In this Special Issue of Global Media and China on ‘The Future of Wanghong’, we offer six articles from authors whose foci cover the cultures and economies of wanghong. Drawing on ongoing research on wanghong by the Influencer Ethnography Research Lab (IERLab) at Curtin University, this Special Issue invited interlocutors to share their cutting edge expertise on emergent wanghong phenomena to reflect on the status quo as a springboard for us to imagine the road ahead. With disciplinary leanings across sociology, cultural studies, gender studies, media studies, and communications, the articles draw on an array of methodological frameworks to explore the fast-changing practice of wanghong in their specific fieldsites. This editorial deploys the emergent research from these experts to postulate how the future of wanghong may shape up pertaining to: Contents and audiences; practice and discourse and sociopolitics; visibility and surveillance; nationalism and placemaking; governance and work; and e-commerce and merchandizing.
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AbidinC.LeeJ.BarbettaT.MiaoW. S. (2021). Influencers and COVID-19: Reviewing key issues in press coverage across Australia, China, Japan, and South Korea. Media International Australia, 178(1), 114–135. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878X20959838
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AbidinC.LeeJ.GuoJ.TakaoY.HongS.MorganD.Hong-PhucN. L. (2025). The role of influencers in misinformation and sexualised content in the Asia Pacific region. In Influencer Ethnography Research Lab (IERLab), Faculty of Humanities, Curtin University. https://ierlab.com/gtsreport2025/.
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DuY. (2025). Homeland social media as a field of negotiation: Creative strategies of China’s wanghong in Japan. Global Media and China, 10(3), 353–371. https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364241293216
FungA.HeW.CaoS. (2022). Cultural capitals and creative labour of short video platforms: A study of wanghong on Douyin. Cultural Trends, 32(3), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/09548963.2022.2082862
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GerbnerG.GrossL.MorganM.SignorielliN. (1982). Charting the mainstream: Television’s contributions to political orientations. Journal of Communication, 32(2), 100–127. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1982.tb00500.x
GuanZ.ZhouO. T. (2025). Wanghong e-commerce in/as China’s economic transformation: A case study of beauty wanghong.Global Media and China, 10(3), 391–406. https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364241278103
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GuoJ. (2022). The postfeminist entrepreneurial self and the platformisation of labour: A case study of Yesheng female lifestyle bloggers on Xiaohongshu. Global Media and China, 7(3), 303–318. https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364221095896
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GuoJ. (2025). ‘Living-alone’ wanghong: Women’s singleness as a wanghong genre and the configuration of Chinese postfeminist wanghong culture. Global Media and China, 10(3), 312–330. https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364241278101
HaoL. (2025). Algorithmic imaginary in surveillance technicity: The renegotiation of minzu identity among China’s ethnic minority wanghongs on Douyin. Global Media and China, 10(3), 331–352. https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364241307478
21.
JuR. (2022). Producing entrepreneurial citizens: Governmentality over and through Hong Kong influencers on Xiaohongshu (red). Policy & Internet, 14(3), 618–632. https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.324
LiL.KangK. (2021). Why ethnic minority groups’ online-startups are booming in China’s tight cultural ecosystem? Journal of entrepreneurship in emerging economies. Online first. https://opus.lib.uts.edu.au/handle/10453/154434
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ShenS. (2022). Commercialising potential as a critical factor of differential media management: A cultural zoning study of China’s regulation of mukbang and online eating disorder communities. Media, Culture & Society, 45(2), 373–387. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221111950
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ShenS.AbidinC. (2025). The shelf lives of wanghong: Surviving scandals for internet fame in China. In AnnabellT.FieselerC.GoantaC.WildhaberI. (Eds.), The hashtag hustle (pp. 50–69). https://doi.org/10.4337/9781035332816.00009
SongL. (2021). Desire for sale: Live-streaming and commercial DIY porn among Chinese gay microcelebrities. Convergence: The International Journal of Research Into New Media Technologies, 27(6), 1753–1769. https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565211047341
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WangY. (2021). Playing live-streaming ‘love games’: Mediated intimacy and desperational labour in digital China. Journal of Gender Studies, 30(5), 621–632. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2021.1929100
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XuJ.QuL.ZhangG. (2022). Governing social eating (chibo) influencers: Policies, approach and politics of influencer governance in China. Policy & Internet, 14(3), 525–540. https://doi.org/10.1002/poi3.318
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XuJ.SchneiderF. (2025). Influencers as emerging actors in global digital propaganda. European Journal of Cultural Studies. Online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/13675494251351221
XuJ.ZhaoX. (2019). Changing platformativity of China’s female Wanghong: From Anni Baobei to Zhang Dayi. In CaiS. (Ed.), Female celebrities in contemporary Chinese society (pp. 127–158). Singapore: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-5980-4_7
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YuX. (2025). Satellite intermediaries: Media management and entrepreneurial labour in the Chinese Wanghong livestream guilds. Global Media and China, 10(3), 372–390. https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364241278102
ZhangG.de SetaG. (2018). Being “red” on the internet. In AbidinC.BrownM. L. (Eds.), Microcelebrity around the globe (pp. 57–67). Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78756-749-820181005
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ZhangZ. (2021). Infrastructuralization of tik tok: Transformation, power relationships, and platformization of video entertainment in China. Media, Culture & Society, 43(2), 219–236. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443720939452
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ZhaoX. (2025). Overseas Chinese parent wanghong on Douyin: Discursive constructions of diasporic parenthood. Global Media and China, 10(3), 294–311. https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364241278090
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ZouS. (2025). Transcoding a wanghong city: Mediatized culturation of urban places in China. Media, Culture & Society, 47(1), 22–40. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437241271009
