“Men in the System (Tizhi)”: State, Gender, and Masculinities in the Public Sector of China

This research examines how Chinese masculinities are reproduced, transformed, and contested within state-controlled bureaucratic work cultures by focusing on men working in the public sector. China’s public sector, commonly referred to as ‘Tizhi’, meaning ‘system’ in English, comprises civil service, public service units, and state-owned enterprises and is ultimately governed by the Communist Party. Since the 2010s, economic and social changes including downsizing in the private sector and rising youth unemployment have made public sector jobs[1] desirable among younger generations due to their perceived stability, status and job security. I argue that the increase and dominance of men in these roles may produce new forms of hegemonic masculinities, reshaping gender relations and national identity in China. Drawing on my current doctoral research, this paper presents early findings from fieldwork conducted from September 2024 to January 2025, using photo-elicitation and semi-structured interviews with young men working in the public sector jobs. Using a creative visual methodology to explore masculinities across time and space, this paper examines how men in the public sector experience, contest, and embody state-promoted masculinities and gender ideologies in their everyday lives. This research addresses a gap in mainstream masculinity studies in this transformative era, by examining gender through the lens of an authoritarian state, a context uncommon in Western democracies and under-researched in Anglophone gender studies.

[1] It is estimated that 80 million people work in China's public sector, meaning roughly one in four workers in the country is employed in this sector (Radio Free Asia, 2023).