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Following a burgeoning literature on private actors under digital authoritarianism, this study aims to understand the role played by social media users in sustaining authoritarian rule. It examines a subcultural community-the queer-fantasy community-on Chinese social media to expound how members of this community interpreted China's censorship poli...
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... A prominent vein in this body of work again relates to how matters of both gender and eroticism have played out in Chinese online fan communities (Guo and Evans, 2020;Li, 2022;Madill and Zhao, 2021;Zhang, 2016). Another concern relates to the effects of censorship on fandom and how it has generated a rather fluid online media landscape (Luo and Li, 2022;Ren, 2020;Wang and Ge, 2022;Zheng, 2019). Against this, some work has explored how online literature fandom can serve as a motivating force for nationalism in China (Liao et al., 2022). ...
The term “Participatory Culture” was first put forward by Henry Jenkins in the book Text Poacher with the aim of comparing participation and the bystander (Jenkins, 2015. Partici- patory culture in a networked era: a conversation on youth, learning, commerce, and politics. Polity Press, Cambridge, UK). The earliest example is the study of the cultural logic of fan groups (or “fan culture”). When it was later studied more extensively, it took on different meanings. It has greatly influenced novels in the cross-media creative environment, and this has not only helped to expand the imagination and inspiration of authors but has also enriched novel plots. It can also increase audience participation and reading enthusiasm. This paper takes China’s science fiction transmedia as its example to analyze the significance and role of Participatory Culture, and it does this with the intention of helping to provide sug- gestions for the development of transmedia fictions.
... And even during the administration of Park Geun-hye (2013-2017), artists on her "blacklist" were excluded from both state and private support (Kim 2018). Censorship in the Chinese context has drawn the most attention from scholars across disciplines (Roberts 2018;Luo and Li 2022;Chen 2022). The state regulates cultural production through various measures, shaping the content and form of cultural objects. ...
In this editorial, I argue for a globalized sociology of the arts and culture that transcends West-centered theories and practices. To this end, two interrelated perspectives—global and decentering—are needed. The article commences with a brief overview of the emergence of the sociology of arts in the West, and synthesizes major themes emerging from articles in the thematic series and the existing literature on creative cultures in East Asia. These themes include local–global dynamics (such as flows, legitimacy, and the centrality of the local), regionalization, state support and control, and theorizing beyond the arts. Finally, I highlight several promising directions for future research, and emphasize that East Asian perspectives present distinct opportunities to advance the sociology of the arts and culture.
The Chinese government has effectively adapted to the new environment in which information flow is greatly facilitated by the wide use of social media. This adaptation is aided not only by its resources and learning ability but also by citizens supportive of the regime. Content manipulation and censorship are the two primary approaches used by the Chinese government to manage social media. This paper examines how supportive citizens help the state manage cyberspace by tipping off state agencies. The state encourages tip providers by responding to tips, including political ones, and sometimes by rewarding the provider. Tip providers reduce the cost of monitoring social media, enhance the legitimacy of censorship, and discourage and marginalize regime critics. The presence of tip providers reflects and reinforces the split or ideological polarization among the population.
What are the dynamics of the participatory online discourse in an authoritarian context? More specifically, what patterns of Chinese state-society interactions can be drawn from the existing nexus of top-down control and bottom-up participation? To explore the questions, this study examines the Chinese nation-state personifications produced by ‘fanquan girls’, nationalistic fans of pop stars, during the 2019 Hong Kong protests. Three types of imageries and scenarios emerged, i.e., the nation as a charismatic idol in a discursive struggle, a protective brother on a battlefield, and a victimized mother in a trial. These visualizations construct a discursive kinship that justifies China’s governance over Hong Kong and refutes the intervention from foreign ‘hostile forces’ through visualized national strength, state-society unity, and colonial sufferings. During the process, the state provided the ideological mindset and delimited the political boundaries, the fandom participants turned the state-promoted ideas and sentiments into youth-appealing memes, and both sides appropriated and circulated each other’s creations in joint self-defense against outside reproval and opposition. Therefore, the paper argues that this communicative pattern consolidates the state’s discursive co-optation of the society rather than demolishes the authoritarian rule.
