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Sharing food photographs on social media: Performative Xiaozi lifestyle in young, middle-class Chinese urbanites’ WeChat ‘Moments’

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Altman PengORCiD

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This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Taylor & Francis, 2019.

For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.

Abstract

Sharing food photographs on social media is on the rise. This act has become increasingly popular in younger generation urban Chinese users’ everyday use of WeChat, the popular social media application. In this article, I argue that self-presentation provides an angle to understand aspects of young, middle-class urbanites’ food-photograph sharing. This article comprises an eight-month project, conducting netnographic research of 16 young, middle-class Chinese urbanites’ WeChat usage. Through the netnographic research, I discovered that, by displaying geotagged snapshots of food, these young urbanites disclose their everyday consumer experience in particular urban spaces. Aspects of this practice feed into these urbanites’ performance of Xiaozi tastes, facilitating the self-presentation of their class distinction. The outcomes of the research provide a glimpse into the interplay between post-reform consumerism, Xiaozi lifestyle, and social media usage in the urban, middle-class Chinese younger generation’s everyday lives.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Peng AY

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Social Identities

Year: 2019

Volume: 25

Issue: 2

Pages: 269-287

Print publication date: 01/01/2019

Online publication date: 12/12/2017

Acceptance date: 15/11/2017

Date deposited: 20/05/2019

ISSN (print): 1350-4630

ISSN (electronic): 1363-0296

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630.2017.1414596

DOI: 10.1080/13504630.2017.1414596

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