The Reconstruction Of Traditional Chinese Culture And Cultural Identity In Hanfu Subculture:An Analysis Of Short Videos On Bilibili

The inheritance and promotion of traditional Chinese culture has become a hot topic in recent years.Hanfu culture,emerging in 2003,has been extending its influence to an increasing number of young people with the development of new media.These young people,as Hanfu lovers,gather together on the Internet and form a unique subculture group.The rising short-video platforms,as a new way of communication,expand the channel for the promotion of Hanfu culture.Bilibili,as a typical short-video platforms for subcultures,has recorded in a relatively comprehensive way the whole promotion process of Hanfu culture from the very beginning to its growing influence.This thesis,by analyzing the short videos of Hanfu culture,explores the development of Hanfu styles and the promotion of Hanfu culture.Based on the classification of video texts on Bilibili and the interviews with video producers,this thesis analyze the evolve of Hanfu styles,the development of cultural identity and the promotion of Hanfu culture that go beyond this subcultural group from the perspective of body performativity,space construction and community building of subculture.In the aspect of body performativity of subculture,this thesis elaborates on the makeup,posture performance and dancing performance to examine how Hanfu lovers establish meanings through body performativity.Through the collage of makeup symbols and the redefinition of referential meanings,Hanfu lovers shape the traditional aesthetics of Hanfu;through the creation of characters,Hanfu lovers project the ideal dressing model that carrying the traditional ritual culture in order to develop cultural identity;through the performance of classical body movements,Hanfu lovers form the traditional style aesthetics of Hanfu,and when communicating with the mainstream classical dancing,they absorb its essence so as to promote Hanfu culture.Regarding space construction of subculture,this thesis points out that the space construction initiated by Hanfu lovers is the pursuit of an ideal space against the current status.In this way,Hanfu lovers drive the inheritance and promotion of Hanfu culture,which further develops the cultural identity of Chinese nation.In this chapter,aspects,including space of daily life,foreign geographical environment and ritual activities,are summarized from video texts.In the space of daily life,Hanfu lovers try to create an atmosphere that encourages the public to embrace Hanfu.For this purpose,they choose to shoot their videos in certain places to strengthen the connection between people’s daily life and Hanfu,thus fostering the public’s understanding of Hanfu.Concerning the space of foreign geographical environment,Hanfu lovers create videos in other countries to breeds Chinese people’s the sense of belonging through the interaction of different cultures.This kind of eagerness to realize cultural identification contributes to the formation of Hanfu’s representation of identity,and meanwhile breaks the stereotypes held by other nations about Chinese nation,realizing the cultural export.In regard to space of ritual activities,performing certain ritual activities with Hanfu in certain space can reshape the order of space to establish the collective memory and enable Hanfu in some ritual activities to make a deep impression on the public.In this process,the critics Hanfu lovers have received also drive them to improve their works to find a better way to reconstruct the order of space.In respect of community building of subculture,based on the interviews with video producers and over 256 questionnaires,this thesis analyzes how Hanfu lovers build and expand their community.By textual poaching in short videos,Hanfu lovers expand the target audience and richen the content of short videos of Hanfu.The symbols repeatedly appear in the online bullet screen and comments,and the offline video production both strengthen the link within the community of Hanfu lovers.Meanwhile,the audience with emotional resonance interacts with Hanfu lovers through network,such as making comments or getting involved in the video production,can further interact with Hanfu lovers,thus building connections with this subculture community.In addition,the involvement of commercial capital boosts the vitality of Hanfu subculture.The market consumption makes Hanfu become a mainstream fashion style that catch the public’s attention.At the same time,Hanfu lovers start to exert influence on the mainstream culture,affecting the production of films and television programs.The author argues that Hanfu lovers as a subculture group is always pushing Hanfu to be a part of mainstream culture,so they actively link Hanfu culture with traditional culture,develop cultural identity and extend the influence of Hanfu beyond this subculture group.The attempts they have made not only provide ideas for the development of other subculture groups,but also show a feasible way for the promotion of other traditional cultures.