The Research Setting

Stanley's was once a public ballroom but is now leased by three male dance hosts who have transformed it into a dance-hosting ballroom.Footnote ⁸ It was very loud when I visited, and the air was usually thick with cigarette smoke, mixed with the occasional scent of various colognes or perfumes. Three rows of sofas lined the periphery of the large dance floor, except for on one side, which featured floor-to-ceiling mirrors. Disco balls, strobe lights and multi-coloured spotlights hung from the ceiling and almost all of the supporting pillars were adorned with mirrors. The dance styles on offer included the rumba, samba, “slow three” (a waltz), “fast three” (a Viennese waltz), “slow four” (blues), jitterbug, Beijing dance, “fast four,” tango, cha-cha and international. During the evening sessions, the lighting changed (from dimmed hues to bright flashing effects) to reflect the mood of the hour and the genre of music chosen by the disc jockey, which ranged from unforgettable classics to popular contemporary tracks.

In general, dance hall customers are mostly married women, aged between 35 and 60, with diverse occupational profiles ranging from business, medicine, teaching and the civil service. Their makeup and sartorial elegance not only give them an air of confidence but also conceal their true age, making them appear younger than they are. Their main reason for visiting dance halls is to dance, although some are also seeking an intimate relationship. Dance halls are also open to local dancers, including male customers who go there to dance with local female customers; these men are not looking to hire the services of dance hosts.

The nature of the dance hall has changed dramatically in the past decade. In the past, the hosts were always female; today, the halls only offer male hosts.Footnote ⁹ Thus, with the liberation of Chinese women, economic reforms, globalization and individualization, what seemed unacceptable in the past has gradually given way to greater female social and economic power, with well-off Chinese women beginning to indulge themselves as they see fit. The birth of male-hosted ballrooms is a reflection of greater gender equality and the relaxing social attitudes towards women in China.

Dance Hosts

Dance Hosting as an “Un-masculine” Profession

According to Robert Connell and James Messerschmidt, “Hegemonic masculinity is certainly normative. It embodied the currently most honoured way of being a man, it required all other men to position themselves in relation to it.”Footnote ¹¹ According to Chinese social and cultural masculine norms, the dance hosts’ profession is shameful and diminishes their masculinity.

The emasculation of dance hosts is linked to Chinese conceptions of normative masculinity and, in particular, the cultural value placed upon being a “tough man”Footnote ¹² and (traditional) “provider” for women.Footnote ¹³ The “tough man” ideal is historically grounded in both traditional and revolutionary Chinese discourses.Footnote ¹⁴ When a dance host sells his body and experiences of intimacy, he is generally perceived as both indolent and fragile (ruan ruo 软弱) by the wider Chinese society. One host told me:

In particular, when these men provide their middle-aged clients with attentive care, they are perceived as being “toy boys,” as “reaping without sowing” and living off women. As a result, the dance hosts are the exact opposite of what Chinese culture and society requires of a masculine subject, because their sole source of income is derived from the personal services they offer to women. Instead of being a provider for women, dance hosts become a woman's dependant or accessory.

The emasculation of dance hosts is also intertwined with the recent Chinese conceptualization of a certain type of contemporary masculinity that involves having social status,Footnote ¹⁶ freedom and choices,Footnote ¹⁷ and being the partner of a younger woman.Footnote ¹⁸ Dance hosts claim that their profession generally meets with social disapproval and a lack of recognition and social status. Because their work can involve the sale of intimacy and sex, dance hosts are stigmatized as being “ducks,” a colloquial Chinese term for male prostitutes. This point is underlined by Travis Kong, who notes that sex work is regarded by Chinese society as deviant and is ordinarily engendered as a “feminine” occupation, as the work is traditionally carried out by women who are expected to be deferential, passive and submissive.Footnote ¹⁹ In China, it is generally believed that because they provide sexual and other services to women, dance hosts are of a low social status. Thus, their profession generally meets with disapproval. Almost all of the dance hosts I interviewed told me that they had to hide what they do for a living from their friends and families back home so as not to bring shame upon them. Freddy explained:

Another host shared similar thoughts:

Even in the dance halls where they appear to be treated with respect and referred to as “dance teachers,” the dance hosts are disparaged for being “ducks” behind their backs. They encounter contempt and hatred from local men, who feel threatened and angered by what they perceive as the hosts “stealing” women from them. As Michael pointed out: “The local men dislike us [dance hosts]. These local men used to flirt with local women, but since our arrival the women are considered to be only interested in us.”Footnote ²²

The dance hosts are objectified and commodified and, as such, are typically viewed as having no freedom or choice. I observed that in dance hall ballrooms, every dance host wears the same outfit: a white top, dark trousers and a numbered badge. At the start of an evening session, the hosts queue up and then walk around in circles, one by one. The managers told me that this is called “coming on stage” (chuchang 出场). The object of this routine is to give the female clientele a good look at the available hosts, let them check if a favourite is on duty, and then book one. Nolan, a host, explained: “We are exhibited like commodities. They sit on a sofa and watch us, remember our numbers and book us to be their partners.”Footnote ²³

All of the dance hosts I spoke to shared their experiences of frequently moving from place to place between different dance halls. This made them feel dehumanized and commodified. All reported moving between the cities known in the dance-hosting profession to have a high concentration of wealthy residents in order to maximize their chances of meeting the type of wealthy woman who might be willing to spend large sums of money on their services. However, owing to the high costs of living and the fierce competition for clients in these big cities, some dance hosts quickly move on if they find the market too competitive. Miller explained:

In addition, dance hosts have to move on if they fall out with a client or if their relationship with a client ends, as other clients in that locality are unlikely to enter into an ongoing arrangement with “used goods.”

In search of new markets and suitable long-term clients, dance hosts move from city to city like itinerant commodities. Of the 26 dance hosts I interviewed, 16 claimed that they had very limited freedom to choose or turn down clients. Grant told me:

Another host explained:

These quotes highlight the dance hosts’ belief that they are seen as disposable commodities, deprived of meaningful choices in their professional and personal lives.

The general view that the dance-hosting profession is “un-masculine” is attributable in part to the cultural association between idealized masculinity and a male's ability to attract younger, sexually desirable women. The traditional norm in China is for men to seek younger partners and for women to partner with older men. It is acceptable and common in Chinese society for a (rich) man to marry a woman 20 years younger than him, while it is generally frowned upon for a man to marry or date a woman who is more than ten years older than him. Tiantian Zheng points out that “Men required of their wives a new, heightened sexuality as a means of enhancing their own masculine identity. Women's sexuality became a backdrop against which men's identity was formed.”Footnote ²⁷ This is poignant and pertinent to the diminished masculinity of dance hosts and their embarrassing experiences of going out in public with their typically older female clients, some of whom can be up to 60 years of age. Joseph explained:

According to Irvin,

Kelvin told me that after hanging out with a client:

The dance hosts’ desire to earn a living through self-commodification and serving women resonates with post-reform China's emphasis on economic pursuits and the acquisition of wealth, which defines both status and class.Footnote ³¹ These desires are reflected in the emphasis the hosts place on being booked by clients – and wealthy clients in particular – as these women can act as generous providers. It is for this reason that men become hosts, despite the fact that the job is widely regarded as being the antithesis of Chinese masculine ideals. Dance hosts’ emasculated subjectivity exemplifies the gender expectations in Chinese patriarchal society, according to which men should not occupy “feminine” occupations, such as providing sexual services to women, and should not become commodities without options, power or control over women. Traditionally, men should be “tough,” and they should find and provide for a younger female partner or wife. The hosts’ frequent use of expressions such as “serve women” and “as a man” when voicing their frustrations about their occupation is reminiscent of Ramet's “gender reversal.”Footnote ³² Consequently, hosts feel ashamed, humiliated and embarrassed by their positions. Understanding the subjectivity of the hosts is an important aspect of this study's attempt to show that Chinese men are confronted with cultural and social messages which are rooted in dominant ideology and communicate to them the “accepted” methods through which an individual (of either sex) can gain self-esteem. These methods are in general linked to having money as well as specific gendered expectations, and “approved” behaviour is engendered as normatively and desirably masculine.

Restoration of Masculinity

Dance hosts explained to me that they felt emotionally drained and exhausted by the constant disapproval and disdain they face. To negotiate the stigma and endure the stress of working in the dance halls, they deploy a series of strategies to prove their worth, maintain their personal dignity and a positive self-image, and to assert their masculinity in what I call their “internal world” or “ideal world” – the dance hall and other spaces in which they encounter their adoring clients.

Dance hosts strive to bolster their masculinity and live up to the traditional masculine ideals of being the “tough man.”Footnote ³³ First, the hosts made clear to me that they regard hosting as a gruelling profession that makes considerable demands on them; by enduring these demands, they consider themselves to be demonstrating their manliness and toughness. The men explained that to become hosts they first had to pay to learn the various dance styles in ballrooms in their hometowns. However, the lessons proved to be much more difficult than most had imagined. Many recalled taking an average of three to six months before they were proficient enough to dance with clients. Of the 26 hosts I interviewed, 25 claimed that they had almost given up because dancing requires a high degree of flexibility and a good memory to recall the complex steps. In addition, they often had to endure the boredom, weariness, frustration and self-doubt associated with slow progress. They had internalized societal expectations that they should embody the traditional masculine ideal of toughness; hence, they persevered and put great effort into honing their dance skills as this attribute is the key to attracting clients.

The hosts described to me the physical and emotional exhaustion that came from their work:

When asked how a man can become successful in this field, dance hosts listed a series of traits and they all mentioned “working hard” and “being tough.”

Dance hosts feel that they are living up to idealized masculine traits by performing a caring and protective role with their clients. Dance hosts take on the role of a boyfriend, which involves offering attention, support and being interested in every aspect of their client's life. This work takes place outside the dance hall in normal, everyday locations. Dance hosts work hard to make their clients feel looked after and like they are the centre of the host's attention. For example, when taking a walk with a client, the host will walk slightly in front of her and lead her across the street. When the client returns home after a dance session or a meeting with the host, the host will text her to check that she has arrived home safely. Hosts told me that their clients appreciate kind, considerate text messages that give the impression that the host genuinely cares about the woman. In an ongoing relationship with a client, a host takes care of the woman's daily chores and is on hand to support her when problems arise in her life. In Chinese society, drunkenness is commonly considered to be unhealthy and culturally inappropriate for a woman. Alex told me that he always makes a point of drinking all alcoholic toasts and offers of shots [of alcoholic drinks] in bars on behalf of his “sisters” and warns them not to drink too much. Dance hosts with ongoing arrangements with female clients will often cook meals for the woman and buy medicines and other items for her if she falls ill, in addition to providing physical affection and sexual services.

Dance hosts’ descriptions of their relationships with female clients and their performances of attentive care reflect Judith Butler's idea that gender is a performance.Footnote ³⁷ The hosts perform a masculine role by acting as a reliable protector;Footnote ³⁸ at the same time, they also perform a “feminine” role by attentively looking after their clients.Footnote ³⁹ Although women are traditionally supposed to be the givers of care, recent studies such as Xuan Li and William Jankowiak's work on parental involvement have found that men enact masculine traits such as exercising patience, expressiveness, a caring attitude and gentility in their relationships with their wives and children in contemporary society.Footnote ⁴⁰ Importantly, clients are there to enjoy the active protection and attentive care given by the hosts instead of deriving pleasure from the hosts’ subservience. Thus, although dance hosts are serving women, they are actively reconstructing their masculinity by conforming to the role of a “superior” man who protects while at the same time assigning their clients the “inferior” role of awaiting protection.

The masculine traits idealized in contemporary China are manifest in the dance hosts’ preoccupation with achieving social status and class mobility. This status can be acquired through economic, cultural and social capital. First, earning money is an important approach that dance hosts bring to the construction of their masculinity. According to the hosts, it is important for a man to have money:

The emphasis on wealth in relation to the construction of masculinity has been documented in many studies and captures a host's primary motivation for joining the profession.Footnote ⁴² The greatest hope of a host is to “hit the jackpot” by meeting a very wealthy client. In one night, a fortuitous encounter of that kind could change his life. Hugh shared:

The quotes above illustrate the dance hosts’ strong belief that being impoverished emasculates a man. Even though the profession as a whole is disparaged and considered to be “unmanly,” dance hosting can be a gateway to a wealthy lifestyle, and this fact – somewhat ironically – can partially compensate the men for the loss of masculinity that results from their work as a host.

Second, Geng Song's research has shown that urbanity and social status are closely intertwined with contemporary Chinese masculinity.Footnote ⁴⁴ Physical embodiments of masculinity, such as the cultivation of good taste (pinwei 品位), presenting oneself as a cultured gentleman,Footnote ⁴⁵ developing and maintaining a healthy and strong bodyFootnote ⁴⁶ and being of good appearance,Footnote ⁴⁷ are also part of the repertoire of the modern ideals of Chinese masculinity. In order to survive in the city and to succeed in the competitive atmosphere of the dance halls, dance hosts strive to shed any appearance or indication of a rural, unsophisticated background by practising, in strategic ways, high standards of personal grooming. They aim to cultivate and embody the urbane traits and lifestyles idealized by aspirational Chinese urban residents, with the ultimate goal of restoring masculinity.

As the profession has a minimum height requirement, dance hosts are usually at least 1.65 metres tall. By dancing regularly, they develop an upright and sturdy physique and believe that they conform to the masculine body ideal. In their personal grooming, dance hosts take great pains to look clean, young, handsome, civilized and urbane. Dance hosts buy a variety of cosmetics including skin care and hair styling products and cologne to ensure they look and smell appealing. Hosts are required by the dance halls to dress in standard formal attire (usually a white shirt and black trousers, as mentioned above), and so they have to find ways to make themselves stand out and capture the attention of prospective clients. They do this with a distinctive, well-groomed hairstyle. Every day, they wash and blow-dry their hair before starting work. When dance hosts socialize in their personal leisure time, they choose outfits based on their preferred fashions and discuss the latest trends with their friends. In my interviews, dance hosts revealed that they considered it important to dress appropriately and stylishly, especially when they spend time with clients outside the dance hall. They put considerable effort into purchasing suitable clothes and keeping up with the latest fashions.

The dance hosts explained to me that their clients are looking for men who are physically attractive and, more importantly, who are cultivated. In other words, clients are looking for men with highly developed non-verbal communication skills (such as attentiveness and an emotionally expressive use of their bodies, including gesturality and facial expressions) and verbal communication skills (i.e. flirtatious and playful conversation and an articulated responsiveness to the personal needs of their clients). These qualities work to convey an image of the host as being a sophisticated, desirable and modern man. Thus, dance hosts painstakingly aim to embody the civilized and urbane gentleman. Some dance hosts even go so far as to buy books and watch online tutorials on how to act “like a gentleman” and how to talk like a “civilized man” in order to attract women. Michael told me that he often buys expensive men's fashion magazines. Alex added:

Huang revealed:

Dance hosts’ bodily practices echo Susan Brownell's notion of “body culture,”Footnote ⁵⁰ and further remind us of habitus.Footnote ⁵¹ In Distinction, Pierre Bourdieu writes, “Taste, a class culture turned into nature, that is, embodied, helps to shape the class body.”Footnote ⁵² Hence, the hosts’ embodiment of refined, urbane qualities is “an incorporated principle of classification,” which governs every aspect of the hosts’ mental preparation for their work, their personal grooming, their choice of outfits and how they speak and conduct themselves when with a client. This is reflected in their dedication to assimilating everything that distinguishes them from rural people. By cultivating their physical appearance in certain ways, hosts level the playing field by portraying themselves as being from a privileged class, thereby maximizing their desirability and giving clients the impression that they are cultivated urbane men worthy enough to partner the client both inside and outside the dance hall. They revealed to me that clients usually take them to exclusive or “ranked” venues, such as expensive restaurants, which are usually not accessible to people on low incomes.Footnote ⁵³ This brings to mind Bourdieu's observation that “taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier.”Footnote ⁵⁴ Taste in cultural goods is a representation of one's class and promotes class distinctions. Thus, dance hosts get to experience a middle-class lifestyle and to embody “good taste” (pinwei), which is associated with modernity and high social status and forms a key aspect of the contemporary Chinese masculine ideal.Footnote ⁵⁵ Here, we can see how dance hosts use their cultivated urbane qualities not only to gain cultural capital but also to strategically live out the normative masculine subjectivity of how men should be better than women.

Dance hosts use their profession to expand their social network and create opportunities for learning and self-improvement in order to achieve class mobility. According to the hosts, they are able to expand their networks when they are introduced into their clients’ social circles. They explained that their clients come from a variety of professional backgrounds: some work in business, others are doctors, teachers or civil servants. The hosts are primarily introduced to the clients’ female friends, who also visit dance halls and understand the nature of it. Thus, the hosts are protected from being insulted or criticized. Since their middle-aged clients and their friends are sophisticated women of considerable economic and social status, the hosts have the opportunity to learn from them about starting up a company, how to converse confidently with people from all walks of life, and how to develop and maintain networks (guanxi 关系). All this can be used by the host to carve out a better future for himself. As Hank explained:

Hank's comment reveals something poignant about the worthiness of men who “do not rely on women.” It reiterates their belief that while dance hosting is lucrative, it places them in the inferior position of serving women and relying on them for a living. In mobilizing strategies to gain social capital and create opportunities, dance hosts have created a narrative about their intentions and aspirations. Hank's experience is not uncommon: many dance hosts shared similar experiences of seizing the opportunities presented by dance hosting and fulfilling their aspirations to quit hosting and build their own businesses. The hosts’ aspirations reflect Zheng's argument that entrepreneurship has become a form of masculinity that is waiting to be acquired in the new capitalist economy.Footnote ⁵⁷

To sum up, dance hosts aim to accumulate economic, cultural and social capital, with the aim of enhancing their social status and achieving class mobility.Footnote ⁵⁸ The values, orientations, subjective dispositions and behavioural tendencies that hosts exhibit in their social interactions reveal their restructuring of habitus. This restructured habitus is the result of continuous inculcation – as characterized by the hosts’ determination to distance themselves from their rural origins, embody urban lifestyle ideals, expand their social networks and seize opportunities to enhance their social status. The ultimate aim of the hosts is to gain social and economic power; by doing so, they hope to gain a sense of personal dignity and a prominent position over women and so reconstruct a modern manhood. These findings illustrate that idealized masculine traits, urbanity, social status, money and entrepreneurship are intimately and inextricably linked in modern China.Footnote ⁵⁹

Most strikingly, dance hosts feel that they can reconstruct and assert their masculinity by gaining social recognition and respectability. As discussed previously, dance hosting generally meets with social disapproval, resulting in the hosts’ lack of recognition and social status. Thus, the hosts strive to pursue social respectability as it is the key aspect of the most desirable embodiment of masculinity in contemporary China.Footnote ⁶⁰ First, they believe that skilful dancing proves a man's worthiness and masculinity in the dance hall. In order to impress female clients, to maximize their number of bookings and to increase their chances of creating an ongoing romantic relationship, hosts must excel at dancing. Hosts commented that masculinity can be displayed through dancing and that bodily communication is more effective than verbal communication. During a dance, host and client hold hands, look into each other's eyes and move their bodies in tandem. I frequently observed that the dance hosts take the initiative with their clients: with their steps, they take the lead role and the female client follows. For dance hosts, taking the lead is congruent with masculinity. In order to create a good experience for their clients, dance hosts usually make efforts to tailor their performance to the dancing abilities of the client. For example, a host may execute a dance move in which a woman “falls” down into the host's hands and he then pulls her up to a standing position with one powerful gesture. This move is meant to evoke feelings of care and protection: at the very moment when the woman “falls” to the floor, the (more powerful) man swoops down to catch her. This type of manoeuvre emphasizes the host's physical prowess and strength. When partnering their clients in the Viennese Waltz, hosts conduct lively and cheerful moves around the dance floor. By executing rapid, concise footsteps and continuous turns, dance hosts not only convey their vigour and stamina but also impart feelings of excitement and joyfulness through their facial expressions. When dancing in the “international” style, dance hosts and their clients turn and rotate, with the man lowering his body and transferring his weight from foot to foot; the client responds and follows his lead. Oscar explained,

This is reminiscent of Michael Gard's study of male dancing, whereby he situates the dancer's execution of different skills – and their great control – as being crucial to their masculinity. He describes the male body as a certain kind of spectacle similar to a highly trained sportsman: “fast, powerful, occupying and traversing large amounts of space, and exhibiting conspicuous prowess.”Footnote ⁶² Further, the fluidity of the dance fosters the illusion that host and client are immersed in a romantic relationship, which is intensified and finds expression through their dancing:

This push–pull movement demonstrates the woman's thrill of being “abandoned” in one moment before being “embraced” immediately after by her powerful male partner. Joe shared that he felt ecstatic when people burst into applause after his “performances.” Besides showcasing the hosts’ masculinity by physically dominating and controlling clients, dancing also heightens both parties’ sensuality with the men evoking feelings of care and protection; they navigate, manipulate and, finally, overwhelm the emotions of their female clients, proving in the process their power and control over women. Their skills in this area can lead to some clients becoming obsessed with and developing a reliance upon them.

Dance hosts’ ecstatic experiences of performing triumphantly in the dance hall echo those displayed in Shake It Up, a celebrity dance competition show which premiered in China in 2018. As with the professionals on that show, the Chinese dance hosts enjoy being in the spotlight, their impeccable posture – the end result of hours of practise – taking centre stage under the glitter balls. Further, their dexterity, triumphant movements and controlled display of masculine prowess result in an aesthetic transcendence that can elicit obsessive attention from clients. It is as if clients become participants in a spectacular show: the lighting and music in the halls, combined with the skilful hosts, work to enthral and enchant them, evoking powerful, cathartic and affective experiences. Hans Gumbrecht has analysed how the graceful and powerful movements that emanate from the athlete transmit to the audience.Footnote ⁶⁴ Similarly, in the dance halls, clients are mesmerized by the aesthetic experience produced by the hosts’ outstanding dancing skills, and the ensuing moments of transcendence result in the client moving into a state of rapturous appreciation wholly at odds with the general contempt for dance hosting in China. Thus, in this context, dance hosts are able to successfully perform and embody masculinity in the dance hall and to profit from these performed embodiments.

When dance hosts receive this type of professional recognition, it enables them to normalize their profession. Hosts are also able to attract enjoyable attention from their clients and increase their ability to exercise agency in their choice of clients, both as dance partners and as prospective buyers of long-term “experiences of intimacy.” Huang was emphatic about the legitimacy of his profession:

In expressing his disapproval, Huang was actually using the value of dancing skills to defend hosts against accusations of being “ducks” who work in a “feminine” occupation, thus preserving a measure of self-worth. Such narratives are typical and illustrate the hosts’ explicit subversion of unflattering stereotypes of their occupation by closely linking their sense of self-worth and manliness to their dancing skills. Several hosts told me that they feel adored when many women compete for their attention, as if they are celebrities:

Furthermore, an accumulation of appreciation enables dance hosts to dictate the terms of their relationships with clients outside the dance hall:

These quotes indicate the strategic importance that dance hosts attach to perfecting their dancing skills in order for them to embody the traditional masculine ideal – that is, men who have freedom of choiceFootnote ⁶⁸ and power over women – rather than just being a commodity waiting to be bought.

Dance hosts further reported that when they successfully develop an ongoing, romantic relationship with a client, they accentuate their masculinity by displaying attentive, protective, concerned and caring attitudes and behaviour for that client. As a result, their clients come to rely heavily on them:

Another host opened a wine store with his client and they split the profits equally. Both experiences show that when they are engaged in a relationship with a client, hosts no longer feel like a commodity or an accessory; instead, they enjoy equal footing in the relationship. One host noted that his client “always tells me where she is and what she is up to, every day. I bet she doesn't share that much with her husband.”Footnote ⁷⁰ Another revealed that whenever his client fell sick, she would not go to hospital unless he accompanied her and took care of her. He added that he felt contented when she listened to him: “It's no longer about money. I get a lot of satisfaction and joy when I feel like I am an important part of her life.”Footnote ⁷¹ These quotes illustrate that dance hosts enjoy being respected and valued in their relationships with clients and experience greater self-esteem as a result. As clients become more appreciative and dependent on them, dance hosts actually reproduce and reinforce their masculine superiority according to patriarchal Chinese society norms.

The dance hosts’ various means of constructing masculinity is very revealing of the dominant (traditional) gender hierarchy in patriarchal Chinese society. The emphasis is on being a tough man, a responsible caring protector, and on accumulating economic, cultural and social capital with the aim of achieving social mobility and status in order to maintain a degree of freedom of choice and to gain social approval and recognition. In their attempts to actively resist the stigmatization of their profession and in their deployment of different strategies to assert their masculinity, the hosts are trying to successfully negotiate and navigate culturally constructed social values and masculine norms to reproduce and reinforce traditional gender roles. Although they make money and are able to embody and enact desirable masculine traits, the dance hosts often feel a sense of loss. They only enjoy a sense of being “masculine” when they are respected, appreciated and “needed” by their female clients. Thus, dance hosts’ construction of masculinity is fragile and highly dependent upon how much social recognition, respect and approval they manage to garner from others.

In this paper, I argue that dance hosting is a form of “marginalized” masculinity.Footnote ⁷² Owing to the entrenched stigmatization of male prostitution in Chinese society, dance hosting remains a low-status occupation, with shameful, emasculating connotations. The dance halls, and other spaces where the hosts encounter their adoring clients, are the sites where hosts find professional recognition. In theoretical terms, they use their proficiency in dancing and their affective labour to construct masculinity in ways that recall Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity.Footnote ⁷³ To draw on Connell, dance hosts lack power in Chinese society, owing to their stigmatized profession, but they can enjoy a degree of power within the “internal world” of their profession. As the hosts’ constructed masculinity is so site-specific and dependent on the approval of the clients, the host's self-respecting, gendered subjectivity is highly marginalized. In creating and maintaining a distinction between wider society and their “internal world,” dance hosts can retain a sense of self-esteem, maintain superiority over women and reclaim their hegemony despite the stigma they carry in wider society.