Article Gaymi: Emergent masculinities and straight women’s friendships with gay male best friends in Jinan, China Xin Wang Shandong University, China Chris KK Tan Nanjing University, China Yao Wei Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland Abstract China’s economic liberalization in 1978 created new gendered and sexual subjectivities. This essay examines a new internet meme gaymi (‘‘gay confidante’’) and its discursive construction of gay men as genteel embodiments of a women-friendly ‘‘emergent mas- culinity’’ (Inhorn and Wentzell, 2011). We argue that firstly, the gaymi discourse actually centers on the women who desire gay male companionship, because it ironically articu- lates the desires of these women and not those of the men. Secondly, strong links possibly exist between the rise of the gaymi and the popularity of the Korean Wave in China. Hence, the gaymi gestures at intra-Asian cultural globalization. Keywords China, gay men, gaymi, intimacy, women’s friendships Introduction A ‘‘desiring China’’ (Rofel, 2007) that began to take shape after economic liberal- ization in 1978 also created new gendered and sexual subjectivities, including notions of a more socio-economically independent womanhood (Guo, 2017; Sexualities 2019, Vol. 22(5–6) 901–915 ! The Author(s) 2018 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/1363460718773689 journals.sagepub.com/home/sex Corresponding author: Chris KK Tan, Institute of Social Anthropology, Nanjing University 163 Xianlin Dadao Nanjing, Jiangsu 210046 China. Email: silenceglaive@gmail.com