Situated in China's platform-based fiction economy, this article examines how femininity is (re)produced through the representations of Omegas in 12 bestselling original Chinese A/B/O novels. This genre represents an influential women-oriented online fiction type in East Asia. Drawing on a 2.5-million-word corpus, we analysed 3,698 concordance lines (188,620 words) containing 'Omega' and 'wife' (laopo) with feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA), integrated with polyphony and topoi. The analysis encompassed four perspectives (Omegas, Alphas, other characters, and narrators) and eight recurrent topoi, such as anxiety, fragility, and maternal value. The findings reveal sexist Omega portrayals that emphasised physiologically determined fragility and gender-based discrimination. Omegas framed themselves as helpless victims and biologically conditioned mothers; Alphas objectified them as decorative properties; other characters normalised Omega dependency and sexualised them; narrators pathologised normal bodily processes and reduced Omegas' social value to reproductive potential. A synthesis clarifies three mechanisms sustaining these patterns within 'platformed patriarchy': the convergence of platform data, state governance over women and the population, and China-specific gender ideologies. This study demonstrates how Chinese Omegaverses reinforce traditional femininity through discourse patterns and state-platform convergence. (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), ABO(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic); (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)12(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)Omega(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic) ((sic)) (sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)250(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic) (FCDA), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic) (polyphony) (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic) (topoi), (sic)(sic) 'Omega'(sic) '(sic)(sic)' (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)3698(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic) ((sic)188,620(sic)) (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)Omega, Alpha, (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)Omega(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), Omega(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic); Alpha(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic); (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic); (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic) '(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)' (sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic):(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)ABO(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), (sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic)(sic).
Thailand, a 'crypto-colony' that has officially never been colonised but has been heavily dependent on Western powers, boasts a so-called 'classical music tradition' that has endured periods of neglect and even prohibition before being revived and officially embraced as part of national culture. Education has played a key role in broader civilising movements and, since the 1970s, in the revival of Thai classical music. Through fieldwork and interviews conducted in schools across central Thailand, I examine how Thai classical music is taught and learned in institutionalised educational settings. From making documentation to practising the music, appropriate manners and behaviours are embedded into both teachers' and students' daily lives. Education thus functions not only as a means of transmitting traditional musical knowledge and skills, but also as a tool for inculcating and (re-)constructing notions of Thai civilisation, culture, and tradition, within the habitus of institutionalised education in modern Thai society. Using Thai classical music education as a case study, I argue that in crypto-colonial contexts, the (re-)invention of continuous cultural traditions functions not only as a strategy for cultural preservation, but also as a means of asserting civility and modernity independent of Western influence, thereby claiming equivalent status with colonial counterparts.
This article examines two state-sanctioned adaptations of the Peking opera Silang Tanmu ((sic)(sic)(sic)(sic), Fourth Son visits His Mother) in Taiwan to illuminate the interaction of political ideology, grassroots pressure, and cultural governance under Kuomintang (KMT, Nationalist) rule. After retreating to Taiwan in 1949, the KMT promoted Peking opera as an instrument of cultural orthodoxy and a means of politically mobilising waishengren (mainlander) soldiers and civilians. However, Silang Tanmu became politically contentious when some critics argued that its narrative did not embody anti-communist values. This coincided with the harshest phase of martial-law authoritarianism and led to the first official adaptation in the 1950s. Produced under intense political repression, this version left no meaningful space for artistic agency and was ultimately rejected by performers and audiences. By the 1970s, however, Taiwan's gradual political opening provided space for cultural workers and audiences to exercise greater agency in shaping the opera's form and messaging, resulting in a second, more accepted adaptation that preserved the original structure while modestly aligning itself with state ideology. The contested revisions of Silang Tanmu thus reveal both the limits of top-down cultural control and the historically contingent negotiations among state, society, and cultural producers in Taiwan.
