[Commlist] New Book: Internet Vulgarities in China — Cultures, Governance and Politics

We are thrilled to announce the publication of the edited book 
*/Internet Vulgarities in China: Cultures, Governance and Politics 
<https://www.routledge.com/Internet-Vulgarities-in-China-Cultures-Governance-and-Politics/Xu-Zhang/p/book/9781003698067?utm_medium=email&utm_source=EmailStudio&utm_campaign=E9040158235_ENGAGC_D_5294405&utm_id=>/*, 
edited by Jian Xu (Deakin University) and Dino Ge Zhang (City University 
of Hong Kong). The book has been published by Routledge as part of 
its Asian Visual Cultures series.

The book is the first comprehensive study to critically examine the 
cultures, governance and politics of internet vulgarities in Chinese 
society. Comprising twelve chapters, the authors present empirically 
rich case studies to explore the nature, regulation and evolution of the 
internet cultural products, vernacular internet cultures and subcultural 
online communities which have been officially deemed ‘vulgar’ by the 
state, official media and policy documents.

 From ‘vulgar’ online music, internet literature, memes, web dramas, 
influencers, video games to online fandoms, this timely book 
demonstrates that the disciplinary power of China’s ‘anti-vulgarity’ 
campaigns stems from the state’s strategic use of the ambiguous concept 
of ‘vulgarity’ to judge and regulate the aesthetic and ethical 
dimensions of popular digital media cultures. This process of turning 
language into law—a form of ‘/linguistification of rule’/—functions as a 
key technique of digital and cultural governance, ensuring that these 
cultures evolve in accordance with the ideological, moral and cultural 
values of the party-state.

The book//will make a significant contribution to the fields of China’s 
digital media studies, popular culture studies, internet and cultural 
governance. It is an essential resource for scholars, researchers and 
students seeking a critical understanding of China’s digital media 
cultures and its governance and politics.

*Table of Contents*

**

* Chapter 1 (Introduction): *

Judgement of ugliness: The politics of ‘anti-vulgarity’ in China’s media 
and cultural governance

/— Jian Xu & Dino Ge Zhang/

*Part I: Internet Cultural Products*

*Chapter 2: *

**

Messy realities and power secrecy: Contested and persistent presences of 
vulgarities in the governance of Chinese web novels

/— Renren Yang /

**

*Chapter 3: *

Legitimising musical taste: ‘Vulgar internet songs’ from ‘Mice loves 
rice’ to PG-One

/— Nathanel Amar/

//

*Chapter 4: *

Boy’s love as ‘vulgar’ culture? The discourse of anti-boys’ love and the 
cis-heteronormative governance against BL-adapted web dramas in China

/— Liang Ge, Tingting Hu and Ziyao Chen/

*Chapter 5:*

Vulgar spirits of games and play from state to society: An alternative 
history of videogames in China

/— Dino Ge Zhang & Jing Sun /

**

*Part II: Vernacular Internet Cultures*

*Chapter 6: *

‘Toxic Chicken Soup’ as a genre: The dialectics of hope and its 
governance on We Media

/— Shaohua Guo/

*Chapter 7: *

Ball-ache, dick hair and serial cunt words: The role of vulgarity in 
Chinese internet language

/— Gabriele de Seta /

*Chapter 8: *

Negativity as vulgar? The rise of self-mockery culture and its governance

/— Junqi Peng/

*Chapter 9: *

In search of the opposite of the canonical: /eGao /Red Classics and its 
regulation

/— Qian Gong/

//

*Part III: Subcultural Online Communities*//

*Chapter 10: *

Vulgarising a subaltern taste on Chinese social media: The rise and fall 
of /hanmai/ rap and social shake dance

/— Jiaxi Hou /

//

*Chapter 11: *

Eroticised internet celebrity and vulgarity in China: The case of Aoi Sola

/— Jamie Coates /

//

*Chapter 12: *

‘Chasing idols in a rational way’: Governing toxic ‘fan circle’ culture 
in China

/— Jian Xu & Ling Yang /


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