From grassroots to celebrities in healthcare– professionality as a new persona in China’s celebrity culture

Zheng, Sharon and Xu, Min (2024) From grassroots to celebrities in healthcare– professionality as a new persona in China’s celebrity culture. Celebrity Studies, 15 (2). pp. 285-292. ISSN 1939-2397

Text (EDITS 1. Zheng and Xu_revised_20240425)
EDITS_1._Zheng_and_Xu_revised_20240425.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (286kB)

Abstract

The global pandemic motivated the emergence of grassroots celebrities in healthcare who led online opinion through their professional insights and sharing of health and medical-related knowledge in China. A certain number of practitioners introduced their professional guidance to general netizens through pay-for-answer subscription with the help of Chinese social media. This article interrogates grassroots celebrities via Zhihu, China’s largest community for questions and answers (CQA). It extends Western-focused scholarship on microcelebrities.