Contemporary Chinese Celebrities: Moral Transgressions, Rights Defence and Public Concerns

Whether willingly or unwillingly, public celebrities are often the focus of discussion of moral matters and political causes, but how does this sort of celebrity culture function in a country such as China with a powerful central state? Contemporary Chinese Celebrities explores how in today’s China, celebrity figures embody, conflict with and engage with social, civil, moral and economic issues. Shenshen Cai examines the state’s governance of celebrity activism and the interplay between the propaganda machine and the stars. Analyzing examples of scandalous celebrities who act as activists in a moral domain which is tightly governed by the state, Cai also studies several sports stars who have emerged in recent years as political activists in China, and their open defiance of the Chinese political system that poses unprecedented challenge to the Party’s rule.

Shenshen Cai is Lecturer in Chinese Studies at Monash University, Australia. Cai is the author of State Propaganda in China’s Entertainment Industry (2016), Television Drama in Contemporary China: Political, Social and Cultural Phenomena (2016), and Contemporary Chinese Films and Celebrity Directors (2017).