Research on the Differences in the Development and Construction of

Gender Identity Concepts Between China and the West: Using

Cross-Dressing as an Example

Jiaxin Li

Department of Directing, Beijing Film Academy, Beijing, China

Keywords: Cross Dressing, Gender Expression, Cultural Norms, Community Influence, Traditional Arts, Gender

Performativity, Queer Theory.

Abstract: Gender awareness and concepts in society are increasing over the years. With the rapid development of the

economy and art in China and the West, cross-dressing has entered the public's field of vision and is

continually attracting attention from the media and censorship authorities. The artistic aesthetics presented by

cross-dressing and the commercial effects associated with it have received widespread attention. However,

the basic gender education and the mental issues of cross-dressers are still lacking in awareness and

discussion. This paper analyzes the development and construction of cross-dressing in different cultural

contexts in China and the West, as well as the influencing factors. This paper concludes that the different

forms of artistic inheritance, traditional gender concepts, and business models have led to different

constructions of cross-dressing in China and the West. Based on this, this paper puts forward the following

suggestions: standardize gender education, return to the aesthetics of cross-dressing art, and create a healthy

industrial chain.

1 INTRODUCTION

Cross-dressing is the act of wearing clothes that do

not traditionally belong to one's gender, and or

applying cosmetic products to change one's gender

characteristics. In different historical periods and

social structures, cross-dressing has different forms of

expression, such as art performance, identity

exploration, self-enjoyment, or entertainment, etc.

Considering both China and the West, cross-dressing

can be traced back to historical traditions. Yet, with

the development of time, it has experienced various

changes; therefore, it has gradually become a kind of

individual identity politics while retaining the pursuit

of aesthetic concepts, and thus extended business

models.

The differentiated development of cross-dressing

and its special forms of expression has attracted

widespread attention to the LGBTQ+ community and

has resulted in a business value chain, but there is still

a lack of constructive deficiencies, such as model

planning and cognitive norms. This article focuses on

Chinese and Western culture and analyzes the

development and construction of cross-dressing in

different cultural contexts, as well as the influencing

factors.

2 DEFINITION AND REGIONAL

DIFFERENCES

2.1 Definition

Cross-dressing refers to changing a person's

appearance and clothing to become an image that

does not conform to their gender. Different people

have different purposes for cross-dressing. Cross-

dressing can extend to many fields, such as religion,

fashion, and film and television. It can be an

individual's expression of self or resistance to society,

or it can be a personal hobby and performance

technique. In essence, the meaning of cross-dressing

is different from "drag queen", "transvestism",

"Otokonoko (disguise-woman)", etc. It is a behavior

in itself and cannot be directly linked to gender

identity. In the context of today's society, the

expression of cross-dressing has undergone a series

of developments and has become specifically

Li, J.

Research on the Differences in the Development and Construction of Gender Identity Concepts Between China and the West: Using Cross-Dressing as an Example.

DOI: 10.5220/0014390200004859

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Politics, Law, and Social Science (ICPLSS 2025), pages 571-576

ISBN: 978-989-758-785-6

571

directional, whereas people are unconsciously using

cross-dressing to describe gender identity or even sex

orientation. The phenomenon of such a social

definition requires looking back on the long history

of cross-dressing.

2.2 The History of Cross-Dressing

In the history of China and Western countries, cross-

dressing can be seen as an artistic narrative with the

purpose of spreading religious culture and

consolidating military regimes, using drama as a

medium. Back to the ancient Greece period, cross-

dressing seems to come about in three ways: for the

sake of a god, despite a god, or, as with Agathon, for

oneself (Elder, 2015). For example, the male hero

Achilles in Greek mythology hid as a woman to avoid

participating in the Trojan War. After being

discovered, he accepted his mission and became a

warrior. This dramatic technique closely integrates

war vocation and heroic identity with masculinity,

which is an expression of social order. Nevertheless,

the female gender that Achilles pretended to be was

thus portrayed as someone who escaped from war and

could not have her rights. This also reflected the low

social status of women in ancient Greek society at that

time. Such a functional narrative has similarities in

Chinese history. The most famous one is the Northern

Dynasty poem "The Ballad of Mulan", which

describes the deeds of the patriotic woman Hua

Mulan who dressed herself up as a man and joined the

army for her father. It promotes cultural virtues by

praising cross-dressing women to consolidate the

masses' "loyalty and filial piety" values. To a certain

extent, it also represents the awakening of women's

consciousness and power. However, whether in

China or Western countries, gender has always been

binary and labeled, and cross-dressing has been

firmly fixed in the male social order. For example,

The Ballad of Mulan traps the protagonist in a context

of a binary structure of men and women. The

prerequisite for Mulan to achieve her goal is that she

has to give up her gender role and identify with the

male role norms (Yang, 2021).

The increase in cross-dressing performers comes

from the phenomenon of gender imbalance. In

Shakespeare's time, although there was no law

explicitly stipulated, women's performance on stage

became taboo in Western countries led by Britain. In

England, female roles in the theatre were played by

boys, and women did not appear on stage until the

restoration of the monarchy in 1660 (Grist, 2001).

Men were trained to please the audience and were

sought after by the upper class at that time. The same

taboo also appeared in ancient China. Women were

prohibited from performing, and women's roles were

played by men, the most famous of which was the

"Dan" role in Peking Opera. It was not until the last

Qing Dynasty that a few female actors appeared in the

opera troupe. The sovereigns stipulated that men and

women could not perform on the same stage.

Eventually, a troupe dominated by women appeared,

and female actors could also cross-dress (Ren, 2024).

At this period, men controlled the discourse, and

cross-dressing was a means of performance for

humans to achieve art and beauty.

It was not until the third wave of feminism in the

Western and the awaking of queer theory that a new

concept of cross-dressing was given. The unique

performance style of drag queens gradually came into

the public eye. It was a performance evolving from

cross-dressing. In Gender Trouble, the famous

scholar Judith Butler supported the theory that gender

is controllable and acquired through the

deconstruction of drag. The book uses drag to show

that the naturalized knowledge of gender operates as

a preemptive and violent circumscription of reality

(Butler, 1990). Cross-dressing, mainly involving drag

queens, has become a kind of body politics, and

society has de-binarized gender and blurred people's

definition of identity symbols.

2.3 Regional Development Differences

In contemporary times, there are significant

differences in the dimension of demonstration, form

of existence, and method of expression of cross-

dressing between China and the West. From the

perspective of film and television entertainment,

Western films tend to revolve around the personal

perspective of cross-dressers, integrating cross-

dressing into the narrative of identity exploration of

the LGBTQ+ community, and telling the individual's

yearning for spiritual freedom through the process of

cross-dressing, such as "The Danish Girl". China's

mainstream culture has maintained its tradition,

integrating cross-dressing into the grand narrative,

rather than focusing on the individual's expression of

self-gender. Chinese films that have entered the

public eye still use cross-dressing as an element of

"disguise", such as "Mulan" and "Liang Zhu", etc.

While this kind of expression can show potential

gender inequality and trigger people's reflection.

In terms of context, the West is relatively precise.

The media has moved away from using the term

"transvestism" which is related to mental illness, and

has made an official classification for "cross-

dressing". For example, based on traditional gender

ICPLSS 2025 - International Conference on Politics, Law, and Social Science

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orientation and non-binary gender characteristics, the

West has classified secondary terms such as "cross-

dressing enthusiasts", "transgender cross-dressers",

"drag queens", and "drag kings". People can find their

preferences when learning gender awareness

knowledge. However, when groups speak for

themselves for identity recognition and push the

diversity of identity and gender into the public's

vision, they ignore the potential identity crisis. When

an identity is defined, there will be ethnic divisions

and comparisons between individuals. When people

mention cross-dressing, they focus on its "trans

gender" characteristics and infinitely magnify the

flow between identities. Overly standardized

divisions and radical forms of expression are

controversial in terms of social acceptance, which is

bound to cause psychological problems such as

anxiety, depression, and contradictions in the identity

recognition of transgender and cross-dressing

enthusiasts (Valentine & Shipherd, 2018).

China still has an ambiguous approach to cross-

dressing, semantically single, even narrow, and the

most common word in the media is "Otokonoko",

which directly means the disguised woman, which

has a certain gender discrimination meaning. The

official language does not systematically deconstruct

cross-dressing, but rather uses one word to describe a

huge system.

On the other hand, the forms of cross-dressing on

social media platforms also show differences.

Western mainstream media regard cross-dressing as

an individual's exploration and voice of self, and

provide a considerable number of performance

venues to support more cross-dressing behaviors.

Although China's mainstream media pays attention to

the continuation of culture and focuses on promoting

cross-dressing performing artists headed by Li

Yugang, the influence of traditional culture such as

cross-dressing in today's media communication has

eventually declined; instead, "Otokonoko", which is

classified as a subculture, has become a new trend. In

reality, groups related to cross-dressing choose to

seek like-minded people on the Internet, especially

live broadcast, game, and animation platforms, such

as TikTok, Bilibili, etc. People choose to express their

gender identity in a highly instant way, has a large

network viewership, and has fast updates and

iterations.

It is worth mentioning that although there are

regional differences in cross-dressing, whether in

China, Western countries, or even globally, women

cross-dressing as men is naturally more accepted than

men cross-dressing as women. When people see

cross-dressing as an out-there behavior, it often refers

to men dressing up as women.

3 FACTORS INFLUENCING

CROSS-DRESSING

DIFFERENCES

3.1 Traditional Art

The inheritance and cohesion of art are important

cornerstones for the development of cross-dressing

today. The differences in customs and habits bring

about differences in artistic styles between China and

the West. Cross-dressing in China originated from the

long-standing art of fǎn chuàn (reverse role) in opera.

As one of China's traditional folk customs, opera is a

cultural symbol of China. The male Dan role in

Peking Opera is a popular profession of cross-

dressing. Although it is necessary to admit that there

is a separation between the actor and the role in every

art performance, the job of male Dan has been

retained until now, and it requires extremely high

artistic attainments and qualities of the performer.

Opera art can reflect the national characteristics and

historical value of China, and is the main treasure of

China's publicity and protection. However, the nature

of cross-dressing in opera art remains in the behavior

of "pretending" and "playing", rather than exploring

the fluidness of gender, which weakens the voice of

postmodern cross-dressing enthusiasts in the

mainstream media.

Nonetheless, there is no professional tradition of

cross-dressing in Western countries. Its artistry comes

from theatrical elements. Artists use breaking gender,

tradition, and marginalization as the matrix of their

creation, forming a symbol of rebellion and self-

awareness, which is also a key propaganda concept of

mainstream media in later generations. For example,

camp culture is a sensibility of combining artistic

criticism with cross-dressing. This form of expression

is a double-edged sword, which focuses too much on

identity politics and boldly pursues freedom and

rebellion, symbolizing genders, thus weakening the

pure artistic aesthetic expression (Zhang, 2023).

3.2 Gender Concepts and Social

Pressure

The essence of cross-dressing is to switch between

different genders. Gender concepts in different

regions affect the expression form of cross-dressing.

Chinese cross-dressing is more restrained, and

Research on the Differences in the Development and Construction of Gender Identity Concepts Between China and the West: Using

Cross-Dressing as an Example

573

Western cross-dressers are more accustomed to

showing themselves.

Chinese society is deeply influenced by

Confucian culture, and it is based on a gender binary.

Confucian culture assumes that the characteristics of

men and women are distinct and innate, and people's

self-value and contributions are specified by their

innate gender. Men representing Yang have greater

social responsibilities, and women representing Yin

have greater family responsibilities; therefore provide

social stability. Any deviation from this assumption

is seen as deviant, and therefore wrong, bad, or at

least undesirable. A woman who behaves actively

like men is seen as violating the Yin role and therefore

behaving inappropriately (Rosenlee, 2023). Thus, the

gender conversion of men and women represented by

cross-dressing is considered unethical, which disrupts

the balance created by men and women. Moreover, in

China, one's gender identity and orientation are

related to family. The Classic of Filial Piety states that

"the body and hair are inherited from parents,"

comparing maintaining one's physical characteristics

to being filial to parents. Therefore, individuals face

social and family pressures when choosing to become

the opposite gender.

The West has carried out many feminist

movements based on gender performativity. Cross-

dressing is based on the acquired constructions of

gender rather than biological determination, as

Beauvoir wrote in The Second Sex: "One is not born,

but rather becomes, a woman" (Beauvoir, 1949).

Later, the queer movement provides a space for cross-

dressers to have "gender fluidity", making society

more accepting of gender transitions and reducing a

certain level of social pressure on individuals when

they undergo gender transitions. In Western societies,

people face fewer challenges in choosing their

gender.

3.3 Business Model

The commercial effects of cross-dressing in China

and the West are fundamentally different. The West

pays more attention to the industrialization of cross-

dressing, and it is distributed in every branch of the

entertainment industry. In China, the booming

Internet celebrity economy has brought cross-

dressing into the Internet viewership-driven age.

The queer culture in the West has driven

commercial development. As a branch of it, cross-

dressing is not only a way of expression in theater

performances, but also compounding into various

entertainment investments, distributed in film and

television, fashion, variety shows, pop music, and

cosmetic areas. For example: the famous reality show

RuPaul's Drag Race, pop singers David Bowie and

Lady Gaga's performances with cross-dressing

elements, the queer genre of the film festival, and the

fashion Met-gala. The consumers have various

channels to receive information about cross-dressing,

and the business model is diversified. Under a similar

decentralized business model, although cross-

dressing has not gained a unique topic in the West, it

has penetrated all aspects of people's lives.

Under China's censorship system, cross-dressing

relies on network platforms as a dissemination path.

The public is influenced by imported culture. The

most widely spread "Otokonoko" is the borrowed

word from the Japanese ACG industry's special term

"disguise woman", which mainly comes from anime

and games. The emergence of Otokonoko is closely

related to Japanese teenagers' passion for cosplay and

Kabuki culture. This art form was introduced to China

through the Internet in the 21st century under the

catalysis of the popularity of Japanese entertainment.

China lacks gender awareness education and does not

have a clear classification of queer themes, making

Otokonoko culture a subculture element that quickly

penetrates the youth pop community and develops

marginalized financial benefits. For example, cross-

dressing vloggers headed by "DuoYuMaoMaoJie"

became popular on Chinese TikTok, gaining as many

as 30 million fans and bringing in live streaming

profits. Vloggers on live streaming platforms such as

TikTok and Bilibili rely on video viewing numbers,

fan population, and the ability to sell goods to

implement rewards. After the success of

"DuoYuMaoMaoJie", numerous cross-dressing

vloggers have created videos attempting to make a

profit. Whether it is to arouse the gender

enlightenment of the Chinese LGBTQ+ community

or to gain attention, the cross-dressing behavior of

vloggers satisfies the curiosity and even imitation

psychology of most viewers. When the vloggers

master the key to viewership of cyberspace, after the

accumulation of time, the algorithm of short videos

will increase the intensity of pushing the cross-

dressing culture into the public. More viewers will

pay attention to it on the Internet, and even extend to

peripheral products, fan creations, etc., prompting

people to learn and imitate transvestites on social

platforms, forming a positive feedback loop. The

characteristic of this business model is that attention

and economy accumulate rapidly, but most vloggers

who do not know enough about cross-dressing are

attracted to take shortcuts to success on the Internet;

it is possible to create a negative image of the cross-

dressing community (Zhao, 2022). When the

ICPLSS 2025 - International Conference on Politics, Law, and Social Science

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audience is familiar with cross-dressing videos and

the trend of cross-dressing fades away, the further

development direction of cross-dressing is

questionable. How to find new platforms or ways to

continue to show the nature of cross-dressing faces

challenges.

4 EXPRESSION AND IDENTITY

CONSTRUCTION PATH

4.1 Education and Norms

From a global perspective, social education is the

main influencing factor in the development of human

behavior. Every country should carry out basic

gender education in schools so that the new

generation of young people will no longer be exposed

to gender awareness through the Internet. First of all,

people need to realize the diversity of gender

temperament. For example, the gender stereotypes in

historical tradition do not apply to today's society.

Masculinity can be diverse, and female characteristics

are not inferior to males. The word "Otokonoko" with

feminine connotations should not be a derogatory or

stigmatizing word. Secondly, non-traditional and

binary gender and identity knowledge should be

popularized. This popularization method should

avoid educational tendencies, but simply let young

people have a certain degree of cognition about the

transformation of gender identity while eliminating

negative social pressure.

When quality education is popularized and

people's gender awareness rises, individuals should

deal with the problem of social acceptance. The

country should systematically open psychological

counseling for transgender and cross-dressing

enthusiasts, such as university psychological

counseling rooms, and community help groups. A

complete mental health system requires professional

settings to increase practitioners, regular surveys and

visits, and settings to protect the privacy of

consultants to avoid turning cross-dressing into a

mental illness.

4.2 Internet Censorship

In the era of online communication, the commercial

space of the entertainment industry needs in-depth

planning. Entertainment should set up categories for

cross-dressing themes, such as a rating and grading

system. Also, countries provide opportunities for

cross-dressing individuals to perform in theaters

within the permitted scope, allow more

representatives to step out from behind the scenes to

the front of the stage, and make the vague image of

cross-dressing more concrete and vivid, so people

will not feel unfamiliar or curious about gender

identity. At the same time, the media should avoid

using "cross-dressing" as an element to increase the

exposure of topics, but introduce it to public

platforms from a neutral perspective. Internet

platforms should have a review system to improve the

quality and novelty of cross-dressing videos and

reduce content that is discriminatory or vilifying a

certain gender.

5 CONCLUSION

In summary, through the analysis of regional

differences in cross-dressing, it can be concluded that

there are differences in semantics and artistic

expression between contemporary China and the

West. The development of cross-dressing is tied to

industrialization, commercialization, and network

viewership, but there is a lack of gender education

and mental health norms in both China and the West.

For the trend of cross-dressing to develop healthily

and positively in the future, it is essential to

popularize gender education, establish mental health

organizations, and government development and

planning of commercial space.

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