Some experts say that the "little fresh meat" phenomenon represents a positive step for the empowerment of women. (Photo: GT/Li Hao)
Evolution of beefcake
Women's taste in men has been evolving in the past decades. In the 1980s, actor Zhu Shimao, represented the most popular look, with stern, tough face lines, bushy eyebrows, big eyes, and a patriotic temperament, according to a 2014 iRead Weekly article. Japanese actor Ken Takakura's popularity in China in the 1980s greatly influenced women's aesthetic standards. He represented cool men with chiseled features wearing windbreakers. Since the 2000s -- "flower guys," fragile, beautiful and nonthreatening -- have become the new favorite.
"Of course women have the rights to 'consume' men," said Zhong. "Although China is by nature a male dominated society, the main consumers of lifestyle media are still women. So the consumption of male [appearance] is something that would just naturally fall into place."
Li Yinhe, an eminent sociologist, told the Beijing News that the little fresh meat phenomenon is a good sign for the empowerment of women. "In the past, women were an object of appreciation, and now it's the men's turn. This is a big improvement."
Lü Pin, a feminist and media worker, agreed. "I think the phrase is a symbol for the possibility of diversification. In the past the mainstream was old men [dating] young women, but now matches of people of different ages are being accepted."
Blowback
Some men are not happy with the term. A 27-year-old website programmer surnamed Lin told Metropolitan that he finds the word "demeaning" and would never allow anybody to call him a piece of little fresh meat. "It reminds me of the meat in a market waiting to be selected by customers. It's terrible and makes people feel strange," said Lin.
"Many men would take it as a compliment. But women who use this term don't even try to hide the fact that they just want the men's bodies, and their desires of consumption," he said. Lin said it's interesting that in his circle, women rarely use the word "little fresh meat" in front of the young men they like so much.
Chinese Swimmer Ning Zetao, 22, said that he wouldn't want to be called a piece of little fresh meat, the Guangzhou Daily reported. "I don't like this nametag," he said. Ning's mother also said that she is quite traditional, and she felt angry about how the media would use phrases such as "little fresh meat" or "national husband" to describe her son, eastday.com reported.
The use and prevalence of meme words like "little fresh meat", "gaofushuai" (tall, rich and handsome men), "nuannan" (warm guys, men with mild tempers), "jingji shiyong" (economically practical men) and others are seen by experts as men being "categorized" on a scale of their values by women.
In an article published in the Oriental Outlook magazine, Mitose Noriko, author and columnist with the Japanese-language magazine People's China, said, "It seems like Chinese society has entered a stage where women are superior to men. "
"How Chinese women see men is becoming more diversified and practical too," he wrote.
The new middle-class women
"The significance of this cultural phenomenon is more important in a social and economical sense than in an aesthetic way," said Wu Qiang, associate professor in politics working at the School of Social Science at Tsinghua University. "[The focus of attention is] changing from dashu to little fresh meat, indicating a change of the subject of discourse. People talking about little fresh meat are usually women between 30 and 45 years old."
"They have time to engage in social interaction on the Internet, and money to spend," said Wu. "The number of those women from the middle class is growing and they are having a bigger voice in society, leading to new words emerging. The group is large enough for the society to recognize their existence and get interested in what they think of men, society and other subjects."
Wu stressed that the "little fresh meat" trend may seem to be based on age, but actually, it revealed something about class. "Modern Chinese society shows features of a mature industrial society. Power and money are going to the older generations, along with the increasing social inequality and social stratification, while the young are becoming comparatively poorer."
Since little fresh meat refers to young working people, who have just graduated from college and have not developed careers, Wu said, older women dating younger men is not an issue of changing aesthetic standards, but people with money commodifying people without money - an indication of a class gap.
