About
Sunday, 27 September 2020, 12:34 CEST
A Brief Introduction
“Bilibiliis China’s biggest anime streaming site, as well as one of the country’sbiggest video-sharing sites” (Josh), “which derived from a Japanesevideo-sharing website, Niconico” (Zhou 7). On the one hand, the core ofBilibili, as its CEO stated, is ACG (anime, comics, and games) contents. Morethan 1680 animations are displaying on this platform with many views. On theother hand, it has similar functions with YouTube, which allows people not onlyto watch videos, but also create and upload their videos. It is auser-generated content video platform “with enhanced social features” (A.L. Jiaet al. 113). People who share their video on Bilibili are named “uploader”.Their videos can be liked, shared, and added to the favourites by theaudiences.
Its targeted users are younger generations in China. In the speech of the manager of Bilibili, in the past three years, the average age of new users is 21 years old (Chen). It could attract so many young people not only because of the variety of animations. Moreover, there is no advertising when people watch videos on this website. Even though some particular programs or shows require audiences to be a member of Bilibili, most videos on this platform are free to watch without commercial contents.
Why it is emergent
There are several characteristics which make Bilibili a new and youngsocial media platform. First of all, the most significant function which madeit a new media platform is Danmu (or named Danmaku). Danmu refers to “a systemof superimposed comments running across the screen from right to left as thevideo plays” (Zhang and Cassany 2). It is a relatively new thing in China whichappears in the recent ten years. Unlike traditional way of commenting below thevideos, Danmu are “live” comments, and they move from one side to anotherduring video playback, which allows the viewers to “interact” with otherspectators and being accompanied by others while watching a video.
There are other functions of Danmu; one can send a brief introduction ofa director or the actors, which help other viewers to gain more knowledge andinformation when they watch a film (Zhang and Cassany). What’s more, there aremany people reprint YouTube videos to Bilibili since China banned YouTube. Assome of those videos have no translations, viewers then can make a livetranslation available for others via Danmu, which is a benefit to others whomay not understand the original language of the video. According to Zhang andCassany (20), Danmu “allows users to connect, interact and share their contentin an informal, self-regulated and multimodal learning community”. And ithelped to build participatory culture, that “people work together tocollectively classify, organise, and build information” (Delwiche and Henderson3).
Secondly, as a user-generated content website, it emphasises on the participation, value and control of users (Yan et al.). Other than sharing video, it also allows users to follow uploaders they like to keep their information updated. Moreover, “like” is not the only way to present audiences’ support, users can appreciate uploaders’ contribution via virtual money donations (A.L. Jia et al.). Although it has these unique functions comparing to other video platforms in China, Bilibili is still a non-mainstream video website with fewer users. According to Graziani, “China’s online video market seems to be dominated by 3 companies: Youku, iQiyi and QQ Video.” Simultaneously, compared to YouTube, video uploaders on Bilibili are mostly Chinese, while YouTube provides “80 different language options, local versions in 91 countries” (ChannelMeter). Consequently, Bilibili is an emergent website but still used by limited groups of users.
What are the debates
Danmu is a ubiquity way of communicating with others on Bilibili, and ithas various colours which can provide a visual shock to the spectators. Thisfunction then becomes a way for fans to support their favourite celebrities,movies, and so on. Chinese authorities have found such uniqueness and made it atool for them to have more in-depth communication with young Chinesegenerations, as well as put forward their ideology to the users. By researchingon Biliob (a website aims to collect and observe data of uploaders onBilibili), Chinese Communist Youth League (CCYL) opened an official channel andhas more than 7 million fans with videos gained over 1.2 billion views in total. The third mostviewed video published by CCYL is a music video in which 102 uploaders from Bilibili singingMy People, My Country to celebrate the National Day of China. All the uploadersfrom this MV have millions of followers which proved their popularity.
Figure 1
Invitingthem to sing this song also means that there will be millions of viewers andwill have a considerable impact. Figure 1 is a screenshot of the video, andthere are lots of red danmu. Red is the primary colour of the Chinese nationalflag and symbolised China. The translation of those Danmu is “I am a Chinese,and I will not regret it in this life, and I want to be a Chinese in the nextlife”. The video and its supporting Danmu can arise the audiences’ nationalismby creating “an emotional association with youth” (Pan 156), thus “embed‘political leading’ in this internet jungle” (Pan 140). Besides, CCYL tookadvantage of Bilibili, that animation related videos always being highlyfocused, it cooperated with an uploader and published a funny commentary toanimation to satirise Donald Trump. Here, CCYL is using the most acceptable wayfor Bilibili users to instil their ideology. It can be argued that CCYL is“decorating the regular propaganda into a “lovely” play rich in current fashionof sub-cultural style” (Pan152). By integrating itself more into theenvironment of Bilibili, CCYL could have more opportunities to guide theopinions of young people in China and strengthen their ideology. Consequently,Bilibili is not just a platform for video uploaders and users to communicate,it has also become a tool that government can use to find the preferences ofthe younger generation and control their thoughts from a political perspective.
To sum up, as an emerging media platform, it has lots of active users creating and sharing their experiences in different fields. Danmu is its most prominent feature and most significant advantage. The authorities in China have seen the tremendous impact that Bilibili has had on young people, therefore they utilised it as a tool to operate propaganda and promoting the government and make them “love” the country.
Bibliography
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