Lives at the center of the periphery, lives at the periphery of the center- Chinese American masculinities and bargaining with hegemony

A decade ago, the "new sociology of masculinity" (NSM) emerged as an exciti ng new paradigm for understanding gender emphasizing the study of "hegemoni c power relations" among men and women. However subsequent research has not fully redeemed the promise of the NSM, failing to seriously engage the the oretical implications of studying hegemony. This article addresses the lacu nae by presenting a theoretically informed analysis of life history intervi ews with Chinese American men. Its chief empirical question is how Chinese American men "achieve" masculinity in the face of negative stereotypes. Thi s is accomplished, it is found, through four possible gender strategies: co mpensation, deflection, denial, or repudiation. The author then fashions a theoretical account of these strategies to show how they can reproduce the social order by striking a hegemonic bargain, which occurs when a Chinese A merican man's gender strategy involves consciously trading on-or unconsciou sly faking advantage of-the "privileges" of his race, gender; class generat ion, and/or sexuality for the purposes of elevating his masculinity.