Creating a New Chinese Cyber-Celebrity : A Cultural Analysis of Han Han's Blog as Web-based Media Spectacle
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2014-07-23
Author(s)
Abstract
Novelist and race-car driver Han Han stars as the world's most popular blogger, boasting 595 million hits. China has emerged as the world's largest Internet population with 591 million netizens and a 44% penetration rate, rapidly increasing the number of Chinese citizens able to exchange information and opinions through non-official channels. Using Han Han as a case study, this paper aims first, to analyse how China's cybersphere creates a new type of celebrity; and second, how Han Han's blog constitutes a new kind of web-based media spectacle, negotiating the boundaries of government censorship while achieving both popularity and influence in China's new mediasphere, This research is important because it sheds new light on the tactics of China's unofficial opinion leaders using the Internet as an emerging public sphere 2.0. Analysis will focus on three main characteristics of Han Han's blog, examining first, how it thrives on the combination of his celebrity status and ‘everyman' image; second, how it contrasts ‘anti-intellectualism' in the tradition of Wang Shuo with elements of literati ideology including moderate loyal criticism and ‘crisis consciousness'; and third, how it negotiates the tension between commercial spectacle in a multimedia environment and the expression of socio-political concerns. Drawing on Tama Leaver's reflections on ‘the blogging of everyday life', this paper argues that China's blogosphere benefits from the credibility deficit of national mainstream news media as it attempts to influence and re-focalise public opinion. Contrary to online citizen journalism, Han Han's blog relies on editorial commentary rather than news and thus acts as a "safety valve' blog (Hassid 2012) featuring hot online topics rather than highlighting new ones. This paper aims to contribute to our understanding of a new type of celebrity in China's new cybersphere, merging the images of rebel, opinion leader and cultural entrepreneur.
Language
English
Keywords
Han Han
blog
China
cybersphere
censorship
public sphere 2.0
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
HSG Profile Area
SHSS - Kulturen, Institutionen, Maerkte (KIM)
Refereed
No
Book title
Programm of the XXth European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS) Conference
Publisher
Braga and Coimbra Universities
Publisher place
Braga and Coimbra, Portugal
Start page
2
Event Title
20th Biennial Conference European Association for Chinese Studies (EACS)
Event Location
Braga and Coimbra, Portugal
Event Date
22.-26.07.2014
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
236479
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
open.access
Name
2014 BERG EACS conference Portugal.pdf
Size
451.41 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
6ee45e00cb7dd6aade1d3c7b8a4eb4b9