SearchMy accountHelpBasket0 items

International Film Stars

Chinese Stardom in Participatory Cyberculture

By Dorothy Wai Sim Lau

Open access
Format

£100.00

In stock

About this book

Examines transnational Chinese stardom as a Web-based phenomenon
  • Generates a new model to address the virtual forms of stardom and the under-explored dimensions of Chinese stars
  • Revisits the star construction of globally acclaimed Chinese performers such as Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen
  • Themes include: star performance; the star body; ethnicity; stars and audience; and phonic persona

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.

Reviews

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.
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.
Table of contents
AcknowledgementsList of FiguresNote on the TextIntroduction: A Phenomenon After Cinema – The Chinese Stardom Goes ‘Cyber’Chapter 1 - Blogging Donnie Yen: Remaking the Martial Arts Body as a Cyber-IntertextChapter 2 - ‘Flickering’ Jackie Chan: The Actor-Ambassadorial Persona on Photo-sharing SitesChapter 3 - ‘Friending’ Jet Li on Facebook: The Celebrity-Philanthropist Persona in Online Social NetworksChapter 4 - YouTubing Zhang Ziyi: Chinese Female Stardom in Fan Videos on Video-sharing SitesChapter 5 - Discussing Takeshi Kaneshiro: The Pan-Asian Star Image on Fan ForumsConclusion - Reimagining Chineseness in the Global Cyber CultureFilmographyBibliographyIndex
About the author

Dorothy Wai Sim Lau

Dorothy Wai Sim Lau is an Associate Professor at the Academy of Film, Hong Kong Baptist University. Her research interests include stardom, celebrities, fandom, Asian cinema, Hong Kong cinema, digital culture and screen culture. 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 Auteurs, Cinephilia and the Media Platform Era (2025). Lau was the visiting scholar at the School of East Asian Studies, The University of Sheffield in 2022.

More in this series

See the series →
Pre-order

Michelle Yeoh

Lisa Funnell, Wayne Wong and Dorothy Wai Sim Lau (eds)

£95.00Feb 2027