Wanghong as Social Media Entertainment in China

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • David Craig, Jian Lin, Stuart Cunningham

   Pages 1-28

3. Policy and Governance

   • David Craig, Jian Lin, Stuart Cunningham

   Pages 29-58

4. Platforms

   • David Craig, Jian Lin, Stuart Cunningham

   Pages 59-103

5. Creators

   • David Craig, Jian Lin, Stuart Cunningham

   Pages 105-134

6. Culture

   • David Craig, Jian Lin, Stuart Cunningham

   Pages 135-160

7. Global Wanghong

   • David Craig, Jian Lin, Stuart Cunningham

   Pages 161-187

8. Back Matter

   Pages 189-197

   PDF

In Chinese, the term wanghong refers to creators, social media entrepreneurs alternatively known as KOLs (key opinion leaders) and zhubo (showroom hosts), influencers and micro-celebrities.  Wanghong also refers to an emerging media ecology in which these creators cultivate online communities for cultural and commercial value by harnessing Chinese social media platforms, like Weibo, WeChat, Douyu, Huya, Bilibili, Douyin, and Kuaishuo.  Framed by the concepts of cultural, creative, and social industries, the book maps the development of wanghong policies and platforms, labor and management, content and culture, as they operate in contrast to its non-Chinese counterpart, social media entertainment, driven by platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitch. As evidenced by the backlash to TikTok, the threat of competition from global wanghong signals advancing platform nationalism.

• Wang Hong
• Social Media Entertainment
• Chinese Media
• Globalization
• Digital technology
• Digital entrepreneurship

“The book’s six chapters cover topics such as policy, platform, and culture of Wanghong industry, providing in-depth analysis of the current popular Chinese Wanghong industry in an accessible way. … the monograph develops a rich and thorough account of the birth and evolution of the Chinese Wanghong industry … . the monograph inspires readers to reflect on the role of government and the state in the cultural and digital industries in the context of a normalized global epidemic.” (Bojia He, Journal of Popular Culture, 2022) "In their exploration of the nexus of creative industries, social media, and platform studies, Craig, Lin and Cunningham offer a ground-breaking account of the fast-moving Chinese media industry landscape.  Drawing on interviews with industry insiders and creators, Wanghong as Social Media Entertainment in China unravels the multi-layered ecosystem of intermediaries that is reshaping communication in the world’s biggest media market. This relatively short book is of great interest to scholars and researchers of China’s media. Packed with insights from participants and informed by comparisons with the less developed West, it offers a glimpse of an unfolding digital civilization, where bleeding-edge technology is the order of the day, and where the infrastructure of digital platforms and e-commerce is replacing shopping arcades. The book begins appropriately with policy and governance, before delving into profiles and aesthetics of wanghong practitioners. It concludes with the political ramifications of the challenges facing China’s new globalizing wanghong entrepreneurs, start-ups, and creators."

 - Michael Keane, Curtin University. Author of Created in China: the Great New Leap Forward and The Chinese Television Industry

"Addressing the ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘who’, ‘how’, and ‘why’ questions of Chinese wanghong culture, platforms, industry, labor and governance, this book offers a neat, systematic, and comprehensive analysis of China’s social media entertainment industries through cultural, creative and social perspectives. It is a delightful and compelling addition to scholarship on media industry, platform studies, digital media, Chinese and cultural studies. It successfully navigates the maze of literature in a range of disciplines with a surgical approach to the three framing themes (cultural, creative and social): clear-cut, measured, and systematic. Craig, Lin and Cunningham adeptly demonstrate their sophisticated understanding of wanghong as a Chinese metamorphosis of the global social media entertainment culture and industry. Their skilful analysis of case studies through empirical research offers fresh insights on the history, development and prospect of the globalising Chinese popular and digital culture in an era of parallel and contending Internets and social media economies."

- Professor Haiqing Yu, RMIT University

• USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, Los Angeles, USA

  David Craig

• Centre for Media and Journalism Studies, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

  Jian Lin

• Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

  Stuart Cunningham

David Craig is a Clinical Associate Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at University of Southern California, USA, and visiting scholar at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, in the USC-SJTU Institute of Cultural and Creative Industry. 

Jian Lin is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media Studies and Journalism at the University of Groningen, Netherlands.

Stuart Cunningham is Distinguished Professor of Media and Communication, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. Social Media Entertainment: The New Intersection of Hollywood and Silicon Valley and Creator Culture: An Introduction to Global Social Media Entertainment, both with David Craig, are published by New York University Press.

Policies and ethics