I am a MAN~~! Stylised performances of  sajiao among Chinese gay influencers on Douyin

Abstract

This article examines how Chinese gay male influencers on Douyin recontextualise sajiao — a hyper-feminine speech style associated with cuteness, emotional expressiveness, and relational submission (

) — to construct a stylised queer persona within a conservative socio-political environment. Drawing on a dataset of 203 videos, the analysis identifies a multimodal repertoire of sajiao performances, including phonetic, lexical, embodied, and platform-specific visual features. While sajiao is conventionally linked to heterosexual femininity, these performers strategically appropriate and exaggerate its indexical features while distancing themselves from its normative gender associations. The result is a recognisable yet queered figure: a stylistically, relationally, and affectively submissive gay male persona that leverages culturally familiar scripts to navigate visibility without overt politicisation. This paper argues that such performances offer a powerful example of how stylised language can function as both compliance and subversion, highlighting the complex interplay between sexuality, digital performance, and vernacular agency in non-Western digital spaces.