Performing Positive Energy: Mediated Self-Representation of Chinese Migrant Workers on Douyin.
This article analyzes the genre of rented-room short videos on Douyin, a major Chinese short video and live-streaming platform, to explore how rural-to-urban migrant workers perform positive energy as a strategy to navigate state narratives, platform regulations, and algorithmic bias. These videos r...
| Publicado en: | Velvet Light Trap: A Critical Journal of Film & Television no. 96; pp. 16 - 29 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of Texas Press
Fall2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=190993233&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 190993233 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 01491830 8I3 jtl: Velvet Light Trap: A Critical Journal of Film & Television issn: 01491830 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Fall2025 iid: 96 pid: 519 pub: University of Texas Press artinfo: ui: 190993233 ppf: 16 ppct: 13 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 1.3MB tig: atl: Performing Positive Energy: Mediated Self-Representation of Chinese Migrant Workers on Douyin. aug: au: Ding, Suchen su: Precarity Self-presentation Rural-urban migration Chinese people Affect (Psychology) Digital inclusion TikTok (Web resource) Gig economy China sug: subj: China Precarity Self-presentation Rural-urban migration Chinese people Affect (Psychology) Digital inclusion TikTok (Web resource) Gig economy ab: This article analyzes the genre of rented-room short videos on Douyin, a major Chinese short video and live-streaming platform, to explore how rural-to-urban migrant workers perform positive energy as a strategy to navigate state narratives, platform regulations, and algorithmic bias. These videos reveal how platforms function as both spaces of self-representation and engines of precarious aspiration. While they offer visibility and the promise of upward mobility, such promises are often unstable and precarious. Positive energy emerges as a contested affective and ideological site where state narratives meet neoliberal entrepreneurialism, shaping how precarity is lived and mediated. I argue that Douyin operates as a classed digital space, while the urban village—a frequent setting in these videos—functions as a liminal zone of migration and mediation. Together, these dynamics reveal how socioeconomic precarity and affective labor are intertwined in China's platform economy, complicating narratives of self-representation and digital empowerment for the country's most marginalized workers. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Velvet Light Trap is the property of and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Velvet Light Trap: A Critical Journal of Film & Television dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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