Persona, Politics, and Chinese Masculinity in Japan

Through an exploration of one Chinese man’s efforts to navigate masculinities in Japan, this chapter conceptualises how masculine persona change. Li Xiaomu first gained notoriety as a guide to, and commentator on, Japan’s red light district, Kabukicho. Often exacerbating negative perceptions of Chinese-ness in Japan, Li’s masculine performances coopted hegemonic associations between Chinese men and underworld crime in the late 1990s and early 2000s. More recently however, Li has moved to perform other hegemonic masculinities through his new persona as a respectful politician and advocate for diversity in Japan. Based on ethnographic and media-text analyses of Li’s complex public persona, this chapter interrogates what it means for Chinese men to strive towards a cosmopolitanism ethos in transnational contexts.