Kecheng

Radical boycotts and moderate buycotts: feminist consumer activism on social media in China Social media provide space for feminist activists in authoritarian regimes. This study examines two cases of online feminist consumer activism: the boycott of Procter & Gamble (P&G) and the buycott...

I'm incredibly proud of what my former student Mian Wei has accomplished with this research. For anyone interested in #DigitalActivism, #Feminism, and contemporary #China, we hope you'll give it a read!
doi.org/10.1080/1468...

In conclusion, digital consumer activism is a complex, double-edged sword for Chinese feminists. It's a vital space for participation and making their voices heard, but it's also constrained by commercial interests, state power, and internal class dynamics.

While the P&G and Hanshu cases are from 2021, the phenomenon is more relevant than ever. Similar incidents of feminist-driven consumer activism continue to erupt on Chinese social media, making our framework for understanding them very timely.

A personal note: This paper was a long journey! We first submitted it in March 2023, and after a long and rigorous review process, it's finally seeing the light of day in September 2025. A testament to persistence! Huge thanks to the patient editors & reviewers at @femmediastudies.bsky.social

The high personal and political cost of dissent in an authoritarian context helps explain this sharp divide. Boycotting is an act of "destruction" and attracts more hostility, while buycotting is an act of "rewarding" and is often seen more favorably. #PoliticalConsumerism

Radical boycotters were more rebellious, anti-establishment, and critical of both state power and capitalism. They were willing to take higher risks.

Moderate buycotters were more reward-oriented, less confrontational, and sometimes even unaware of or supportive of state censorship.

Finding 3: A spectrum of activism.

A key contribution of our paper is distinguishing between boycotts and buycotts. They aren't just two sides of the same coin. They attract different people with different ideologies.

We found a spectrum from "radical boycotters" to "moderate buycotters."

Finding 2: Highly coordinated "flash-mob style" activism, using different platforms for different purposes:

Douban: The "headquarters" for developing strategies.
Weibo: The "battlefield" for shaping public opinion.
Live-streaming platforms: For direct action and interaction with brands.

Finding 1: Consumerism as a shield.

In China's heavily censored environment, consumer activism provides a relatively safer avenue for feminists to express dissent, build community, and push their agenda without engaging in more overtly political (and thus riskier) actions.

We explore how Chinese feminists use consumer power, declaring "Every penny you spend is a vote for the ideal society you want."

We studied two major cases:
1️⃣ A boycott of P&G for sidelining a feminist comedian.
2️⃣ A buycott of the brand Hanshu for dropping a male star in a #MeToo scandal.

Radical boycotts and moderate buycotts: feminist consumer activism on social media in China Social media provide space for feminist activists in authoritarian regimes. This study examines two cases of online feminist consumer activism: the boycott of Procter & Gamble (P&G) and the buycott...

Thrilled to share our new paper in Feminist Media Studies! 🎉

This was a project with the brilliant Mian Wei, who began this research as my undergrad student at CUHK and is now a PhD student at UW-Madison.

🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1468...

We put in lots of effort designing and producing the game. I even bought a huge dice that barely fits in my suitcase. If you're attending ICA, don't miss out! Come play with us! See pic 2 for time and location 🎲

Heading to #ICA25. This year I'm presenting a regular paper, a poster, plus organizing a BlueSky session. (All with amazing collaborators)

Academic conferences can be quite boring. I like to do things differently. This time, my coauthor and I turned our poster into an interactive game.

This pattern illustrates how Global South scholarship remains siloed, limiting both our scholars' visibility and the potential for our insights to inspire broader discourse and reflection.

Our paper: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

The paper's citation pattern is telling: of its 34 citations on Google Scholar, nearly 30 focus on China, with single citations each for Ghana, Indonesia, and the U.S. This is despite the extensive engagement with Western scholarship in our paper.

In the paper, we examined both the potential benefits and risks of the model, essentially advocating for a more active state that remains accountable to its citizens.

Consider the paper I co-authored with Maria Repnikova on 'The state-preneurship model of digital journalism innovation.' Our proposed 'state-preneurship' model, though derived from studying a single industry—digital media, could offer valuable insights for addressing governmental failure in the U.S.

This perspective exemplifies how Global South scholarship deserves greater recognition in global academia. Too often, our research is dismissed as 'case studies that aren't generalizable or relevant to the West.' Yet our insights can be highly pertinent to contemporary Western challenges.

As always, I enjoyed @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social 's brilliant video essay "There Is a Liberal Answer to Elon Musk." Besides his deep analysis of American politics, I noticed how he mentioned China – he did not want America to be China, but he wanted the American government to build things like China.

This is what I wrote in the recent issue of the CJRN (Chinese Journalism Research Network) newsletter: "Our experiences, once considered peripheral by Western academia, are increasingly relevant to global scholarly discourse." eepurl.com/i48Iss

Thanks for doing this, Jing! I'd like to be included, haha