Golden Marriage: An Exemplary Marriage and a Harmonious Society

Following discussion of the (non-)profit-driven subject and the implications of his acts with regard to the self, family, and community in Part I, Part II turns to the investigation of the socialist spirit in sexual terms and the control and the negotiations of the representations of sexual subjects. While Chapter 1 discusses the ideal selfless acts of ideal Party officials as presented in state-sanctioned Chinese media, this chapter will provide us an angle from which to glimpse the qualities of state-approved ideal citizens in their domestic setting, with a focus on their sexual virtue. The disintegration of the sublime figure notwithstanding, the state remains active in curbing overindulgence in sexual desire by creating faithful sexual subjects in the service of establishing a harmonious society and eliminating social instability in the familial structure. Even though contemporary on-screen sexual subjects and the off-screen general public appear to have more freedom than previously to embrace their personal sexual pleasure per se, state-sponsored productions attempt to shape people’s off-screen sexual subjectivity by creating an on-screen exemplary sexual subject and encouraging the institutionalization of sexuality in the form of marriage.