Internet Celebrities in China

This comprehensive study offers an examination of China’s Internet celebrity ("Wang Hong") phenomenon through a critical political economy framework, investigating how social media platforms, talent agencies, and e-commerce systems intersect to create a complex digital labour ecosystem.

Employing extensive semi-structured interviews across three key platforms – social media, short video sites, and live streaming platforms – the book reveals a sophisticated three-link industry chain of production, dissemination, and consumption that characterises China’s Internet celebrity industry. The book explores the intricate workings of the influencer economy, highlighting the stark disparity in working conditions and economic outcomes between successful influencers and precarious platform workers, as well as fan identity construction and consumption patterns, examining how fans integrate into collective identities and shared values within broader social contexts.

Through its theoretical, empirical, and methodological contributions, this monograph provides crucial insights into the commodification of digital labour, working conditions, and the distinctive features of China’s Internet celebrity industry within its specific political, economic, and cultural framework. As such, it will be of great value to scholars, cultural practitioners, students, and all those interested in digital culture, media industry, Chinese and East Asian studies, and the political economy of communication.