Introduction to the Special Issue on ‘The Future of Wanghong’

In this Special Issue of Global Media and China on ‘The Future of Wanghong’ , we offer six articles from authors whose foci cover the cultures and economies of wanghong. Drawing on ongoing research on wanghong by the Influencer Ethnography Research Lab (IERLab) at Curtin University, this Special Issue invited interlocutors to share their cutting edge expertise on emergent wanghong phenomena to reflect on the status quo as a springboard for us to imagine the road ahead. With disciplinary leanings across sociology, cultural studies, gender studies, media studies, and communications, the articles draw on an array of methodological frameworks to explore the fast-changing practice of wanghong in their specific fieldsites. This editorial deploys the emergent research from these experts to postulate how the future of wanghong may shape up pertaining to: Contents and audiences; practice and discourse and sociopolitics; visibility and surveillance; nationalism and placemaking; governance and work; and e-commerce and merchandizing.