Overview

As Chinese performers have become more visible on global screens, their professional images - once the preserve of studios and agents - have been increasingly relayed and reworked by film fans. Web technology has made searching, poaching, editing, posting and sharing texts significantly easier, and by using a variety of seamless and innovative methods a new mode of personality construction has been developed. With case studies of high-profile stars like Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen, this ground-breaking book examines transnational Chinese stardom as a Web-based phenomenon, and as an outcome of the participatory practices of cyber fans.

Full Product Details

9781474430340

Table of Contents

Reviews

If you're even remotely interested in Chinese cinema or digital media, I beseech you to read this book. Lau's analysis is diligent, smart, and she writes with gimlet-eyed conviction. The proposition that fans create meaning out of their virtual interactions with popular stars is thoroughly tested on this proving ground.--Julian Stringer, University of Nottingham Lau's book valuably contributes to a growing body of literature nudging film theory beyond the filmic. This, then, is film theory for the twenty-first century: it acknowledges (and hypothesizes about) the impact of Web culture on all aspects of cinema, from the manufacture of star personae to new viral forms of film distribution and promotion.--Gary Bettinson ""The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory""

"If you're even remotely interested in Chinese cinema or digital media, I beseech you to read this book. Lau's analysis is diligent, smart, and she writes with gimlet-eyed conviction. The proposition that fans create meaning out of their virtual interactions with popular stars is thoroughly tested on this proving ground.--Julian Stringer, University of Nottingham Lau's book valuably contributes to a growing body of literature nudging film theory beyond the filmic. This, then, is film theory for the twenty-first century: it acknowledges (and hypothesizes about) the impact of Web culture on all aspects of cinema, from the manufacture of star personae to new viral forms of film distribution and promotion.--Gary Bettinson ""The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory"""

Author Information

Dorothy Wai Sim Lau is an Associate Professor at the Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University. She is the author of Chinese Stardom in Participatory Cyberculture (2019), Reorienting Chinese Stars in Global Polyphonic Networks: Voice, Ethnicity, Power (2021), Celebrity Activism and Philanthropy in Asia: Toward a Cosmopolitical Imaginary (2024), and East Asian Auteurism, Cinephilia and the Media Platform Era: Film Authorship Rethought (2025).

Tab Content 6

Countries Available