ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that critical screen studies in transnational contexts can benefit from a rethinking of media not just as textual artifacts but also material objects. The implications of this re-conception for writing about transnational screen cultures are three-fold. First, it involves approaching media as events rather than preformed artifacts. Second, it entails attending to the more explicit roles played by audiences today in shaping the configuration of transnational media objects. Cultural studies of transnational media have long been concerned with the question of representation. The discourse and reality of “rising China” are increasingly shaping the contours of transnational media, whether in terms of Hollywood’s box office or the production of personal electronics. For Chinese nationals living overseas, the video was first shared on WeChat before becoming available on YouTube, the former being the most popular social media app in the Chinese-speaking world and the latter only accessible outside China.
