Diaosi as infrapolitics: scatological tropes, identity-making and cultural intimacy on China's Internet

Yang, P., Tang, Lijun ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6815-0625 and Wang, Xuan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6227-6008 2015. Diaosi as infrapolitics: scatological tropes, identity-making and cultural intimacy on China's Internet. Media, Culture & Society 37 (2) , pp. 197-214. 10.1177/0163443714557980

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Abstract

This article examines a recent bizarre phenomenon on China’s Internet – the enormous popularity of a scatological Chinese neologism called diaosi, which literally translates as ‘dick string’. Seeing the diaosi phenomenon as a case of ‘infrapolitics’, a space of nuanced discursive practices mediating overt online politics and benign online entertainment, we analyse the ways in which an infrapolitical practice such as the diaosi phenomenon fuses political critique, cultural processes of identity construction and meaning-making as well as cyber ritual communion. Specifically, we interpret the infrapolitics of diaosi as simultaneously an instantiation of a prevalent scatological online culture that defies hypernormalization, a collective identity-making that seeks to create critical social solidarity and a practice and politics of cultural intimacy.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Modern Languages Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Publisher:	SAGE
ISSN:	0163-4437
Last Modified:	27 Oct 2022 09:54
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/68167

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