Covid-19

This chapter examines how the Covid-19 crisis illuminated and exacerbated pre-existing inequalities and divisions across Chinese and Sinophone worlds. Topics covered here include celebrity behaviour, migration, gendered discourses and feminist activism, and racism. Chapter contents: 7.0 Introduction (by How Wee Ng and Séagh Kehoe) 7.1 Celebrity Politics in Covid-19 China: ‘Celebrities Can’t Save the Country’ (by Jian Xu and Elaine Jeffreys) 7.2 Mediated Menstruation: A Gender Perspective in the Time of Coronavirus (by Fan Yang) 7.3 The ‘Wounded Weanling’: An Introduction to Daofu, the Epicentre of the Coronavirus Epidemic in the Tibetan Regions of China (by Sonam Lhundrop) 7.4 Reflections on the Racialised Discourse Surrounding Covid-19 (by Sam Phan)

Celebrity Politics and Democratic Elitism

Is there good reason to worry about celebrity involvement in democratic politics? The rise of celebrity politicians such as Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky has led political theorists and commentators to worry that the role of expertise in democratic politics has been undermined. According to one recent critique (Archer et al. 2020), celebrities possess a significant degree of epistemic power (the power to influence what people believe) that is unconnected to appropriate expertise. This presents a problem both for deliberative and epistemic theories of democratic legitimacy, which ignore this form of power, and for real existing democracies attempting to meet the standards of legitimacy set out by these theories. But do these critiques apply to democratic elitism? In this paper, we argue that recognition of celebrity epistemic power in fact represents a valuable resource for supporting the legitimacy and practice of democratic elitism, though these benefits do come with certain risks to which elite theories are particularly vulnerable.

Celebrities in US Politics

The technological innovations during the 20th and 21st centuries that brought us radio, television, movies, the internet, and social media have created a class of people, celebrities, who, at first glance, wield enormous influence in our society—from setting fashion trends and hairstyles to advancing social movements and political causes. Donald Trump, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura, and Ronald Reagan rode their celebrity to elective office. Other celebrities are increasingly using their status to influence politics by endorsing candidates for office and pushing for change in domestic and foreign policy. This essay focuses on the scholarship on the effect of celebrities in American politics. The study of celebrities in American politics is a largely interdisciplinary enterprise, with contributions from political science, sociology, marketing, history, cultural studies, mass communication, and communication studies. The literature on celebrities, and, more specifically, celebrities in American politics, has branched off into five key areas – (1) Celebrity Endorsements, (2) Celebrities and American Government Institutions, (3) Celebrity Politics and Celebrity Culture, and (4) Celebrities and the Environment.

UN celebrity diplomacy in China: activism, symbolism and national ambition online

This article examines Chinese celebrities' UN-affiliated Weibo activism in the context of China's increasing engagement in the United Nations, which coincides with a shrinking domestic public sphere under Xi Jinping's leadership. Our article sheds light on how Chinese celebrity diplomacy is balancing contradictory expectations by the UN, the Chinese party-state and the domestic public in China. In doing so, we offer an important conceptual update of the western-centric literature on ‘celebrity diplomacy’, which focuses mostly on celebrity politics instead of diplomacy and tends to neglect the digital sphere. Based on a combined qualitative and quantitative approach, we draw fresh conclusions from nine Chinese celebrities' communication on Weibo since 2013. Our research covers the years marking China's growing self-confidence and a more assertive Chinese diplomatic style in global affairs. Although accredited by the UN, on balance Chinese celebrities' activism has become more symbolic than real, and as a rule aligned with the Chinese leadership's domestic and international ambitions. At a time of greater Chinese global activism, we are sensitive to the policy implications of Chinese celebrities' engagement on the cusp of the political and diplomatic spheres.

The limits of representation activism: analyzing Black celebrity politics in LeBron James’ The Shop

This discussion centers on a critical textual analysis of 10 episodes of The Shop: Uninterrupted, an HBO television series produced by and starring iconic Black American basketball player LeBron James. The aim is to provide a considered explication of representation activism: the anti-racist strategy keying on collapsing racial hierarchies through accenting positive Black representation, and so advancing greater Black inclusion, within mainstream media (Andrews, 2018; Gilroy, 2000; Godsil and Goodale, 2013). The politics and constructions of Blackness within The Shop exemplify the logical flaws, superficiality, and insipid practical outcomes of representation activism. Though The Shop proclaims to demonstrate Black liberatory representation, this analysis elucidates how The Shop’s centering of the Black celebrity elite as the agents of change falsely universalizes the experiences of everyday Black people; its pursuit of a mythological Black authenticity essentializes and romanticizes Black vernacular and identities; and its mediation through the White racial frame prohibits the articulation of an effective liberatory politics. The discussion concludes by challenging the possibilities of “positive” representation in capitalist media as a credible and sincere tactic of collective Black liberation (Hooks, 1992; Marable, 2015; Spence, 2015; West, 1994); instead, suggesting a grassroots-oriented approach prefigured on targeting the structural roots of racism.

Celebrity meets Populism in Europe: The Political Performances of Nicolas Sarkozy and Silvio Berlusconi

Throughout the world, celebrity and populism have become formidable combinations in supporting political leadership. The rise of these phenomena has provoked much debate and has led to the examination of the features, causes and consequences of this kind of politics. Celebrity politics is a reflection of both the influence of celebrities and the power of celebrity images in the media which see politicians becoming celebrities, deliberately or accidentally. The political rise and fall of Nicholas Sarkozy and Silvio Berlusconi and their roles in the performances associated with political leadership furnish two case studies of celebrity and populism in France and Italy respectively. This paper examines these two “presidential-style” leaders in Europe who at first seemedadept in practising aspects of both celebrity and populist politics.