Language, Celebrity Fandom, and Political Activism in Chinese Media

Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgment

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Celebrity Fandom in China

The industrial and technological contexts of celebrity fandom culture in China

The features of celebrity fandom practices in China

The government's regulation of digital platforms and fandom activities

Fan antagonism and anti-fandom

Cancel culture and celebrity bashing

Flaming and trolling

Fan activism and Chinese fandom nationalism

Social media logics

Chapter conclusion

Chapter 3 Action-centered sociolinguistic analysis: Fan practices as digitally afforded social action

Chapter 4 Researching celebrity fandom through digital ethnography

Chapter 5 Algorithm-oriented and competitive fan practices

Data contribution

Comment control

The competitive ethos in celebrity fandom culture

Chapter 6 Sociolinguistic features and social media strategies of antagonistic fan communication

The interaction order of fan antagonism

Unaddressed interaction between fandoms

Addressed interaction between fandoms

Naming the celebrity

"Slaughtering the square"

Creating and posting with derogatory hashtags

Addressing to entertainment industry stakeholders

Flagging abuse to Weibo platform

The amplified antagonism in entertainment news on Weibo

Moves, evolution and information visibility in fan antagonism

Multimodal strategies and themes in fan antagonism

Accusing online fan behaviors

Verbal attacks on celebrities

Who are the anti-fans?

Chapter conclusion

Chapter 7 Recontextualizing fan antagonism in political communication

Who is the opponent of "Brother China"

Pick your idol in "Construction 101"

The flopped virtual idols of the Communist Youth League

Disrupting the conflict structure in fan communication

Chapter 8 Fan antagonism and discursive conflicts in digital space

Researching antagonism in the celebrity fandom culture in China

The competitive digital fan practices as a polycentric construct and a discourse of exclusivity

The antagonistic fan communication as a genre

When can fans battle?

Discursive conflicts in a digital environment 92

Bibliography

Index