Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-13T00:43:37.689Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Chinese Celebrities’ Political Signalling on Sina Weibo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2022

Dan Chen Open the ORCID record for Dan Chen [Opens in a new window]  and
Gengsong Gao Open the ORCID record for Gengsong Gao [Opens in a new window]
Dan Chen*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, USA.
Gengsong Gao
Affiliation:
Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia, USA. ggao@richmond.edu
*
Corresponding author: Dan Chen, email: dchen@richmond.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In China, celebrities can dominate public discourse and shape popular culture, but they are under the state's close gaze. Recent studies have revealed how the state disciplines and co-opts celebrities to promote patriotism, foster traditional values and spread political propaganda. However, how do celebrities adapt to the changing political environment? Focusing on political signalling on the social media platform Sina Weibo, we analyse a novel dataset and find that the vast majority of top celebrities repost from official accounts of government agencies and state media outlets, though there are variations. Younger celebrities with more followers tend to repost from official accounts more often. Celebrities from Taiwan tend to repost less than those from the mainland and Hong Kong, despite being subject to the same rules. However, the frequent political signalling by the most influential celebrities among younger generations suggests that the state has co-opted celebrity influence on social media to broadly promote its political objectives.

摘要

摘要

在中国，名人可以主导公共话语并塑造流行文化，但他们处于国家的密切关注之下。最近的研究揭示了国家如何惩戒和利用名人来促进爱国主义、培养传统价值观和强化政治宣传。但名人如何适应不断变化的政治环境呢？集中于在微博上发送政治信号这一现象，我们分析了一个新的数据集，发现绝大多数顶级名人都会转发政府机构和官方媒体的微博博文，但是这种转发行为也有差异。拥有更多追随者的年轻的名人倾向于更多地从官方账户转发。尽管受到相同规则的限制，台湾名人的转发率往往低于大陆和香港名人。然而，年轻一代中最有影响力的名人频繁发出政治信号表明，国家已经利用名人在社交媒体上的影响力来更广泛地促进其政治目标。

Keywords

celebritypolitical signallingsocial mediapolitical controlChina名人政治信号社交媒体政治控制中国
Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 254 , June 2023 , pp. 466 - 483
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of SOAS University of London

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Chen, Dan. 2020. Convenient Criticism: Local Media and Governance in Urban China. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Chen, Dan, and MacDonald, Andrew. 2020. “Bread and circuses: sports and public opinion in China.” Journal of Experimental Political Science 7 (1), 41–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowen, Tyler. 2000. What Price Fame? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Deng, Guosheng, and Jeffreys, Elaine. 2018. “Celebrity philanthropy in China: reconfiguring government and non-government roles in national development.” China Quarterly 237, 217–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, Louise, and Jeffreys, Elaine. 2010. Celebrity in China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Harriet. 2021. “‘Patchy patriarchy’ and the shifting fortunes of the CCP's promise of gender equality since 1921.” China Quarterly 248 (S1), 95–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fang, Kecheng, and Repnikova, Maria. 2018. “Demystifying ‘Little Pink’: the creation and evolution of a gendered label for nationalistic activists in China.” New Media & Society 20 (6), 2162–2185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gold, Thomas B. 1993. “Go with your feelings: Hong Kong and Taiwan popular culture in Greater China.” China Quarterly 136, 907–925.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hassid, Jonathan, and Jeffreys, Elaine. 2015. “Doing good or doing nothing? Celebrity, media and philanthropy in China.” Third World Quarterly 36 (1), 75–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
He, Qiliang, and Wang, Meng. 2021. “From Wu Xun to Lu Xun: film, stardom, and subjectivity in Mao's China (1949–1976).” Modern China 48 (3), 650–675.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Haifeng. 2015. “Propaganda as signaling.” Comparative Politics 47 (4), 419–444.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, Haifeng. 2018. “The pathology of hard propaganda.” Journal of Politics 80 (3), 1034–1038.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeffreys, Elaine. 2015a. “Celebrity philanthropy in China and the Zhang Ziyi scandal.” In Jeffreys, Elaine and Allatson, Paul (eds.), Celebrity Philanthropy. New York: Intellect Books, 171–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeffreys, Elaine. 2015b. “Celebrity philanthropy in mainland China.” Asian Studies Review 39 (4), 571–588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeffreys, Elaine. 2016. “Translocal celebrity activism: shark-protection campaigns in mainland China.” Environmental Communication 10 (6), 763–776.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jeffreys, Elaine, and Edwards, Louise. 2010. “Celebrity/China.” In Edwards, Louise and Jeffreys, Elaine (eds.), Celebrity in China. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1–20.Google Scholar
Jeffreys, Elaine, and Xu, Jian. 2017. “Celebrity-inspired, fan-driven: doing philanthropy through social media in mainland China.” Asian Studies Review 41 (2), 244–262CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jin, Shuai, and Zhou, Yingnan Joseph. 2021. “An authoritarian undercurrent in the postmaterialist tide: the rise of authoritarianism among the younger generation in China.” Social Science Quarterly 102 (1), 90–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kokas, Aynne. 2017. Hollywood Made in China. Oakland: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Hongbin, Meng, Lingsheng and Wang, Qian. 2009. “The government's role in China's Olympic glory.” Applied Economics 41 (25), 3313–3318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, Ruyu (ed.). 2016. Staging China: New Theatres in the Twenty-first Century. New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Lin, Pei-yin. 2017. “How China is changed by Deng Lijun and her songs.” In Tsang, Steve (ed.), Taiwan's Impact on China: Why Soft Power Matters More than Economic or Political Inputs. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 179–202CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lin, Zhongxuan, and Zhao, Yupei. 2020. “Beyond celebrity politics: celebrity as governmentality in China.” SAGE Open 10 (3). DOI: 10.1177/2158244020941862.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lu, Yingdan, and Pan, Jennifer. 2021. “Capturing clicks: how the Chinese government uses clickbait to compete for visibility.” Political Communication 38 (1–2), 23–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsh, David, Hart, Paul ‘t and Tindall, Karen. 2010. “Celebrity politics: the politics of the late modernity?” Political Studies Review 8 (3), 322–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nip, Joyce Y.M., and Fu, King-wa. 2016. “Challenging official propaganda? Public opinion leaders on Sina Weibo.” China Quarterly 225, 122–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pang, Laikwan. 2002. Building a New China in Cinema: The Chinese Left-wing Cinema Movement, 1932–1937. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Redmond, Sean. 2013. Celebrity and the Media. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Repnikova, Maria, and Fang, Kecheng. 2018. “Authoritarian participatory persuasion 2.0: netizens as thought work collaborators in China.” Journal of Contemporary China 27 (113): 763–779.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Florian. 2017. “China's ‘Big V’ bloggers: how celebrities intervene in digital Sino-Japanese relations.” Celebrity Studies 8 (2), 331–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shih, Victor Chung-Hon. 2008. “’Nauseating’ displays of loyalty: monitoring the factional bargain through ideological campaigns in China.” China Journal 70 (4), 1177–1192.Google Scholar
Technology, Sina. 2021. “Weibo 2020 yonghu fazhan baogao: yonghu qunti jixu chengxian nianqinghua qushi” (Weibo 2020 User Development Report: User Group Continues to Show a Youthful Trend). 12 March. https://finance.sina.com.cn/tech/2021-03-12/doc-ikkntiak9143019.shtml. Accessed 9 January 2022.Google Scholar
Stockmann, Daniela. 2013. Media Commercialization and Authoritarian Rule in China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Jonathan, and Kehoe, Séagh. 2019. “Truth, good and beauty: the politics of celebrity in China.” China Quarterly 237, 241–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thrall, A. Trevor, Lollio-Fakhreddine, Jaime, Berent, Jon, Donnelly, Lana, Herrin, Wes, Paquette, Zachary, Wenglinski, Rebecca et al. 2008. “Star power: celebrity advocacy and the evolution of the public sphere.” International Journal of Press/Politics 13 (4), 362–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsai, Chia-hung, Wang, Ching-Hsing and Weng, Dennis Lu-Chung. 2019. “Personality traits and individual attitude toward the independence–unification issue in Taiwan.” Journal of Asian and African Studies 54 (3), 430–451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Zoonen, Liesbet. 2006. “The personal, the political and the popular: a women's guide to celebrity politics.” European Journal of Cultural Studies 9 (3), 287–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, Jessica Chen. 2013. “Authoritarian signaling, mass audiences, and nationalist protest in China.” International Organization 67 (1), 1–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, Jessica Chen. 2019. “How hawkish is the Chinese public? Another look at ‘rising nationalism’ and Chinese foreign policy.” Journal of Contemporary China 28 (119), 679–695.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
West, Darrell M., and Orman, John M.. 2003. Celebrity Politics. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Woods, Jackson S., and Dickson, Bruce J.. 2017. “Victims and patriots: disaggregating nationalism in urban China.” Journal of Contemporary China 26 (104), 167–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xu, Jian, and Yang, Ling. 2021. “Governing entertainment celebrities in China: practices, policies and politics (2005–2020).” Celebrity Studies 12 (2), 202–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yu, Hong, and Deng, Zhengqiang. 1999. Zhongguo dangdai guanggao shi (History of Contemporary Chinese Advertising). Changsha: Hunan Science and Technology Press.Google Scholar
Zhang, Yinxian, Liu, Jiajun and Wen, Ji-Rong. 2018. “Nationalism on Weibo: towards a multifaceted understanding of Chinese nationalism.” China Quarterly 235, 758–783.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhao, Xiaoyu. 2021. “A discourse analysis of quotidian expressions of nationalism during the COVID-19 pandemic in Chinese cyberspace.” Journal of Chinese Political Science 26, 277–293.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Zilinsky, Jan, Vaccari, Cristian, Nagler, Jonathan and Tucker, Joshua A.. 2020. “Don't Republicans tweet too? Using Twitter to assess the consequences of political endorsements by celebrities.” Perspectives on Politics 18 (1), 144–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar