Open AccessChina’s viral villages: Digital nationalism and the COVID-19 crisis on online video-sharing platform Bilibili
Author(s) -
Florian Schneider
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
communication and the public
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.436
H-Index - 9
ISSN - 2057-0473
DOI - 10.1177/20570473211048029
Subject(s) - nationalism , china , political science , legitimacy , digital media , digital revolution , media studies , sociology , public relations , law , politics
When the COVID-19 virus broke out in China, foreign observers speculated whether the Chinese leadership was facing its ‘Chernobyl Moment’. China’s leadership, however, defied foreign expectations about its ostensibly floundering legitimacy and instead turned the crisis into a national success story. This article explores the role that digital media played in cementing this success, specifically how various actors mobilized nationalist sentiments and discourses on the online video-sharing platform Bilibili. By focusing on visual discourses, online commentaries, and the affordances of the digital platform, the article analyses the role that ‘hip’ and youthful content played in the authorities’ attempts to guiding online audiences to rally around the flag. The results of these efforts were viral villages of community sentiment that created strong incentives for conformity, and in which the official party line was able to reverberate with pop-culture memes and popular nationalism.