standing and feminist awareness actively manage digitally mediated intimacy for a safer, more peaceful, and more satisfying environment, doing so in a context of strict state legislation of the internet. The analysis unveils three ways in which these young women manage digital intimacy. Given that their social boundaries have been institutionally invaded, they have to perform intricate digital labour through tagging, grouping, and the “three day visible” settings offered by WeChat Moments. Protecting one’s social boundaries involves laborious “embroidery” work to stay invisible to the uninvited authorities, parents, acquaintances, and salespersons on their “friend” list. Online self-representation of these young women shows a strategy of ingratiation as they craft a positive self-image in their Moments, which ironically indicates their distrust towards WeChat which they realized displayed weak ties rather than strong ones on their feed. The young women use dating apps mainly out of curiosity and to make friends and not for hookups, demonstrating calmness and safety concerns over their desire for romance and casual sex. While this may not be a feminist critique of dating apps, it could be attributed partly to the suppression of youth's sexual cultures in China. It could also be a strong preference for offline interaction in the collective living environment of the dormitory.
Hou et al. (Wed,) studied this question.