NÜZHUBO AND HER “BROTHERS”: STREAMING LIFE AND MEDIATING INTIMACY AT SCALE

Authors

  • Jingyi Gu University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, United States of America

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2021i0.11928

Keywords:

live streaming, mediated intimacy, gender, sexuality

Abstract

In this paper, I consider live/life streaming as a mediated venue for making social relationships and a mediatized world constituted of diverse livelihoods. Drawing from my digital ethnography on two Chinese live streaming platforms Inke and Huajiao, I document the emergence of narratives, performances, and interactions that are either sexually suggestive or have gendered implications. I identify patterns of emotional expression and self-disclosure that lie within these interactions and analyze their alignment with and distinction from those that have been considered within the existing theorization of intimacy. In doing so, I examine how live/life streaming constructs scalable “mediated intimacy,” in the one-versus-many semi-public setting, through nurturing gendered performances and building subtle sexual tension between its participants.

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Published

2021-09-15

How to Cite

Gu, J. (2021). NÜZHUBO AND HER “BROTHERS”: STREAMING LIFE AND MEDIATING INTIMACY AT SCALE. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2021. https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2021i0.11928

Issue

Section

Papers G