Using anti-Western perceptions to frame anti-feminist discourse on the Chinese TikTok

This article examines how anti-Western tropes are mobilized to construct anti-feminist discourse in Douyin video commentaries. Drawing on a critical discourse analysis of 54 short videos, the analysis identifies a recurring problem–effect–solution pattern realized through three interrelated strategies: spatialization, which constructs “western feminism” as a destabilizing force in Western societies; securitization, which criticizes “western feminism” as ideological brainwashing in China; and legitimation, which extols China's state feminism as the authentic model of gender equality. This study expands scholarship on overtly misogynistic and gender-nationalist anti-feminist backlash by drawing attention to a more “authoritative” mode of anti-feminist argumentation, whose legitimacy derives from intertextual resonance with state-sanctioned narratives, the socialist legacy of state feminism, and the misappropriation and refunctionalization of Euro-American alt-right and far-right anti-immigration disinformation.