Introduction: This study employs Butler’s concept of identity to unpack how non-elite Chinese university academic women negotiate gender identities under the influence of the wider social discourses around gender in their institutional context.Methods: The study includes two empirical investigations of (i) semi-structured interviews and (ii) photovoice interviews with six women academics from six different non-elite Chinese universities.Results and Discussion: We found that most interviewees tended to value their teacher identity and meanwhile downplay their researcher identity in the professional field; while in the private field, they paid more attention to their mother identity at the cost of downplaying their career development. The study also reveals that, in the process of gender negotiation, the interviewees commonly adopted two strategies: (i) creating space and time for identity performance, and (ii) persuading with selves to accept multiple identities. This article contributes to the understanding of Chinese academic women in non-elite public universities from a Butlerian perspective.

Through the use of photovoice interviews as a research method and drawing on Butler's performativity theory, this article investigates the performative constitution of the subjectivities of three academic women in Chinese non-elite universities by unpacking the multiple meanings of their aesthetic experiences. The study reveals that these women emphasized their bodily performance in the workplace, paying particular attention to their physical appearance, including dressing and using make-up, to explicitly perform their femininity. In this study, academic women’s gendered subjectivities are produced by repetitive performative feminine bodies under the control of wider regulatory forces in terms of gender norms and institutional discourses. Our findings suggest that gender norms of beauty in the Chinese context have a profound impact on the three Chinese academic women’s choice of dress and appearance management. We conclude that (i) femininity matters during the process of academic women’s gendered subjectivity construction in the Chinese academic context; and ii) multiple and sometimes contradictory wider regulatory forces within and beyond the academia shape Chinese academic women’s bodily performance and, therefore, produce academic women’s gendered subjectivities.

Drawing on Goffman's frame theory, this study examines the attitudes of nine Chinese university teacher translators in translating rainbow works, ranging from hesitancy to resistance. The primary objective is to uncover the frames of stigmatization inherent in their negative attitudes toward rainbow works translation. The research clarifies the identities of perpetrators and victims in these frames leading to stigmatization. Findings indicate that various stigmatization events in rainbow works translation share a common feature-an unfavorable depiction of rainbow culture and related elements, encompassing the rainbow community, works, and translators. Perpetrators and victims vary across events, demonstrating diversity. The research interprets stigmatization in rainbow works translation at individual, institutional, and sociocultural levels. Providing a unique Chinese perspective, the study contributes to international understanding of stigmatization in a heteronormative society. It challenges traditional Chinese norms, advocates reevaluating identity labels for the rainbow community, and underscores the importance of addressing translators' circumstances in translating rainbow works within specific societal contexts.