Open AccessNÜZHUBO AND HER “BROTHERS”: STREAMING LIFE AND MEDIATING INTIMACY AT SCALE
Author(s) -
Jingyi Gu
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
selected papers of internet research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2162-3317
DOI - 10.5210/spir.v2021i0.11928
Subject(s) - narrative , live streaming , ethnography , sociology , social life , scale (ratio) , social psychology , livelihood , psychology , aesthetics , computer science , multimedia , art , social science , history , physics , literature , archaeology , quantum mechanics , anthropology , agriculture
In this paper, I consider live/life streaming as a mediated venue for making social relationships and a mediatized world constituted of diverse livelihoods. Drawing from my digital ethnography on two Chinese live streaming platforms Inke and Huajiao, I document the emergence of narratives, performances, and interactions that are either sexually suggestive or have gendered implications. I identify patterns of emotional expression and self-disclosure that lie within these interactions and analyze their alignment with and distinction from those that have been considered within the existing theorization of intimacy. In doing so, I examine how live/life streaming constructs scalable “mediated intimacy,” in the one-versus-many semi-public setting, through nurturing gendered performances and building subtle sexual tension between its participants.