Funny thing is, most of you missed the whole point. it was not about the left and China, but China banning effeminate men.
I think it was a couple of years ago, maybe less, there was a thread on Toxic Masculinity on PRSI. Everyone was against it, well most everyone. Even talked about Gillette's commercial about it (I have not bought a Gillette razor since, Schick's are doing quite well.)
But here is an entire country that is basically saying we want toxic masculinity and here the focus is a little blurb about the left and China.
My point is China gets away with stuff that people in the US would lose their shit about and no one cares.
Not all of us missed "the point".
And there are two distinct and different issues here: Masculinity (or constructs - culturally reinforced or not - of masculinity, including "toxic masculinity") and China; conflating the two misses the point, and to attempt to drag the "left" into it, runs the risk of missing the point completely.
China is an authoritarian culture and society - one with autocratic traditions for thousands of years - and an autocratic state; culturally, it - that is, its shared values and common vision - prizes the collective, and elevates the idea and ideal of the collective - and the collective good (however that is defined) over the individual, (and over individual needs, such as any sort of self-expression); its history and geography both mean that it passionately values stability, and security, loathes chaos, instability and anything that serves to disrupt or unsettle society - and - this is important and it is why "the left" has nothing whatsoever to do with this discussion - China has been this way for centuries and centuries, since long before the communists ever got a sniff of power.
As was also the case with Russia, the pre-existing, deeply rooted, cultural contours and traditions of Chinese society deeply influenced the form that communism took there, and these values still profoundly influence the profile (and attitudes) of China (post-Communist China) today.
However, to reiterate some of my earlier points and flesh them out a little:
China desires to ban "effeminate men" from TV because:
1. Culturally, it is an authoritarian state and - culturally (historically, traditionally) - it can do so. For centuries the state had enormous power over a great many aspects of people's lives, and the cultural traditions (the collective over the individual) allowed, enabled, encouraged, facilitated such expressions of power; historically, there was little push back.
2. Increasingly, these days, China matters.
Sixty or seventy years ago what China did about anything was irrelevant in the west; economically, politically, militarily, culturally (i.e. in the wielding of "soft power"), it didn't count. If anything, China was seen as a victim (such as during the very ugly war with Japan in the 1930s; Japanese atrocities then matched anything experienced during the Second World War).
3. The Chinese state is increasingly assertive (some would say aggressive) in pursuing what it considers to be Chinese interests, and certainly, is a lot more confident and proactive in doing so. Economically, politically and militarily, it now matters, and not just in Asia.
4. As part of its increasing confidence, - internationally and domestically - it is dipping tentative toes into "cultural" matters. Those toes last touched upon cultural matters when the Chinese state launched the notorious Cultural Revolution with catastrophic consequences, in the 1960s. Since then, China has left culture pretty much alone, until now.
5. In China, this attack on "effeminate men", is, I would argue, aimed primarily at a domestic audience. This is a consequence of both increased confidence (the Chinese state feels it can confidently pronounce on such matters with authority for the first time since the disastrous Cultural Revolution), and growing concern about possible cultural threats, such as Hong Kong (which - by its very existence - offered an alternative - and far more attractive - model of how to be Chinese in a modern world, than was found on mainland China. Taiwan didn't really count, not to the same extent, as an "alternative" take on what could be considered to be "Chinese".)
6. And then, - and this is important, and is a significant difference between China (officially) promoting such views, and responses in western societies to variations on this theme (constructs of masculinity, toxic masculinity, effeminate men) - I would argue that this is an attempt - a state sponsored attempt - to counter the well worn (and tired) cultural trope whereby Asian men are depicted as - or, are assumed to be - effeminate by definition. Thus, the Chinese state wishes to challenge and counter this perception, (of Asian men, of Chinese men) by presenting and promoting what it considers to be "masculine" alternatives on state TV.
7. Finally, there is this almost clichéd "strong man" stuff, all too depressingly often found in (male) leaders of autocratic societies or cultures, where they must be seen to protest their masculinity - for, of course, they equate masculinity with leadership, virility, strength - to an almost ludicrous and patently and pathetically ridulous degree, a degree that approaches parody at times.