Abstract

This chapter will provide an overview of language and gender research in the Chinese context prior to the 1980s to the most recent work in the 2010s, covering a wide range of linguistic domains, including script, lexicon, phonology and discourse. Over the decades, the research focus has gradually shifted from gender-based linguistic differences to the linguistic performance of gender identities. Additionally, discourse studies have revealed a change in the ideals of womanhood in the first two decades of the new millennium – from being a good wife and a loving mother to that of a young girl who embodies infantilized cuteness.