Futures of Learning

Due to the nature of China’s Internet development and because only recently have technologies like webcams, inexpensive video recorders, and software editing become widely available, new media production in China is a relatively new trend. For this reason, much of the information on user practices comes from the popular media, in particular Chinese blogs, video-sharing sites, and Internet forums where such media projects are circulated. When these either generate controversy or become a widespread phenomenon, as is sometimes the case, it is also possible to find news and commentaries in official media outlets, both Chinese and foreign.

The most common form of new media production in China is e’gao, a combination of the words “evil” and “to make fun of” that now signifies a multimedia expression that pokes fun at an original work (Jiao, 2007). The term has its roots in Japanese kuso, a subculture associated with both gaming and satire. In China, e’gao is closely linked to tech-savvy, digital youth and has become hugely popular: a search with the word in Chinese Google brings up over 12,000,000 hits. Over the past few years e’gao has become an umbrella term used to cover an array of practices including photo-shopping images, creating lip synching videos or parodies of famous films, and imitating celebrities in a humorous way. While some view e’gao as having no agenda or logic, others see in these types of productions small forms of protest against the cultural and political establishment, as a few examples below will illustrate.

Photo-shopping images and circulating them on the Internet is most closely associated with “Little Fatty” (Xiao Pang), a Shanghai teenager (real name Qian Zhijun) whose photo was snapped by someone during a training at a gas station and then uploaded to the Internet in 2003. His round face with his slightly hesitant sideways glance somehow captured the imagination of a slew of photo-shoppers, and his image was soon replacing the visage of everyone from the Mona Lisa to Jackie Chan to Johnny Depp, as in the image above (in English, see http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/the-new-cultural-revolution-how-little-fatty-made-it-big-424469.html; in Chinese with images, see (http://www.gs.xinhuanet.com/jiaodianwt/2004-05/20/content_2160773.htm). Explanations for why Little Fatty’s face generated such a craze abound, but perhaps most interesting is how the phenomenon demonstrates a newfound means of creative expression and satire in China. It also reveals new channels for stardom and success: apparently as a result of his Internet fame Little Fatty garnered a movie deal with New Line Cinema, to star – most appropriately – in a film based on a popular online novel (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-07/03/content_908628.htm). 

Perhaps the most famous e’gao video production is Hu Ge’s “The Bloody Case Caused by a Steamed Bun,” (Yige Mantou Yinfa de Xue’an). The 20-minute film, widely available on YouTube and Chinese video-sharing sites such as Tudou, is a parody of Chen Kaige’s 2005 The Promise, one of the most expensive films ever made in China at 350 million yuan (US $4.2 million), and one that was largely panned by critics and the public alike. In contrast, Hu’s video cost virtually nothing and soon became a viral sensation. As noted by the Shanghai Daily (an official English publication) in an article titled, “Director Gets his Nose Properly Rubbed in it,” Hu’s film was not “just a victory of grassroots wisdom over a film guru’s mediocrity. It’s the hallmark of a new era in China, when small potatoes are free to satire public figures in a way that’s short of actual malice…. it has won the hearts of tens of millions of netizens, who share its author’s joy in undoing that pompous film” (http://www.shanghaidaily.com/art_print/242736.htm). The short film gained even more notoriety when Chen Kaige decided to sue Hu Ge for copyright violation. When online forums exploded with commentary and support for Hu, the case was eventually dropped.

In the wake of Hu’s success, several other grassroots artists have gone viral, most notably the Backdorm Boys (Houshe Nansheng), two art students from Guangzhou whose lip-synching and face-making catapulted them first into fame as viral stars and now as celebrities with a multi-year contract. As Meng (forthcoming) states, e’gao is a significant form of cultural expression in China because as a decentralized form of communication, it challenges both “the established mechanisms of media production and distribution as well as the officially sanctioned norms of media content in China.” She further notes that its carnivalesque and iconoclastic attitude towards “mainstream” and “officialdom” are a means for ordinary Chinese to express criticism and dissatisfaction in a media environment that is heavily censored. Well aware of this side of the e’gao phenomenon, the Chinese government has taken steps to control its dissemination. For example, in 2007 the government declared that all music that was changed from its original form first had to be submitted for approval before being uploaded. In 2008, new regulations limited the broadcasting of videos to websites of state-controlled companies. How rigorously enforced these laws are is not entirely clear.

While most e’gao videos are only indirectly political, images containing visual mashups with political meanings have also become a trend. One example, shown below, is the “river crab wearing three watches,” which appeared in 2007 in the Chinese blogosphere. Because the current Chinese government has enacted a variety of policies and made numerous public announcements regarding the need to build a “harmonious society” (hexie shehui), when blog or Internet forum posts containing “sensitive” material are deleted by censors or when a website is blocked, it is common for the one censored to say he or she has been “harmonized.” As MacKinnon (2007) notes, the river crab meme emerged as a play on the Chinese words for “harmony” and “river crab,” both homophones that use different Chinese characters. Because the word for harmony or harmonious is so frequently used sarcastically online, it is often censored, and thus those who are discussing censorship use the characters for river crab. Because a well-known political blogger, Wang Xiaofeng, writes under the name Dai sange biao, or “wear three watches,” itself a play on the government policy of the “three represents,” eventually someone photo-shopped a crab wearing three watches:

Regardless of whether it has a political content and despite its popularity, e’gao, like many practices in the realm of Chinese cyberspace, has not necessarily been wholeheartedly embraced by the general public. Its irreverent humor and “nothing’s sacred” attitude have generated concerns that it degrades the common culture. As with online gaming, youth have been viewed as especially vulnerable to its corrupting influence. In addition, issues regarding copyright and intellectual property have also raised, as with the Hu Ge case. Nonetheless, the e’gao phenomenon shows no signs of abating and it and the range of production practices associated with it are likely to continue as a vehicle for creative expression and counter-hegemonic voices.

References

Jiao, W. (2007, January 22). E’gao: Popular art criticism or just plain evil?” China Daily.

MacKinnon, R. (2007, September 12). “Eating ‘river crab’ at the harmonious forum. Retrieved November 22, 2008, from http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/2007/09/eating-river-cr.html.

Meng, B. (forthcoming). Regulating egao: Futile efforts of recentralization. In X. Zhang and Y. Zheng (eds.), China’s information and communications technology revolution: Social changes and state responses. New York: Routledge.