Jia Guo, Dongyang Li
This article explores the cinematic representations of gender reversal and masculinity in the 2021 Chinese romantic comedy B for Busy, examining how the film’s depiction of its protagonist, Mr. B, illuminates the affective politics of happiness in the cultural landscape of contemporary China. Though Mr. B, a divorced 50-year-old Shanghai man, falls short of conventional markers of success in China’s dominant socio-gender norms, he is portrayed as caring, gentle, and deeply attuned to a refined taste for life. The film centres on his relationships with three women: Miss Li, a divorced single mother and career woman whom Mr. B is in love with; Gloria, a wealthy married woman who expresses sexual interest in him; and Beibei, Mr. B’s ex-wife, who cheated on him during their marriage. Sophisticated humour arises through Mr. B’s dialogistic interactions with these women. By positioning a middle-aged man, rather than women, as the primary seeker and recipient of happiness through romantic love, the film makes this gender reversal explicit. We suggest that B for Busy offers a popular cultural portrayal of ‘elastic masculinity’, in which masculine traits are softened, reconfigured, and selectively retained in response to shifting gender dynamics in contemporary Chinese society. Taking a critical feminist lens, we argue that although Mr. B challenges certain masculine norms to an extent, he is ultimately rewarded with happiness as he places his hope in socially sanctioned ideals—namely, heteronormative love and a stable, middle-class life in which dominant patriarchal structures remain intact.