. 
.The one on the right is Feng Tang (he wears a bracelet).
The word “greasy man” was being lightly used on Weibo for a while until a writer, Feng Tang, wrote an article, “How to avoid being a middle-aged greasy lewd man”, in Oct, 2017. It made the term “greasy man” viral and then everyone started using it.
Mr. Feng, in some way, is a bit like Mr. Bai in the movie we described yesterday. Single, well-to-do, cultured, living a privileged life, so he must be quite relaxed and open-minded. He started as a doctor from China’s top medical school, segued into business degree and and then McKinsey & Company alumni. His talent in literature took over and he became a very popular writer. His novels are mostly focusing on _the dynamics of libido and the anima image, employing them as guiding tools in his exploration of the human experience_. It’s a fancy way to say “stories about horny men wondering about sex”.
In his 2017 article (How to avoid being a middle-aged greasy lewd man), Mr. Feng listed ten things NOT to do:
Don’t become a fat person;
Don’t stop studying;
Don’t become a couch potato;
Don’t talk about sex in public;
Don’t reminisce about the past;
Don’t teach the younger generation;
Don’t cause trouble for others;
Don’t stop shopping;
Don’t stay dirty;
Don’t despise human habits that have nothing to do with age.
Numbers 1, 2, 3, 9 are about being middle-aged and slacking off both physically and mentally. Already many people were complaining that Chinese women look gorgeous and the men next to them do not look the part at all.
Numbers 4, 5, 6 are about some Chinese men being proud of being rude, misogynous and mansplainer.
Number 7 refers to Japanese culture and asks Chinese men to learn from the Japanese. Today, this will get him “slaughtered” by internet pinkies.
Number 8 is his inner McKinsey (consumerism) talking.
Number 10 is about the stereotypical Chinese man who loves culture by wearing bracelet/necklace and carry thermos cup. Like this:
. .
The one on the right is Feng Tang (he wears a bracelet).
Feng Tang thinks men should not give up these habits: the bracelet/necklace is a symbol of religion, the Thermos cup is usually herbal tea or goji drink that they drink everywhere and all the time.
The concept got huge attraction and Mr Feng’s Weibo post got many comments. The most popular comment says: “This article is a bit greasy. “
In 2018, Mr. Feng was even interviewed by BBC on this topic. He admitted that he wrote it to remind himself to not be greasy. He said, “Of course I have the possibility of being greasy, because I face all kinds of temptations every day, and after all, it’s not easy to be clean - then one might want to think that it might have something to do with age in the first place.”
What does it mean? It means that, like Mr. Bai, women are too attracted to Mr. Feng. To men, being greasy is often something to brag about. In 2017, there is a ten famous middle aged greasy men list. Xu Zheng, the actor that played Mr. Bai is number 8 on the list.
However, to women, especially young women, greasy men is a negative concept. It normally means that the man is very banal, unattractive and annoying.
In 2020, in a stand up comedy competition show, a woman comedian named Yang Li was telling stories of men that she could not understand. She asked: why men can be so (over-)confident when they are so ordinary?
She said, once she broke up with her boyfriend, she went to talk with a male friend. Instead of taking her side as her girlfriends normally do, the man answered: “There is nothing to do. I always thought that he is a bit excellent, and you are no match to him. I am only telling you this because I am treating you as a friend.”
Yang responded: “Please don’t treat me as a friend. Can you just treat me as a human being? A human with feelings.”
She commented: “I wonder why you do this? Then I understood , it is because you are so confident. We girls know that our words don’t matter. We say things to make our friends happy. But you boys are different. You are the center of the world. Every word you say is of ultimate importance, and shed light on the direction of the world. So you asked yourself: is it possible this person came just to vent? No, not possible. She must want to learn something from me.”
It seemed a very harmless joke, but many women related to her story. The word “Ordinary but confident man” went viral. Many women told the stories of their experience. Quite often, it is about men very confident of their attractiveness. See also “Average-yet-confident”: A comedian coined a Chinese equivalent to “mansplaining”
Here is an example from a Wechat screenshot. (rough translation)
Girl, thank you for the apple
Too bad that I have a wife already. Otherwise, I could have fallen for you.
If you don't mind, I can only find two hours to be with you for the foreign holidays that you young people like.
This ....
Maybe there is some misunderstanding.
I gave apples to everyone.
Girl, you don't need to pretend, I can read your eyes.
(screenshot)
The attitude of the man is considered as typical “Ordinary but overly confident”. We don’t know his background or if he is indeed ordinary. That does not matter. His unquestionable certainty of his sexual appeal and his disregard of the answer of the girl are what makes him a “Ordinary but confident man”.
In a survey on Douban, women named four traits as hallmark of “Ordinary but confident man”: mansplaining, objectifying of women, hinting at sex, blindly confident . And the emphasis is predominately on the last two.
But men are very angry for being labeled as such. They claim it is discrimination.
Then in 2021 Intel hired Yang Li for its laptop advertisement,.In it, Yang joked: “Intel has a taste for laptops that is higher than my taste for men.” This sparked a boycott by male customers. You can read more in the SCMP report Intel pulls Chinese ad featuring comedian Yang Li after it angered men – then women hit back .
Young Chinese men did not stop there. Right now they are planning to release a game Guide to the ordinary but confident Chinese men.
The game Chinese description starts with: _Ordinary, confident, they are never bad words. In this game, you’ll play as a fresh graduate, just entering society, experiencing all sorts of stereotypical, outrageous, hilarious and even shameless “Chinese Field Feminist”. You’ll need to survive under stress, like me, and like most graduates. You’ll encounter difficulties in life and at work, you can say no to overwork or give in to 996. You will even encounter the biggest, worst, most desperate event of all time…. _
996 is an internet slang refers to typical work time for IT developers: 9am to 9pm, six days a week.
(It’s interesting to compare to the Steam provided English translation : Ordinary, confident, never a bad word In this game, you will be a college students just graduated into the society, have all sorts of typical, tall, funny, and even without limit “of the Chinese rural women’s rights” events. There are 8 endings waiting to be unlocked.)
The Chinese description continues: In a completely fictitious modern society, a feminism known as “Chinese Field Feminism” is prevalent. It claims to promote equality between men and women, but actualy places the primary responsibility on men to maximise women’s interests under the pretext of feminism. It is a “unilateral, self-serving” feminism that runs counter to the goal of achieving equality between men and women.
You will also encounter affairs, something that every “Guo Nan” may encounter in his life. You can choose to be an “angry old man” or a “licking puppy” who has lost his dignity. As a member of the Chinese Anti-puppy Licking Alliance, I don’t recommend you to be a puppy licker, but it’s all your freedom.
Guo Nan is a term that some radical feminists use to refer to Chinese men. The two characters has the same prounuciation as Chinese men, but an insect character is added to the left of them, making them bugs.
Originally, the game was scheduled to be released on Jan 1st, but it has been postponed to the end of this month.
I actually learned about it from an American-Chinese reporter on twitter. He called this game “A Chinese incel game”.
For many reasons, which we will explore in later stories, young men and women are at war with each other. Perhaps that is why Shao Yihui wants to be so very gentle with men in her “feminist” movie.
Recently, NYT has an article on the difficulty feminism is facing in South Korea: The New Political Cry in South Korea: ‘Out With Man Haters’. There is some cultural similarity. But in addition to this challenge, Chinese society is also facing the legacy of one-child policy that have resulted in 30 million disappeared women (aborted, killed at birth or simply abandoned).
We sure will have more stories on this topic.