Chinese Stardom in Participatory Cyberculture

Abstract

As Chinese performers have become more visible on global screens, their professional images – once the preserve of studios and agents – have been increasingly relayed and reworked by film fans. Web technology has made searching, poaching, editing, positing, and sharing texts significantly easier. Moreover, by using a variety of seamless and innovative methods, a new mode of personality construction has been developed. With case studies of high-profile stars like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, and Michelle Yeoh, this ground-breading book examines transnational Chinese stardom as a Web-based phenomenon, and as an outcome of the participatory practices of cyber fans. By grounding the theory and praxis of Chinese stardom in a cyber-context, this book proffers a critical intervention of Chineseness and redress some inadequacies of the current scholarship on the subject by advancing the exploration of the dynamics borne out of technological apparatuses, cultural discourses, and network culture.

Open‐Ended Analyses of the Sociopolitical Impact of Celebrity Change: Advantages, Operationalization, and an Illustration with Hong Kong Celebrity

“…Although there are hundreds of studies on Hong Kong's films, music, television, and entertainment, only several recent studies adopt a celebrity perspective (e.g., Lau 2018aLau , 2018bLeppert 2011). To contextualize my main analysis, I construct a brief account of Hong Kong celebrity before the 2000s.…”

“…Both were loved by audiences for their feminist images and iconoclastic behavior (Fung and Curtin 2002; Witzleben 1999). Yiu‐Ming Wong and Denise Ho, established pop musicians who openly advocated queer culture, did not appear in government ads (Lau 2018b). Three film actors who explicitly supported democracy in Hong Kong, were similarly excluded: Gregory Wong (a rising actor), Anthony Wong (a winner of multiple regional best actor awards), Chapman To (a very popular comedian).…”