Indenturing Celebrity: Governing China’s Entertainment Industries

Jeffreys, E; Xu, J

Indenturing Celebrity: Governing China’s Entertainment Industries

Jeffreys, E

Xu, J

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Publisher:: SAGE Publications
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Modern China: an international quarterly of history and social science, 2023, 49, (5), pp. 564-588
Issue Date:: 2023-01-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Jeffreys, E https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8269-7080
dc.contributor.author	Xu, J
dc.date.accessioned	2023-10-31T03:17:14Z
dc.date.available	2023-10-31T03:17:14Z
dc.date.issued	2023-01-01
dc.identifier.citation	Modern China: an international quarterly of history and social science, 2023, 49, (5), pp. 564-588
dc.identifier.issn	0097-7004
dc.identifier.issn	1552-6836
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/172907
dc.description.abstract	This article examines the governance of China’s entertainment industries using the concept of “indentured celebrities”—famous people who are obliged to serve as ambassadors for Chinese government advertising and public diplomacy. The article introduces the idea of indentured celebrities in relation to Western sociological understandings of major celebrities as “national power elites,” “powerless elites,” and cosmopolitan “Big Citizens” who use their mediatized star power to exert unelected, “stateless” political influence. It then examines the expansion since the mid-2000s of regulatory controls over China’s entertainment industries. Finally, it explores the “Fan Bingbing tax evasion case,” revealing how online public censure, and the associated potential for government action, can coalesce to discipline celebrity behaviors. We conclude that regulatory frameworks and, to a lesser degree, “supervision by public opinion,” indenture major celebrities to aid the ruling Chinese Communist Party, while undermining any scope to exert nongovernmental political influence as per Western celebrities.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	SAGE Publications
dc.relation.ispartof	Modern China: an international quarterly of history and social science
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1177/00977004221133533
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
dc.rights	Jeffreys, E.; Xu, J. Indenturing Celebrity: Governing China's Entertainment Industries, Modern China: an international quarterly of history and social science ©2023. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/00977004221133533
dc.subject.classification	Cultural Studies
dc.title	Indenturing Celebrity: Governing China’s Entertainment Industries
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	49
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/e-Press
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/School of International Studies
utslib.copyright.status	open_access	*
pubs.consider-herdc	false
dc.date.updated	2023-10-31T03:17:13Z
pubs.issue	5
pubs.publication-status	Published
pubs.volume	49
utslib.citation.issue	5

Abstract:

This article examines the governance of China’s entertainment industries using the concept of “indentured celebrities”—famous people who are obliged to serve as ambassadors for Chinese government advertising and public diplomacy. The article introduces the idea of indentured celebrities in relation to Western sociological understandings of major celebrities as “national power elites,” “powerless elites,” and cosmopolitan “Big Citizens” who use their mediatized star power to exert unelected, “stateless” political influence. It then examines the expansion since the mid-2000s of regulatory controls over China’s entertainment industries. Finally, it explores the “Fan Bingbing tax evasion case,” revealing how online public censure, and the associated potential for government action, can coalesce to discipline celebrity behaviors. We conclude that regulatory frameworks and, to a lesser degree, “supervision by public opinion,” indenture major celebrities to aid the ruling Chinese Communist Party, while undermining any scope to exert nongovernmental political influence as per Western celebrities.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/172907