Shanzhai Online Videos in China
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SHANZHAI ONLINE VIDEOS IN CHINA: GOVERNANCE AND RESISTANCE THROUGH MEDIA A Dissertation by XI CUI Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 2011 Major Subject: Communication Shanzhai Online Videos in China: Governance and Resistance through Media Copyright 2011 Xi Cui SHANZHAI ONLINE VIDEOS IN CHINA: GOVERNANCE AND RESISTANCE THROUGH MEDIA A Dissertation by XI CUI Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved by: Co-Chairs of Committee, Antonio C. La Pastina Cara Wallis Committee Members, Patrick Burkart Sarah Gatson Eric W. Rothenbuhler Head of Department, Richard L. Street Jr. August 2011 Major Subject: Communication iii ABSTRACT Shanzhai Online Videos in China: Governance and Resistance through Media. (August 2011) Xi Cui, B.A., Beijing Broadcasting Institute; M.A., Communication University of China Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. Antonio C. La Pastina Dr. Cara Wallis This dissertation explores the production, circulation, and regulation of Shanzhai online videos in order to understand how people’s everyday lives are governed and how the governing power is resisted through the media system in contemporary China. This research is situated in the specific socio-cultural and historical context where Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have proliferated among various social strata, where the media are both the propagandistic mouthpiece and a profit-oriented industry, and where people are encouraged to pursue their life goals under a neoliberal rationality that is pervasive in media. I use a Foucauldian framework to examine the power modalities and power relationships manifested in the Shanzhai practices. I argue that both disciplinary power and the power of governmentality are found in this cultural practice. It is through the production, circulation and regulation of Shanzhai videos that power is exercised on different parties involved in this process as governance and resistance. iv This power relationship, I argue, is explicated through a ritualistic view of the reality presented in the trans-media, trans-genre narratives that people internalize in order to develop specific ways of using media to pursue their life goals. Meanwhile, people also employ various strategies to negotiate for resources to achieve these goals. In these negotiations, power relationships manifested themselves as their actions upon each other. Ordinary people are disciplined through patterned uses of media to live their lives and governed by a neoliberal mentality to pursue their life projects on the Internet. However, there is more than one set of discourses with a claim to the “truth” about Shanzhai in Chinese media. Thus, people are also empowered to take advantage of this discrepancy to gain symbolic as well as material favors. This study examined a nuanced and dialectic power relationship in contemporary Chinese society. First, it is found that people are both empowered and subjected to the ways they use media to pursue personal goals. Second, the resistance in the Shanzhai practices not only brought them symbolic power as much previous literature suggests, but also material resources such as media access and sponsorship. Last, the holistic view of the media system helps us situate Shanzhai online videos in the convergent media environment and draw a better picture of the web of power relationships. v DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to hundreds of millions of Chinese Internet users. It is they, with every single but significant key stroke and mouse-click, who partly make China what it is today. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my wholehearted gratitude to many people along the road of my doctoral studies. First, I deeply thank Dr. Antonio La Pastina. I can’t remember how many times I asked him to meet me when I felt in the dark and frustrated. Talking with him is always pleasant and intellectually inspiring. Second, I want to express my sincere appreciation to Dr. Cara Wallis. I admire her constant hard work and meticulous scholarship. She is erudite and insightful on many issues about China. She always comments on my works rigorously and encourages me to go an extra mile on my scholarship. I wouldn’t have finished this study without the encouragement and academic insights from the two co-chairpersons. I would also like to thank my committee members. Dr. Eric Rothenbuhler guided me into many new areas and literatures that greatly broadened my academic horizon and benefited my dissertation research. Dr. Patrick Burkart has solid theoretical knowledge and gave me invaluable comments on my analysis. Dr. Gatson provoked my thoughts and interest in research methods as well as the sociological perspective on popular culture. I admire and appreciate their selfless dedication to academic life and their students. I would like to bow to my parents and my brother. Though many times I was too lazy to even call them, they have been always in my mind and I know that so have I in their minds. It is their selfless and soundless love and trust that enabled me to face many difficult moments. vii I must also extend my gratitude to my friends, colleagues, the department faculty and staff for making my time at Texas A&M University a great experience. Without your academic inspiration and sincere friendship, my life in the US would be dismal and lonely. Especially, I would like to thank Lu Jia for all his help and caring to me. His hard work and rigorous scholarship makes him an academic exemplar for me. viii NOMENCLATURE CCP Chinese Communist Party CCTV China Central Television CNNIC China Internet Network Information Center GAPP the General Administration of Press and Publication of China ICP Internet Content Provider ICT Information Communication Technology ISP Internet Service Provider MEI the Ministry of Electronic Industry MII the Ministry of Information Industry of China MIIT the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China MPT the Ministry of Post and Telecommunication of China SARFT the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television of China WTO World Trade Organization ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... iii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. vi NOMENCLATURE ........................................................................................................ viii LIST OF FIGURES.......................................................................................................... xii LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................... 1 A Brief Introduction of Shanzhai ............................................................... 3 Three Shanzhai Cases ................................................................................. 8 Theoretical Frame .................................................................................... 15 Chapter Organization ............................................................................... 33 Methodology Brief ................................................................................... 36 II BACKGROUND ........................................................................................... 38 Media Environment in the Post-Reform Era in China ............................. 38 Internet in China: A Microcosm of the Power Dynamics ........................ 45 III SHANZHAI: A TRANS-MEDIA, TRANS-GENRE RITUAL ................... 56 Introduction .............................................................................................. 56 Media Rituals: Connecting the Media World to the Ordinary World ...... 59 Shanzhai: A Journey to the Sacred ........................................................... 79 Shanzhai Becomes Sacred ........................................................................ 94 Conclusion .............................................................................................. 103 IV STRATEGIES IN SHANZHAI PRACTICES .......................................... 109 Media Strategies and Social Changes in China ...................................... 110 The Bourdieusian Framework ................................................................ 117 x CHAPTER Page Strategy One: Policies Regarding Cultural Productions Exclude Non- Profit Cultural Producers from Economic Hegemony, but These Producers Willingly Subscribe to the Economic Hegemony by Putting on a “For-Profit” Coat ............................................................... 122 Strategy Two: The Government Issues Directives to Intervene in the Content of Cultural Production .............................................................. 133 Strategy Three: The Government Promotes Cultural Hegemony While Commercial Media and Shanzhai Producers Manipulate Their Messages as Voluntary Self-Censorship ................................................ 139 Strategy Four: Shanzhai Producers Voluntarily Adopted Professional Taste ......................................................................................................