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The Rise of Women Cultural Entrepreneurs in China’s Mediasphere
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2018-08-31
Author(s)
Abstract
This paper sets out to analyse the rise of China’s new women cultural entrepreneurs (wenhua qiyejia) in China’s new mediasphere. It seeks to expand our knowledge of the social and gender dynamics in post-socialist China’s (1997-present) new urban culture by exploring the role of cultural industries (wenhua chanye) and new media. It investigates how women cultural entrepreneurs establish themselves in a socio-political environment that displays opportunities offered by sustained economic growth and technological development. They overcome obstacles arising from both patriarchal gender roles and erratic state-enforced limitations to public discourse and creativity. We focus on four types of women cultural entrepreneurs: (1) the literary entrepreneur; (2) the entrepreneurial blogger; (3) artists as cultural entrepreneurs; and (4) celebrity entrepreneurs. The cultural production and personae of such cultural entrepreneurs share transmedia characteristics, as they cut across different media, such as print and Internet literature, social media and blogging, visual arts, lm, and television. Cultural entrepreneurs can influence beliefs and values in both transformative and conservative ways — while the very existence of women cultural entrepreneurs undermines traditional gender roles. In the cultural and media industries, Party-state institutions and official gatekeepers of the cultural scene still play a role not inferior to that of market competition. Understanding how China’s new women cultural entrepreneurs navigate between market demand, Party-state supervision, and transcultural flows will shed new light on China’s new urban culture, changing gender roles and social dynamics in the era of globalisation.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Event Title
22nd Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies
Event Location
University of Glasgow, UK
Event Date
29.08.18-01.09.18
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
255035