Symbolic performance: a critical discourse construction of sang culture in China’s online space

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Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication ›› 2020, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (12) : 50-67.

 Symbolic performance: a critical discourse construction of sang culture in China’s online space

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Abstract

 In the transitional period of Chinese society, sang culture has become a pervasive youth subculture. From the online carnival of Ge You slouch to the popular life philosophy of Buddahalike, China’s young generation expresses their own culture in a unique way. By drawing on Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical theory and the Birmingham School’s interpretation on style, this paper adopts filed study, textual analysis, and critical discourse analysis to explore the nature of sang culture, which contains active performative characteristic in China’s online space. The changes of stage scene are conducive to the performance of sang culture and emotional vent. Through bricolage, parody, and homology, Chinese young generation achieves self and group identity. Young people are familiar with the performance rule of online theatre, and the subtle symbolized performance of sang culture presents reality. By performing sang, young people thus are able to reach a ‘self-idealization’ effect. This research found that the performance of sang culture in China’s online space actually is a kind of duplicity, which means the youth generation looks hopeless, but in fact their thoughts are positive. Hopeless people are positive could be an interpretation of the nature of sang culture. In the previous studies, scholars suggested that because the invisible power of discipline in commercial culture is massive, youth people have to adopt the strategy of keeping distance with commerce to maintain the independence of the youth subculture. This paper, however, attempts to challenge the view within the current context of cultural network.

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  / Sang culture, youth subculture, critical discourse analysis

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.  Symbolic performance: a critical discourse construction of sang culture in China’s online space. Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication. 2020, 42(12): 50-67

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