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Abstract
In the last several years, an increasing number of rural vloggers from China have opened their YouTube channels, Facebook pages, and Instagram accounts. They broadcast their farming, working, cooking, and crafting. The visual narratives make interesting storytelling about contemporary China, given the fact that these social media platforms themselves are officially inaccessible there. Using Li Ziqi, one of the most viewed Chinese YouTubers, as my case study, I will discuss the politics behind the construction of the “good China story” at the grassroots level. I argue that the aestheticized labor plays a central role in making the good story and its nation-building rhetoric, which is enabled and disrupted by the negotiation and contestation of the aspiring rural individual, the profit-driven cooperation, and the overseeing state.
Notes
1 Noxinfluencer, “The Top 100 YouTubers from Mainland China.” Noxinfluencer.com is a professional influencer data-analysis and trending-insight platform.
2 Zhan, “Li Ziqi Breaks YouTube Subscribers Record for Chinese Language Channel.”
3 “Jianghao zhongguo gushi” can be translated as “tell a good story of China.” Given the specific expectation of the state-endorsed story, I translate the phrase as “tell the good story of China.” For the state media’s praise of Li, see Bai, “How Do We Understand the Popularity of Li Ziqi’s Videos Overseas.”
4 I borrowed the phrase “accidental China story” from a BBC report. For details, see Linghu, “Li Ziqi and the Confucius Institute.”
5 The specific technology to circumvent the Great Firewall, the business agents who manage the cyber-border crossing and the policy on it are beyond the scope of the essay. I mainly focus on the politics behind the content creation.
6 Lamarre, “Platformativity.”
7 Ibid., 285.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid., 298.
10 Xue Er Shi Xi, “Xi Jinping.”
11 Ibid.
12 Wang, “Telling a Good Story of China.” The article was originally published in People’s Daily, cited in Liu, “Public Diplomacy,” 80.
13 For details, see Liu, “China’s ‘Great Overseas Propaganda’”; and Brady, “Authoritarianism Goes Global (II).” Both papers examine how CCP works with overseas communities to set up multi-media communication apparatuses.
14 DiResta, et al., Telling China’s Story. The book mainly deals with the CCP’s political narratives of the Hong Kong protest, the Taiwanese election, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
15 Lamarre, “Platformativity,” 302.
16 Ikea, for instance, plays an important role in “turning labor into love.” For details, see Norton, Mochon, and Ariely, “The IKEA Effect.” Other discussions on DIY can be found in Levine and Heimerl, Handmade Nation.
17 Li, “Avoid Crowds,” comments section.
18 Ibid.
19 Li, “The Life of Okra and Bamboo Fence,” comments section.
20 Li, “The Life of Tomato.”
21 Liu, “Li Ziqi Phenomenon.”
22 Chai, “Exposing the Secret Behind.”
23 Li mentioned this in her interview with Xinhua News Agency in October 2021. For details, see Guancha, “Li Ziqi Was Interviewed.”
24 A YouTuber earns money through advertisement views. Each of Li Ziqi’s videos has an average of several million views. For detailed discussion on the commercial values of digital platforms, see Arvidsson and Colleoni, “Value in Informational Capitalism”; Gerlitz and Helmond, “The Like Economy.”
25 Li, “Avoid Crowds.”
26 Li, “Make Natural Lipstick with Flowers.”
27 Li, “How to Make a Chinese Secret Sauce?” and “The Scholar’s Four Jewels of China.”
28 Li, “The Scholar’s Four Jewels,” Bilibili.com, comments section.
29 Sina, “Why Li Ziqi Has Garnered So Much Attention.”
30 Duo Yuka, “Li Ziqi Becomes a Hit around the World.”
31 Sina, “Li Ziqi.”
32 Li, “The Scholar’s Four Jewels of China,” comments section.
33 Li, “Avoid Crowds,” comments section.
34 Li, “Making Use of Every Part of the Lotus,” comments section.
35 Callahan, “Identity and Security in China.”
36 Si Huo et al., “Li Ziqi Reveals the Truth.”
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Xin Yang
Xin Yang is an associate professor at Macalester College. Her academic research focuses primarily on literary and cultural studies of contemporary and modern China. She has published books and articles on new media and its impact on literary writing; female writers in a global context marked by neo-liberalism and consumerism; and feminism entangled with China’s political, social and cultural transformation. She is currently working on rural migrant workers’ writing and video-making.