Li Ziqi and the Possibility of Critical Optimism
Martin Essemann
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MARTIN ESSEMANN is a researcher, artist and writer - originally from Copenhagen, now based in Amsterdam. He holds a BA in Fine Art from Chelsea College of Arts and an MA in Artistic Research from the University of Amsterdam. His research interests include performance art, content creation, queer and feminised pop culture, and the aesthetics of globalisation. Apart from this essay, he has not produced any new research or work in 2023, while he is awaiting treatment for a rare tumour.
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Abstract
This essay explores the work of the Chinese content creator Li Ziqi, and the different ways one might approach such media. Li’s YouTube videos of idealised rural life, categorised here as an example of the CottageCore genre, made her one of the most popular Chinese cultural creators to audiences outside of China in the last decade. In analysing her work, this essay conceives of content creation as an extended performance building up a relationship with the audience. The author argues that a close reading of the affective/ideological attachments inspired by Li’s work is needed, which considers the political context of globalising media platforms and changing cultural hegemony, but does not present her popularity as the result of an unreflective/naïve audience acted upon by this context: rather, the author insists on the agency and possibility of criticality among online audiences, despite their necessarily compromised position in the middle of an oppressive global system. By extension, making space for criticality and performativity in interpretations of contemporary online cultures becomes a requisite for understanding public reactions to the recent correlated forms of global economic, climate and health crises.
This essay explores the work of the Chinese content creator Li Ziqi, and the different ways one might approach such media. Li’s YouTube videos of idealised rural life, categorised here as an example of the CottageCore genre, made her one of the most popular Chinese cultural creators to audiences outside of China in the last decade. In analysing her work, this essay conceives of content creation as an extended performance building up a relationship with the audience. The author argues that a close reading of the affective/ideological attachments inspired by Li’s work is needed, which considers the political context of globalising media platforms and changing cultural hegemony, but does not present her popularity as the result of an unreflective/naïve audience acted upon by this context: rather, the author insists on the agency and possibility of criticality among online audiences, despite their necessarily compromised position in the middle of an oppressive global system. By extension, making space for criticality and performativity in interpretations of contemporary online cultures becomes a requisite for understanding public reactions to the recent correlated forms of global economic, climate and health crises.
| etudesdec2023essemann.pdf |
