Journal articleIssue 12025
Navigating the precarious career of Chinese content creators: in the case of “Thurman 猫一杯”
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author
Nuo Chen
abstract
Content-creating platforms have been a part of netizens' lives for quite some time, starting with the introduction of YouTube and evolving into the rise of short video platforms. Being a content creator has become a viable profession, offering opportunities for those skilled at capturing audience attention to achieve both visibility and financial success. However, navigating the digital environment is far from straightforward. Cancel culture persists, adding a complex layer of precarity to the careers of content creators. Beyond the unstable working conditions shaped by platform practices like content moderation and recommendation algorithms, government policies significantly influence content-creating platforms in China (Li and Ng, 2024), such as Red and Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok). By examining the rise and fall of “Thurman 猫一杯”, a former cross-platform content creator on Chinese social media, this essay explores the interplay between creativity, platform dependency, and economic instability, while situating creators as both entrepreneurs and platform laborers in an increasingly precarious digital ecosystem.