“O Ever Youthful, O Ever Weeping”: Exploring Youth Empowerment Through Platform-Dependent Creative Labor in China

Authors

  • Yunyi Hu The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Keywords:

youth empowerment, social media, platform-dependent creative labor, user-generated content, China

Abstract

This study presents “platform-dependent creative labor” as a typology for exploring youth empowerment through the performance of creative labor on Bilibili, the most prevalent Chinese digital entertainment platform among young people. It employs digital ethnography and semistructured interviews to investigate the research question: How does the performance of creative labor on Bilibili affect youth empowerment in China? Findings show that youth empowerment is dynamically achieved through the performance of creative labor on Bilibili in economic, cultural, and sociopolitical terms. However, youth empowerment through platform-dependent creative labor is still faced with multifaceted challenges stemming from capitalist exploitation, stratification barriers, and nation-state censorship in China against the background of marketization, digitalization, and globalization. Overall, I argue that social media can be an empowering tool for the youth as content generators; however, it should be used more cautiously and skillfully.

Author Biography

Yunyi Hu, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Ph.D. Candidate,School of Journalism and Communication

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Published

2024-01-29

Issue

Vol. 18 (2024)

Section

Articles

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