China's entertainment industry is the latest sector put on edge by increased regulatory scrutiny, in an environment already stifled by the pandemic and the country's overall slowing economy.To get more breaking entertainment news, you can visit shine news official website.

Authorities have previously exerted control over its multibillion-dollar celebrity and entertainment sectors, from banning broadcasters from showing tattooed music artists to requiring programmers to air more patriotic-themed content.

But the recent crackdown comes as a bigger swell. In early August, the official Xinhua News Agency-largely a press-release forum for the government-published a series of articles on the unhealthy phenomenon of fan groups that use their massive online presence to drive traffic to celebrities and products they hawk.

Since then, the internet regulator has removed thousands of fan groups and hashtags from social media. Even China's antigraft agency got into the mix, publishing a statement titled, "Bringing Under Control ‘Fan Club' Madness." Hours later, Twitter-like Weibo (ticker: WB) took down its tremendously influential Star Power List, a sort of Billboard chart for trending celebrities, at the behest of regulators.

Weibo said publicly some fan groups had become "irrational" and "unhealthy" and that it would devise a "new scoring mechanism to curb fan fundraising, encourage fans to chase stars rationally, and encourage stars to interact with fans through charity."

Leading video-streaming platform iQiyi (IQ)-often dubbed the Netflix (NFLX) of China-last week announced it would cease airing its super popular idol talent shows, which often require viewers to purchase products in order to vote for their contestants of choice.

The company, owned by search giant Baidu (BIDU), said in a social media statement it needed to be "responsible as a platform, resist bad influences, and maintain a healthy and clean internet for users."That crackdown came just after numerous A-list celebrities were named, shamed, and then essentially erased from China's social platforms for various indiscretions. Two top Chinese actresses had their likenesses disappear from China's internet in August following scandals. And after Canadian singer Kris Wu, a megastar in China, was recently arrested on charges of rape in Beijing, his fan groups attempted a public relations pushback and a fundraising campaign for his defense. Wu denies the charges.

One question that emerges is what this all means for the troves of traffic and money that have been channeled to products within this ecosystem. Social media advertising revenue alone in China is estimated to hit 107 billion yuan ($17 billion) this year, according to iResearch.

"Brands who are heavily invested in ambassadors whose fan clubs have been purged are likely to get less ROI from their endorsements. This will be the result of less online buzz created for idols, as much of this is often generated by fan club members," Mark Tanner, managing director of Shanghai-based marketing research firm China Skinny, told Barron's.

"It may also be a rude awakening that the ambassadors don't have as widespread appeal as they thought, as this is often inflated by calculated initiatives from club members."This week, China's television regulator also banned "effeminate men" from appearing on programs, and reminded broadcasters to promote communist ideology. The regulator's public statement used the Chinese term for "sissies" to describe the now-prohibited male types.

The constant government bombardment of sector after sector has left companies and investors confounded. Tech, education, housing, and entertainment are just the more visible industries that have been ordered to "rectify" various alleged misconduct.

Gaming, too, has faced sporadic restrictions, mostly to curtail "addiction" of minors to popular games. On Monday, perhaps the most draconian new rule was issued by the gaming regulator, which now restricts playing time for minors to merely one hour on Fridays and on weekends. Barron's has previously spoken to parents who say their children spend up to eight hours a day playing videogames.

This article examines the practices, policies and politics of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP's) governance of entertainment celebrities from 2005 to 2020. We identify and critically analyse four principle governing approaches with related examples: ‘banning celebrities', ‘governing through professional associations, laws and notices', ‘platform governance' and ‘co-opting stars'. We argue that celebrity governance should be understood within the broader framework of the CCP's ‘cultural governance' and encompasses two dimensions: ‘governance of celebrity' and ‘governance through celebrity'. We conclude the increasing governance of this elite group has shaped the formation of a ‘neoliberal subjectivity' with Chinese characteristics, which allows them to navigate the complex trade-off between the intertwined neoliberal market ideology and Party ideology in China's cultural and entertainment industry. The article sheds vital light not only on the understanding of China's celebrity and entertainment politics, but also on the logic, approach and politics of the CCP's celebrity and cultural governance.To get more latest entertainment news, you can visit shine news official website.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has a long tradition of utilising mass entertainment to mobilise and educate to fulfil its political and ideological purposes (Cai Citation2016). From the ‘yangge drama' in the Yan'an area during the Anti-Japanese Resistance War (Liu Citation2010) and the ‘loyalty dance' and ‘model opera' during the Cultural Revolution (Lu Citation2004, McGrath Citation2010), through to the anti-corruption TV drama and the Chinese New Year Gala run by China Central Television (CCTV) in the reform era (Bai Citation2015, Zhao Citation1998), the CCP has enlisted and co-opted almost all possible cultural and artistic forms to promote Party ideology, innovate official propaganda and educate people about socialist values and ethics, all in the name of entertaining the masses. Mao Zedong's famous speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art in 1942, which stressed that art and cultural work should serve the socialist state and socialism, has shaped China's mass cultural and entertainment practices, and guided the CCP's art and cultural policies in Mao and post-Mao China (Fu Citation2015).
Since China's economic reform in the late 1970s, increased individual prosperity, leisure activities, transnational cultural flows, and the dramatic development of market-driven mass media have supported the rapid growth of mediated mass entertainment and China's cultural and entertainment industry (Xu and Zhao Citation2019). The ever increasing number of entertainment celebrities, as the public face of the industry and as a new type of sociocultural elite in post-socialist China, has demonstrated an enormous impact on young people's style, cultural values and consumption through their artistic works, commercial endorsements and lifestyles (Yue and Cheung Citation2019). To harness the influence of these cultural icons, the state proactively incorporates entertainment celebrities into the CCP's publicity work, such as in its television melodramas, public service advertising, cultural ambassadorship, and legal and educational campaigns (Yu Citation2012). Celebrities have also become a focus of state governance to ensure they pursue ‘professional excellence and moral integrity' , a lofty ideal promoted by the CCP for socialist artists and cultural workers. The instrumental role of mass entertainment and the legacy of China's socialist ‘role model' determine that because idols should play an ‘edutainment' role or, at the very least, be harmless to socialist values, ethics, Party policies and ideology, they require the constant guidance and supervision of the CCP.

Research literature on the governance of China's mediated mass entertainment has expanded over the last decade. Scholars, mainly in Chinese media and cultural studies, have studied media policies, regulations and censorship of TV drama, reality shows, imported foreign TV programmes, films, popular music, and the cultural and creative industry in general (Schneider Citation2012, Bai Citation2013, Chan Citation2016). By examining the legitimacy, practices, policies and politics of governing diverse types of popular media and cultural products, these studies have collectively revealed the dilemma confronting China's mediated mass entertainment in the reform era, that is, to simultaneously pursue market success and play an ‘edutainment' role within the CCP's cultural, moral and political framework. However, research on the governance of entertainment celebrities who are the public face of these entertainment products is needed. In celebrity studies, scholars have focused on the transformation, roles and politics of celebrities and celebrity practices in contemporary China (Edwards and Jeffreys Citation2010, Jeffreys Citation2015, Sullivan and Kehoe Citation2019). In a recently published paper, Lin and Zhao (Citation2020) examine ‘celebrity as governmentality' in China by tracing the history of celebrities in Confucian, Maoist and post-Maoist governmentalities. However, celebrity as subject of governance in the Chinese context remains understudied. This article aims to fill the gap by identifying and critically analysing the principle approaches utilised by the CCP to govern entertainment celebrities since 2005.