Internet Vulgarities in China

Cultures, Governance and Politics
Herausgeber: Zhang, Dino Ge; Xu, Jian

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Internet Vulgarities in China is the first comprehensive study to critically examine the cultures, governance, and politics of internet vulgarities in the Chinese society. Comprising of eleven chapters, the authors present empirically rich case studies to explore the nature, regulation and evolution of the internet cultural products, vernacular internet cultures and subcultural online communities which have been officially deemed 'vulgar' by the state, official media and policy documents. From 'vuglar' online music, internet literature, memes, web dramas, influencers, videogames to online fandom, this timely book demonstrates that the disciplinary power of China's 'anti-vulgarity' campaigns stems from the state's strategic use of the ambiguous concept of 'vulgarity' to judge and regulate the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of popular digital media cultures. This process of turning language into law-a form of linguistification of rule-functions as a key technique of digital and cultural governance, ensuring that these cultures evolve in accordance with the ideological, moral, and cultural values of the party-state. Internet Vulgarities in China will make a significant contribution to the fields of China's digital media studies, popular culture studies, internet and cultural governance. It is an essential resource for scholars, researchers, and students seeking a critical understanding of China's digital media cultures and its governance and politics.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Pallas Publications
• Seitenzahl: 278
• Erscheinungstermin: 4. März 2026
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 234mm x 156mm
• ISBN-13: 9789048563586
• ISBN-10: 9048563585
• Artikelnr.: 75618281

Autorenporträt

Jian Xu is Associate Professor in Communication, Deakin University, Australia. He researches Chinese digital media and celebrity studies with critical approaches. He is Editor-in-Chief of Communication Research and Practice, official journal of the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand Communication Association (AANZCA). He is the series editor of Asian Celebrity and Fandom Studies with Bloomsbury Academic. Dino Ge Zhang is a media anthropologist teaching at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. His current research primarily focuses on socio-technical, aesthetic and affective dimensions of contemporary video cultures/arts in the Sinophone world. He also writes about livestreaming platforms, Esports, and intellectual histories of gaming cultures in China.

Inhaltsangabe

1. (Introduction): Judgement of ugliness: The politics of 'anti-vulgarity'
in China's media and cultural governance Part I: Internet Cultural Products
2. Messy realities and power secrecy: Contested and persistent presences of
vulgarities in the governance of Chinese web novels 3. Legitimising musical
taste: 'Vulgar internet songs' from 'Mice loves rice' to PG-One 4. Boy's
love as 'vulgar' culture? The discourse of anti-boys' love and the
cis-heteronormative governance against BL-adapted web dramas in China 5.
Vulgar spirits of games and play from state to society: An alternative
history of videogames in China Part II: Vernacular Internet Cultures 6.
'Toxic Chicken Soup' as a genre: The dialectics of hope and its governance
on We Media 7. Ball-ache, dick hair and serial cunt words: The role of
vulgarity in Chinese internet language 8. Negativity as vulgar? The rise of
self-mockery culture and its governance 9. In search of the opposite of the
canonical: eGao Red Classics and its regulation Part III: Subcultural
Online Communities 10. Vulgarising a subaltern taste on Chinese social
media: The rise and fall of hanmai rap and social shake dance 11.
Eroticised internet celebrity and vulgarity in China: The case of Aoi Sola
12. 'Chasing idols in a rational way': Governing toxic 'fan circle' culture
in China