ABSTRACT
The Chinese screen industry witnessed the process of commercialisation and financialisation. It operates under state censorship with a mission of telling Chinese stories well. To some extent, China’s ambitions of power, whether cultural, digital, soft, or hard power, are about countering the hegemony of discourse power. Online screen content is normally categorised as user-generated content or professional-generated content. Advancement in information technology is a prerequisite for digital platforms, such as Douyin. The key element to Douyin’s success lies in the growing popularity of subcultures, such as hip-hop, a formerly underground culture that has long been excluded from the mainstream in China. The eruption of rap culture in 2019 is signalled changes in content censorship and the inclusiveness of mainstream discourses, which gave rise to short-video platforms, particularly Douyin. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
