The rural video influencers in China: on the new edge of urbanization

Abstract

On the new media platforms in China, especially the video platforms, some rural content has become quite influential, which is, to some extent, inconsistent with people's impression of the vulnerable position of rural areas the urban-rural inequality. This thesis studied some of the most popular the rural content producers with the close reading of their videos, explaining how they frame themselves and their artworks and what kind of "rurality" is performed to the audiences. While the audience might assign them as rural figures, these people were on the edge of the urban and the rural as they had a shared history as some people who were from the rural areas, spent a period of their lives as migrant workers, and finally became video influencers performing some kind of rural lifestyle.