This weekend, my mother and I went to the cinema to watch a Chinese computer animation fantasy film White Snake II: The Tribulation of the Green Snake. The plot is adopted from Legend of the White Snake in ancient China that tells the tragic love story between a monk Xu Xian and “White Lady”, who is actually a snake. While White Snake I focuses on the two characters above, White Snake II elaborates on the legend itself and features the imagined adventure of Verta, the green snake. “White Lady” (named Blanca in the film) and Verta are such best friends that they call each other sisters. In the trailer and throughout the film, Verta is portrayed as a girl that persists in saving her sister no matter what happens. I smelled a sense of queerbaiting just as in Frozen. This is always something I love and hate at the same time, and eventually I decided to give it a try.

However, I did not discover much of queerbaiting when I watch the film, probably because there is not much actual interaction between Verta and Blanca. Instead, I identify non-hegemonic masculinity as an important theme of the movie, whether intentionally or not, and I would like to analyze how it is emphasized through different characters.

After Verta was defeated by her enemy, she fell into Asura Town, a place that gathers people with strong obsessions in their mind and died for different reasons in different centuries. Verta’s obsession is to save her sister Blanca from the enemy. The first person that Verta encounters in Asura Town is a girl called Sun. Waking up on a chaotic street, Verta has no idea of how these modern architects and machines work, as she used to live in 1000 years ago. It is Sun who saves Verta in the first place and finds her a safe space to live. What’s more, Sun trains Verta all the necessary techniques to live in this dangerous town, including driving, shooting, and stabbing someone using a knife. Through putting these traditional masculine activities onto females, the movie demonstrates female masculinity. I am surprised to be able to see a large number of actions of female characters on the screen, especially when they combat several seemingly strong male characters. Also, I could feel something unique in this type of female masculinity – rather than fighting against each other and crowning the survivor as in the men’s world, women tend to collaborate and deal with their co-enemy.

Unfortunately, Sun is killed in a battle, leaving Verta to go along the journey by herself. The next companion she met is Sima, the head of a gang. The first time he appears is with two flirtatious ladies by his side in a luxurious car. In my opinion, he is the representation of hegemonic masculinity in the film. Later, he uses his power to make Verta a member of the gang, and tries to build a romantic relationship with her. What makes me most uncomfortable are the small actions where Sima takes advantage of Verta – getting closer to Verta when she is in control of a car, holding her hands without prior notice, etc. These are all activities that men do in real life, and they are fully justified in all kinds of media representations for that those men receive good rewards at the end. But for Sima, this is not the case. He is killed at the end, as the popular discourse goes that “Bad people gets bad.” When Verta decides to save the life of a masked man at a key moment, Sima abandons Verta decisively and calls both of them “burdens.” He even shuts the gate to avoid them running away from danger. Here, hegemonic masculinity on Sima is portrayed as being muscular, powerful, never short of women around, and selfish.

The film utilizes the rest of its length to depict the interaction between Verta and the masked men. With a small and slim figure, this man represents a kind of subordinate masculinity. Verta once describes him as “with a kind heart but weakly powerful.” That’s true. Every time the masked man tries to save someone, he almost also kills himself. This is why Sima initially deems him as a burden. He is expelled from hegemonic masculinity by Sima. Verta might also leave him alone if he hadn’t saved her life once. Apart from his weak power, the masked man’s non-hegemonic masculinity is also demonstrated through his care for Verta. The masked man accepts the fact that his physical power and strength is weaker than Verta, so he takes on the role of caring for her every time she is defeated in a battle. In contrast to the violent and self-centered hegemonic masculinity of Sima, the masked man’s subordinate masculinity is caring and autistic.

In the end of the movie, only Verta and the masked man survive at last and have the chance to escape the dangerous town. In my point of view, this is a praise for non-hegemonic masculinity. However, some viewers online don’t think the movie is feminist enough because the masked man eventually sacrifices himself in order to push Verta outside the boundary of the town. They argue that this still conveys the idea that women are ultimately saved by men. But for me, this part does not really matter because the masked man turned out to be the nextlife of Blanca, Verta’s sister. And the masked man retrieves the memory from his last life at that moment. In other words, it is Blanca’s will to save Verta’s life – a woman saving another woman. Overall, I am glad to see a Chinese animation movie features women characters most of the time and deliver positive messages like “girls living on their own” and “girls helping girls.” After all, male supremacy is never hard to find in media representation.