Governing entertainment celebrities in China

 

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.

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Tagi: asian entertainment