Book Review: TikTok: Creativity and Culture in Short Video by D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye

Abstract

views cannot fully address this issue. The interview data given in the book only address how the audience make sense of the televised gendered representation. This is mostly evident in the audience’s views on All Is Well (都挺好, dir. Jian Chuanhe, 2019, pp. 160–5) and The Story of Yanxi Palace (延禧攻略, dir. Hui Kaidong and Wen Deguang, 2018, pp. 170–8) – the interview statements add little to our prior knowledge of how the public actually develop ‘technology of the self’ via seeing gendered representation on television. Furthermore, the interview quotes are also quite similar to the comments one finds on Chinese social media. Finally, although the book provides an excellent genealogical analysis of the emergence of masculine traits embodied by bossy CEO (Chapter 4) and little fresh meat (Chapter 6), it does not invest the same academic vigour in introducing the gendered traits of foreigners (Chapter 5) or the supreme heroines (Chapter 7). Notwithstanding these weaknesses, this book overall is a thoughtful, intriguing, and important analysis of Chinese television. We highly recommend it to students, scholars, and the public interested in critical media studies.