Based on multi-sited ethnography conducted primarily in Shenzhen and Hefei between 2017 and 2019, this book introduces the concept of ‘burnout market feminism’ to explore the lives of elite urban businesswomen in the Internet Age. Burnout market feminism is a critical theoretical combination of Chinese feminist Li Xiaojiang’s market feminism and Korean-German cultural theorist Han Byung-Chul’s Burnout Society. While Li’s market feminism recognises the rise of gendered subjectivities and solidarity fostered by the market ‒ paralleling the pursuit of freedom and liberty in post-socialist contexts ‒ Han warns that digital infrastructure has intensified neoliberal capitalism, driving individuals towards voluntary self-exploitation and burnout. To unravel the puzzle of how women in China have thrived in business despite state crackdowns on feminism, it is essential to examine the role of the market in post-socialist China and the evolving interplay between illiberal politics and a neoliberal economy. Empirically, the book delves into the multiplicity and nuance of businesswomen’s lived experiences and their negotiations with patriarchy across different socio-cultural contexts, particularly their confrontations with hetero-patriarchal intimacy norms and male-dominated guanxi business practices. Despite following diverse paths, these women share a common pursuit of achievement and growth ‒ a pursuit that paradoxically narrows their market feminist efforts and leads to burnout, as these negotiations are often reduced to contingent bargains within a neoliberal framework. The book also extends the discussion of burnout beyond the neoliberal framework, incorporating feminist critiques of women’s burnout under patriarchy and post-colonial critiques of burnout within a rhetorically socialist authoritarian state. The term ‘Internet Age’ highlights how individual and business success in a supposedly digital-driven economy becomes subsumed into the nationalistic narrative of the ‘China Dream’.

Ling Tang 唐凌 (they/she) is a lecturer in cultural studies at the University of Melbourne. They research and create progressive practices in the market in post-socialist China. As an activist-artist-academic, they promote feminism, queerness, and inclusive Chineseness through research, teaching, art-making, and social engagement. They are committed to public humanities and innovative methodologies. Tang’s recent project is a letter book collaboration with Chinese feminist Li Xiaojiang, titled 华人家园 Homeland for Chinese (2024, Global Century Press), which is Li’s memoir in the form of letters addressed to Tang. Tang’s music is available on various platforms under the name Lyn Dawn or 唐凌.