The postfeminist entrepreneurial self and the platformisation of labour: A case study of yesheng female lifestyle bloggers on Xiaohongshu

Abstract

Yesheng (野生), which literally translates to ‘wild growing’, is a Chinese internet term to describe social media creators who do not have contracts with multichannel network companies and operate their accounts independently. Drawing from in-depth interviews with eight current and former yesheng female lifestyle bloggers on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (小红书), this article examines gendered entrepreneurial labour in relation to the platformisation of Chinese digital networks through the case study. On the one hand, taking gender and class formation into account, I propose that yesheng female lifestyle bloggers showcase a kind of postfeminist entrepreneurialism with Chinese specificities, which is encouraged by the development of Chinese social media platforms and the wanghong economy. On the other hand, yesheng bloggers’ entrepreneurial labour is governed, regulated and commercialised by powerful social media platforms. Situated in a broader context of gender politics in contemporary China, this article demonstrates the complexities of gendered entrepreneurialism and the platformisation of labour from the perspective of feminist media studies.