In China’s popular live-streaming showrooms, three millennials – a karaoke singer, a migrant worker and a rags-to-riches comedian – seek fame, fortune and human connection, ultimately finding the same promises and perils online as in their real lives.
欲望共和国, Ihaluse rahvavabariik, Wirtualna Republika Ludowa
On an ordinary morning in 2016, more than 540,000 people in China watched a live-streamed video of a baby eating breakfast. And while the baby was adorable — everything about the toddler’s image, from her bowl cut to her penguin t-shirt, engineered for maximum cuteness — we’re not exactly talking about the moon landing, here. More than half a million people (some presumably with babies of their own) stopped what they were doing, checked out of their lives for a couple of minutes, and gawped at someone clumsily mashing food into her mouth.
This incident is referenced as a brief aside in Hao Wu’s “People’s Republic of Desire,” the newly crowned winner of SXSW 2018’s Documentary Grand Jury Prize, and…
This is a documentary about Chinese streaming culture and it's more topical and cyberpunk than anything mainstream western directorial visionaries have been able to come up with since Web 2.0.
Despite its localized subject matter it could just as easily be about Youtube, Twitch, pop idols, sports, anime, Letterboxd, or any competitive medium or media culture that provides parasocial interaction and tribal belonging.
The problem with detritus like Black Mirror is that it reduces complex speculative sociological problems to personal struggles of the atomized individual. More intelligent post-digital media would approach these imagined futures from a collectivist standpoint, because individuality on the internet is indistinguishable from branding, which is inherently corporate and collectivist.
The film points to a future where…
Black Mirror is real, and it exists in a dystopian late capitalist nightmare of Chinese laborers living vicariously through megarich webcam "superstars" funded by shadow organizations. Down and outers so desperate to "make it" they'll throw squirreled away sweatshop cash at a teen singing karoke in her bedroom just to see someone succeed. A fascinating and terrifying exploration of a cultural phenomenon I never even knew existed. Could've done without some of the sensational post-production cyberpunk chatroom SFX, though.
oh man, this was heartbreaking. it took me a bit to get into the graphics/overall presentation, but the farther along it goes the more you get sucked in. especially as you feel for the lowly viewers, as this seemingly innocent form of human connection vis-à-vis technology is reveleaed as just another dream crushing, soul sucking machine concerned only with money & vanity.
I don't know what's sadder: this documentary or the fact that none of this is really that surprising. Didn't know China made live-streaming into a business model though, that's pretty interesting.
☆”Keep your fans happy. Keep your patrons happy. Then you'll live like goddesses.”☆
Engrossing and fascinating documentary about China's livestreaming culture that has exploded in popularity over the last decade into levels that any schmuck on YouTube or Twitch would gawk at. Immersive, fresh, and at times disturbing, you can watch online for free thanks to PBS and its Independent Lens series at this link. Please also donate to your local public broadcasting station.
Diaosis, as they've come to be called, are the community of streamers in China who perform and stream their lives -- or at least, the lives they choose to expose -- for millions online, and can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars for their talent. Largely…
I genuinely thought this was a dystopian sci fi mockumentary until I read the reviews - fuckin wild. I'll never understand how people can achieve such success doing shit like this and how so many others can be entertained enough to justify funding it. that aside: I'm still racist against rich people
CUFF DOCS film #3 (early review)
This doc is one of the wildest things ever. I had no idea there was this industry of chinese people giving money to people live streaming. They're not even taking their clothes off, or playing video games! I was completely engrossed in this rabbit hole of weird circumstances and how this industry works. The rise and fall of these "hosts" who don't really do anything, but make crazy money from shadow business and migrant worker who need a friend.
I hated the special effects used to create the chat rooms, I have no idea if this is even a real doc or some sort of dramatization.
Phenomenal documentary! The depths of the human psyche that it touches are truly disturbing, yet fascinating. Addiction, obsession, hedonism, depression, isolation, longing - all these are shown through the insane world of livestreaming in Mainland China. During 95% of its runtime I felt almost absolute disgust and disbelief at the people involved on all sides of this businness, but by the last few minutes it still managed to move me almost to tears. This is still an overall depressing watch, so approach at your own risk and with proper expectations.
MIFF 2018: #25
Fame and fortune in the digital age is certainly a frightening prospect. I kind of wish this explored the disparity between the rich and poor a little more thoroughly than it does though. Starts off great, but when it turns its focus solely on the stakes of the competitions I was far less interested.
Evan is right that there's nothing in the aesthetic (PBS plus CGI) to match the radical transformations of a life spent online, but I think that's kind of the point. That despite the newness of the technology and of this form of celebrity, of an economy built solely on loneliness and "prestige", all the same old principles of exploitation and alienation apply. The virus of capitalism replicating itself anew. Pair it with All About Lily Chou-chou and The Human Surge and then go into the woods and read some Thoreau.
A fascinating look into the streaming life in China. This documentary shows streaming life 5 years ago, can only imagine how its evolved now. I am a big fan of the streaming site Twitch.tv, and its a really interesting potential future for that site.
Scrolled due to boredom so only saw 25 minutes, but it is interesting, throwing light upon a phenomena. Apparently in China, people who are broke and live lonely lives doing nothing but working for minuscule wages use their hard-earned cash to have relationships with webcam celebrities. The celebrities will mention their names if they are paid enough money. But the content is not pornographic.
I guess due to demographics it's difficult to have a relationship in the real world in China? Humans desperately desire connection with others and to feel some excitement in their lives. If it cannot be found in reality, it can be found in cyberspace. I guess in the USA due to Unions we have much more lax work schedules than they do in China, so we have more time to develop relationships with flesh and blood. Maybe this is coming to the USA too? Maybe it's already here?
YY is a fascinating company and they are creating a fascinating movement, which will hopefully(?) be replicated in the US soon. This doc, heavy on already-dated CGI, tried to capture the internet drama in documentary form and it comes off as hokey and sloppy. It’s not easy dramatizing internet squabbles via CGI, I’m thinking of Ready Player One as a film that had spend to hundreds of millions to depict what our online lives could look like. Anyway, might be good to have on in the background if you want a fun look at Chinese internet drama but pretty terrible filmmaking otherwise.
A fascinating peek into the sparkly, gruesome underworld of virtual China. This doc is heartbreaking and flirtatiously perverse
horrifying and disgusting. makes me want to just hug Shen Man for all the shit she had to go through.
Ask yourself: where do I exist on the pyramid?
Only a Fan? Making a quick Cameo? Still Twitching? TikTok, Mr. Wick. Time to Vine.
This culture is basically what you get if you get a WWE Wrestler, and let them just do their thing on Webcam with no fights and no one else to interact with.
This shows a decent insight to the strange strange world of YY.com and the hosts that inhabit it.
I was very confused for a large amount of runtime. Confused why this "comedian" didn't do anything funny, and really why anybody on this platform didnt do anything besides sing a few songs.
It was intriguing enough to hold my attention and there's a straight up heartbreaking scene towards the end that resonated with me very well. This is also an insight really, to a portion of the Chinese people…
A look at China’s booming live-streaming media ecosystem, from the working class fans to the performers who sit there for hours, and the rich folks who send ludicrous donations to them. It’s all fairly mundane for anyone who’s encountered the strange world of live-streaming before, and the shocks really just come from the scale of the thing and, of course, the general bafflement that this passes for entertainment.
Its handful of characters never reach the kind of compellingly bizarre levels of that story about the woman whose fake face glitched and cost her followers because she was older than they thought, but despite all the whizz-bang graphics to bring the cyberscape into the medium of film, People’s Republic of Desire…
so much to think about here, but a few things stand out: first, the level of access they got is astounding, especially given the way that these livestreamers present such a narrow cultivated version of themselves.
Second, i initially found the animation and sound effects and projections to be a little heavy-handed, but they are essential. The film is showing how livestreaming creates communities that are both deeply connected and yet virtual, and there are no real physical spaces where we can see that (and just cutting between a streamer and an audience member emphasizes the distance between them, not the connection, much less the crowd dynamic).
Placing livestreams onto billboards and bus-stop advertisements is especially effective. It's easy to…
it’s just insane how much money is passing through this. totally incomprehensible to me but not really in a fun way
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