Week 1
Asia in the Digital Age
Film: People’s Republic of Desire (Hao Wu, 2018)
The overall view from the film this week focused on China’s live streaming industry and how much money is spent in order for a title or ‘power’, yet most of these live streamers aren’t happy with their lives. I’ve always seen the live streamers from America and Australia, but I wasn’t aware of how huge China’s industry was until viewing this film.
After doing some research into the numbers and speaking with peers, 443 million people watched live streams in China and generated almost $4.4 billion dollars. It questions how the industry will shape the future not only for China but the rest of the world.
Although western society has accepted Asia culture more in the last few decades, there’s still so much that we don’t know about unless we have access to it on the internet. But even then, it’s not advertised as something to be viewed or desired by Western society.
Within an article I found on China’s digital market, the author talked about “The digital yuan bypasses the need for these banks…Unlike cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, the currency is also backed by a government.” This idea of digital money to motivate faster spending that is backed by their Government creates this spiral of money being spent on money but in reality, is just numbers traded for numbers.
Is it fair to say, then, that China has created such a bubble from the rest of the world, that these live streamers with amazing rich lives, are just entertainment to keep the population docile without questioning what could be outside of China?
In another article, this system that apparently ‘cures loneliness’ , the statistics for Diaosi showed that “Chinese live stream viewers are 75% male and 70% under age 30.” This generation, although loving the live streaming and providing virtual affection, also receives a lot of hate that takes a toll on live streamers mental health.
Overall this Digital Age in China has shown that the future will only use this technology more and faster as it creates revenue like never before. Countries with this access will only develop further in their economies but this also means that third world countries may not catch up and find a balance that could help them financially.
https://www.antoniafishart.com/little-fish-blog/asia-in-the-digital-age
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Digital Asia 