Pornography, Ideology, and the Internet: A Japanese Adult Video Actress in Mainland China

Description

This book starts from the discussion of a pornography, but does not end with pornography. Rather, it suggests that a pornographic star can be treated as a cultural product which obtains rich cultural meanings. It contributes to the debate between the global homogenization paradigm and the creolization paradigm which predominates in multiple disciplines, through a thorough examination of the entire process of the cross-cultural migration of Aoi Sola, a Japanese adult video (AV) actress who has achieved amazing popularity in mainland China since 2010. Through fifteen-month participant observation inside the two Chinese agencies of Sola, this study reveals that the transformative intermediaries play a significant role in the transformation of the cultural product in the Chinese context, even though their operations are usually invisible to outsiders. The findings challenge the conventional scholarly assumption that foreign products produced by global producers are consumed “directly” by local consumers or that the significance of these intermediaries can be ignored. This study further extends the participant observation inside the realistic field to the virtual space of media in different countries, which can be called the second field. It demonstrates that multiple local groups, including intermediaries, Chinese commercial news portals, Party media, and Chinese Internet users, respond to the dominant ideologies in Chinese society by reinterpreting Sola in different, even contradictory, ways. Thus, this research refutes the presumption that a local society is a coherent monolith in the acceptance of foreign cultural products. The book also deepens the reader’s understanding of Chinese Internet usage. Cover......Page 1 Pornography, Ideology, and the Internet......Page 2 Pornography, Ideology, and the Internet: A Japanese Adult Video Actress in Mainland China......Page 4 Copyright page......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Preface......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 12 Introduction......Page 14 Sola in Japan......Page 42 Japanese AV Industry Overview......Page 43 Vibrant, Innocent, and Obedient Femininity......Page 45 An “Ordinary” Girl in Adult Magazines......Page 49 Gender Ideology in Japan......Page 52 Sola’s Rankings......Page 54 AV Actresses as “Unordinary” Idols......Page 56 Sola’s Efforts to Transcend Social Division......Page 60 The Tension between Off/scenity and On/scenity......Page 64 Notes......Page 65 Sola as a Weapon of Resistance for Chinese Internet Users......Page 66 Pornography in the Chinese Context......Page 67 Two Stages of Sola’s Arrival in China......Page 76 Sola as a New Weapon of Resistance......Page 81 The Extension of the Gentle Submissive Japanese Femininity......Page 85 Reconsideration of the Creolization Paradigm......Page 86 Note......Page 88 Two Chinese Agencies Repositioning Sola......Page 90 Establishment and Organization......Page 91 The Invention of Sola......Page 93 Sola as a Symbol of Commercial Value......Page 101 Sola as a Means to Promote Other Artists......Page 104 Power Relations between Ushida and Yang......Page 105 Sola’s Agency......Page 109 Transformative Intermediaries......Page 110 Notes......Page 111 A Case of Promotion......Page 112 Celebrity and Media......Page 113 About Let Me Go......Page 114 Intervention in Public Opinion......Page 115 Timing Decisions in a Complex Political Context......Page 118 Interviews......Page 121 Four Types of Deleted Questions......Page 122 Three Types of Permitted Questions......Page 125 What Does the Manipulation of Commercial News Portals Imply?......Page 130 Note......Page 132 Sola’s Image Transformation......Page 134 Sola’s “Japaneseness” and “Chineseness”......Page 135 AV Actresses and Vulgarization......Page 145 “A Moving Equilibrium”......Page 157 Note......Page 159 Sola’s Image Transformation and Chinese Youth’s Identity......Page 160 Chinese Youth as Consumers......Page 161 Dominant Reading: A Symbol of Vulgar Taste......Page 163 Sola as a Model of Upward Mobility......Page 168 Diaosi and Chinese Young Netizens......Page 176 Diaosi and Online Celebrities......Page 181 Notes......Page 184 Increasing Visibility in National Newspapers......Page 186 The CCP’s “Anti-Japan Education” and Japanese Soft Power......Page 190 A “Teacher” on Contemporary China......Page 192 A Successful Business Model......Page 196 The Interview with a Fan......Page 202 The Differences between Sola’s Events in Japan and in China......Page 204 The Blurring of the Center and the Periphery......Page 205 Note......Page 207 Implications of the Study......Page 208 Limitations and Future Research......Page 213 Japanese Glossary......Page 217 Names of Celebrities......Page 218 Bibliography......Page 220 Index......Page 238 About the Author......Page 242