Breaking the “chain of contempt”: distinction and taste in Chinese social media fandom

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the complexity of taste in today’s Chinese social media fandom through a detailed analysis of bishilian (chain of contempt) and using Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of distinction. We examine bishilian both in relation to wider practices of taste in contemporary Chinese society, and in relation to platform-specific dynamics within Chinese-language social media. Two dilemmas emerge through the taste as a marker of social distinction in Chinese social media: first, that between the subjectivity of personal preference and the objectivity of high-low taste hierarchies; second, that between the desire to maintain the exclusivity of highbrow fandom and the desire for a higher impact through expansion, which may compromise exclusivity. The prerequisite for a better, rather than deeper, aesthetic literacy of Chinese society is a clearer understanding taste as a marker of social distinction in the context of Chinese social media fandom by the public.