Research On The Identity Of Hanfu Fans In The Use Of Social Media

Statistics show that the growth rate of Hanfu fans has been maintained at above70 per cent for four successive years.The number of them has risen to 6.894 million in2021,compared with 3.561 million in 2019.The progress of media technology is indispensable to the growing group of Hanfu fans and the development of Hanfu culture.Out of her interest in the identity of Hanfu fans,the writer has chosen Bilibili,a famous video-sharing site in China,and Sichuan Hanfu official societies as the starting point,mainly studying the members in these societies.The research,conducted in various forms such as participant observation,semi-structured interview and questionnaire,is based on Hanfu fans’ media environment and their habits to use social media,their construction of both personal identity and group identity via media,and their building of cultural identity through media,etc.Research finds that the media environment and Hanfu fans’ use of media can influence and promote each other.On the one hand,the media environment has created circumstances for the spread of Hanfu culture,allowing Hanfu lovers to show their hobbies and interests through media in a bolder manner.On the other hand,Hanfu lovers’ use of media has in turn promoted the formation of the environment for the spread of Hanfu culture.Hanfu lovers’ construction of identity is originated from the interaction between internal factors and external factors.The former includes three aspects,including the use of notation,looking-glass self,and ideal self.The latter mainly incorporates other’s feedback.Hanfu lovers’ group identity is formed through the emotion which is aroused when they watch videos together,and it becomes clearer after the division of group boundaries.he paper has three innovative points.Firstly,in theory,from the perspective of identity the paper studies the identity of Hanfu lovers when they use social media,and also adds the perspective of cultural identity in addition to personal and group identities.Secondly,in research methods,the paper has adopted representative Sichuan Hanfu official societies and texts of bullet comments from Hanfu videos on Bilibili as the starting point,and has studied Hanfu lovers’ use of social media and identity in a combined way of questionnaire,participant observation and semi-structured interview.Thirdly,the research discovers that Hanfu can be promoted by other social media.Meanwhile,it can also be perceived as a kind of media itself.Hanfu fans’ wearing practice can be seen as the promotion process of Hanfu culture based on the media of the costume.in research results,the paper finds that Hanfu lovers’ construction of identity is not only a process of inner building but also an outcome reinforced by people’s external feedback to the internal construction.