With more than 100 million followers on social media sites and video sharing websites inside and outside China, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi has fashioned a pastoral lifestyle with a vaguely traditional aesthetic. Even after more than a year of inactivity, Li still holds the Guinness World Record for the most subscribers to a YouTube Chinese-language channel. Li, who lives seclusively with her grandmother in a distant mountain with picturesque surroundings in Sichuan Province, is shown to be versatile, hardy, and appealing in the videos. She skillfully crafts various items by hand, from food to furniture, using only the most basic equipment and resources. The aesthetics rendered in these contents invoke a nostalgic sentiment towards a constructed image of ancient/rural China in the urbanites living in the post-Socialist, neoliberal age by recalling their encounters with “traditional” cultures, which range from living and traveling experiences in the countryside to classic landscape paintings and contemporary Xianxia novels. Li’s work thus aligns with the mainstream Han-centered nation-state narrative, whether intentionally or not, which is a significant reason for its mass popularity and official endorsement. On the other hand, her work presents a model of self-sufficiency focusing on here and now that doesn’t seem to imply a shared reproductive future. Therefore, it also invites a queer feminist interpretation that distinguishes itself from the ecofeminist discourse that predominates the philosophical critique of "woman in nature" as it integrates a fertile natural environment and a personal life that rejects heterosexual promises.

Authors:
Yangyu Zhang, the University of Tokyo, Japan

About the Presenter(s)
ZHANG Yangyu 张洋宇, Ph.D. student, lecturer, and curator. Academic interests are queer feminism, visual cultures, postcolonialism, and Sinophone Studies. Exploring representations of women in nature landscapes in contemporary Mandarin visual cultures.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/zhangyangyu/

Connect on ResearchGate
www.researchgate.net/profile/Yangyu_Zhang2

Additional website of interest
https://www.DiYiJi.online

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