Abstract
The Chinese web film industry has experienced significant growth since 2014, with scholars exploring various factors contributing to its success, such as magical elements rooted in Daoist traditions, adaptations of popular fantasy novel IPs, and the incorporation of colossal monsters. However, these critical efforts lack verified quantitative data and scrutinized audience reception. This paper aims to fill this gap by a comprehensive dataset of reception information, whose data are sourced from esteemed critical review platforms Zhihu, as well as audience review platforms Douban and Xiaohongshu Movie, to provide a fresh critical perspective on the viewership of Chinese web cinema. The dataset of Chinese web film produced from 2014–2023 is processed through two-step coding with an initial coding to generate symbolic meaning categories such as watching experiences, preference for the movie and emotional engagement, and a second coding to integrate these categories to sort analytic categories such as affection, identity, and cultural taste into theoretical categories. By examining the incorporation of the meaning categories and the theoretical categories, this paper synthesizes the reception modes of Chinese web films among local viewers. With this understanding of the symbolic and affective consumption of Chinese web films, the paper will elucidate the cultural and industrial factors influencing critical and audience reception and the market success for Chinese web movies.
| Original language | English |
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| Publication status | Published - 13 Mar 2025 |
| Event | Association of Asian Studies Annual Conference 2025 - Columbus, United States Duration: 13 Mar 2025 → 16 Mar 2025 https://www.asianstudies.org/conference/ (Conference link) |
Conference
| Conference | Association of Asian Studies Annual Conference 2025 |
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| Abbreviated title | AAS2025 |
| Country/Territory | United States |
| City | Columbus |
| Period | 13/03/25 → 16/03/25 |
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