Chinese dama
In August 2013, The Wall Street Journal published a video about the damas' impact on the gold sector, becoming the first English-language publication to use the pinyin representation of the phrase.
Negative media coverage has focused on the dancing damas' playing of loud music in public spaces which has generated numerous conflicts with nearby residents.
Damas frequently wear brightly colored attire, low-heeled slip-on shoes, and tights; are unreserved in their interactions; thrive in unbridled friendship with women around their age.
Teng Wei, a professor at South China Normal University wrote, "When we use dama as an insult, what we're really doing is suggesting that there's something inherently wrong with being a middle-aged woman.
[4][5] The commonly held historical belief was that damas were honorable and modest housewives who devoted their time to cooking, homemaking, keeping track of household expenditures, and bartering with shop owners.
[7] The falling gold prices largely were caused by the belief that the Federal Reserve would taper off on quantitative easing in 2013 owing to the American economy's improvements after the financial crisis of 2007–2008.
[1][11] Rushing into stores in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau, the women caused the gold price have the highest one-day growth that year, shooting up to US$1,462 per ounce on 26 April 2013.
[7][12] Currency Wars author Song Hongbing [zh] in 2013 originated and popularized the new meaning of the word "damas" as referring to the gold-purchasing women in China.
[2] The Wall Street Journal defined damas as "bargain-hunting middle-aged Chinese women" who "keep a tight grip on the family purse and an eagle eye on gold prices".
"[1] In the Journal of Hengyang Normal University, two Chinese scholars wrote in 2015 that Westerners consumed negative coverage of damas as being greedy, ignorant, and unworldly.
When the damas observed the gold price decline, they viewed the situation as a perfect time to secure the discounted goods which they saw as impeccable presents for their daughters and daughters-in-law.
After observing the current economic conditions, the damas began buying gold with their discretionary income, viewing the metal as a conservative investment that would better ensure their financial peace of mind.
South China Normal University professor Teng Wei said that the term's durability is likely owing to its providing a convenient nickname to refer to middle-aged Chinese women who contravene societal expectations of being maternal and refined.
According to Renmin University of China scholar Qin Li, news organizations frequently feature unfavorable coverage about damas which are more broadly disseminated than affirmative stories.
The first story took place in a Beijing street in 2013 when a dama was widely and unfairly criticized for allegedly trying to extort a youthful man who was from another country for making her fall.
[8][22] It turned out that the man had engaged in wrong-way driving and red light running and had exploded in an anger at the dama he had struck who had been obeying traffic laws in crossing the street.
By invoking the word "dama", the online commenters aimed to discredit Fang's diary, portraying her as being like the "annoying, unfashionable and uncultured middle-aged women".
Describing the dama dancers as having more clout than the local government, the social commentator Zhang Tianpan said the women were like warriors, "They are invincible, and people flee before them."
The protesters alleged that the damas had blared music from loudspeakers to accompany their dancing, were scantily clad, had sex with people who went to the parks, and received tips in the form of red envelopes from old men.
[38] A protest coordinator, the Tuen Mun Park Sanitation Concern Group, said that the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) was not doing enough to prevent the damas' noise pollution and panhandling.
[39] The women moved to spending a substantial amount of time on social media as advances in technology led to an increase in the number of easy-to-understand mobile apps.
[1] Damas received positive coverage in China Today which noted that in numerous areas, they offer to sanitize public spaces and do other altruistic work such as make social calls on senior citizens.
Lobbing eggs at models and entertainers at the event, the damas spoke passionately against eroticism as detrimental to society and in favor of the chastity as a traditional Chinese value.
[30] At the farmers' market, damas enjoy negotiating the price of cabbage to be five cents cheaper but are inclined to spend lavishly on a gold bar costing several hundred thousand yuan.
[30] The scholar Claudia Huang said that although the fact that the population has aged so much alone would be consequential, the consequences have been amplified by "a seismic shift in China's age-based social hierarchy".
During the New Culture Movement in 1911 and the Chinese Communist Revolution in the 1940s, scholars denounced filial piety, viewing that submitting to older people was why China was languishing both economically and technologically.
The scholar Claudia Huang wrote, "[T]he efforts of women who identify as dama to grow older on their own terms and in a manner that's consistent with their present social contexts has significant ramifications for Chinese society as a whole.
The third type, the "poseur dama", enjoys influencing how society views her and her family by spending more on premium brands such as the top-rated and costliest local junior high school.
[8] Damas in Qingdao, Shandong, wear the facekini, which covers the entire face save for the mouth, nose, and eyes, to protect themselves from the sun as they desire light skin.
In the August 2014 edition of the magazine CR Fashion Book, photographer Alexandra Utzmann published a set of photos titled "Masking in the Sun" that featured people wearing the facekini.
