Digitized parody: The politics of egao in contemporary China

Abstract

This article investigates egao—technology-enabled online parody in contemporary China. Egao is a site where issues of power struggle, class reconsolidation, social stratification, (online) community formation, and cultural intervention, along with the transformative power of digital technologies, intersect. Through an analysis of Hu Ge’s “The Bloody Case of a Steamed Bun,” we argue that egao provides an alternative locus of power, permitting the transgression of existing social and cultural hierarchies. Satiric and ludicrous in nature, egao playfully subverts a range of authoritative discourses and provides a vehicle for both comic criticism and emotional catharsis. As an individualized form of expression of the new digital generation, it also offers insight into the collective attitudes of the new class of netizens.