Description
Book SynopsisThis book starts from the discussion of a pornography, but does not end with pornography. Rather, it suggests that a pornographic star can be treated as a cultural product which obtains rich cultural meanings. It contributes to the debate between the global homogenization paradigm and the creolization paradigm which predominates in multiple disciplines, through a thorough examination of the entire process of the cross-cultural migration of Aoi Sola, a Japanese adult video (AV) actress who has achieved amazing popularity in mainland China since 2010. Through fifteen-month participant observation inside the two Chinese agencies of Sola, this study reveals that the transformative intermediaries play a significant role in the transformation of the cultural product in the Chinese context, even though their operations are usually invisible to outsiders. The findings challenge the conventional scholarly assumption that foreign products produced by global producers are consumed directly by loc
Trade Review“An entertaining study with serious research methods, this book is a useful reading of ‘the Aoi Sola phenomenon’ as subculture.” -- Junchao Wang, Tsinghua University
“Mei Zhang examines an untrodden field—the consumption of Japanese pornographic icons by Chinese internet users as a ‘safe’ weapon of expressing resistance and as a symbol of aspiration.” -- Takeshi Tanikawa, Waseda University
“This is an interesting study in which the author treats a pornographic celebrity as a cultural product. Mei Zhang examines the constant push and pull among the efforts of different agents to reimagine the celebrity in China, with unpredictable consequences.” -- Robert Guang Tian, Jishou University
Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Sola in Japan: An “Ordinary” Girl and “Unordinary” Idol 2. Sola as a Weapon of Resistance for Chinese Internet Users 3. Two Chinese Agencies Repositioning Sola 4. A Case of Promotion: Negotiation between Commercial News Portals and the Two Agencies 5. Sola’s Image Transformation: Becoming a Site of Contestation 6. Sola’s Image Transformation and Chinese Youth’s Identity 7. Sola Going Back to Japan as “the Most Famous Japanese in China” Conclusion
