Tsang Eileen Y H, Wilkinson Jeffrey S
Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
School of Journalism and Graphic Communication, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, Tallahassee, FL, United States.
Front Sociol. 2025 Sep 1;10:1640234. doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2025.1640234. eCollection 2025.
In 2020, China's live-streaming industry reached an audience estimated to be 587 million users, which generated 961 billion yuan (Zixun, 2021). This technological transition to online commerce has enabled marginalized rural youth opportunities for career advancement and financial success as livestreamer hosts. This study examines how rural migrants capitalize on their affective labor to successfully engage their fans and supporters. Livestreaming guilds ( ) play a pivotal role in recruiting, training, and managing online host personalities. Guilds monitor and manage the livestreamers by providing official reports of audience size, sales, and even how well the livestreamer performs. The career experiences of 62 rural-to-urban heterosexual male migrant livestreamers in China are examined. Affective labor is an immaterial form of labor that manipulates affect to generate feelings such as satisfaction, excitement, or passion in others. This article operationalizes affective labor to male heterosexual livestreamers using three distinct lenses: (1) sensuous dispositions tied to city life; (2) livestreamers' use of affective labor to maintain close relationships with their big tippers; (3) the relationships with the guilds and how livestreamers leverage affective labor to navigate their success and risks. This article offers a broadened perspective of rural-to-urban migrants in China. Through examining how young migrants become live-streamers, this article can provide insights into the evolving field of labor studies.
2020年，中国直播行业的观众估计达5.87亿用户，创造了9610亿元的收入（资讯，2021）。这种向电子商务的技术转型为边缘化的农村青年提供了成为主播从而实现职业发展和经济成功的机会。本研究考察农村 migrant 如何利用他们的情感劳动来成功吸引粉丝和支持者。直播公会在招募、培训和管理网络主播方面发挥着关键作用。公会通过提供观众规模、销售额甚至主播表现情况的官方报告来监督和管理主播。本文考察了中国62名从农村到城市的异性恋男性 migrant 主播的职业经历。情感劳动是一种无形的劳动形式，它通过操控情感来在他人身上产生诸如满足、兴奋或激情等感觉。本文从三个不同视角对男性异性恋主播的情感劳动进行了操作化定义：（1）与城市生活相关的感官倾向；（2）主播利用情感劳动与大额打赏者维持密切关系；（3）与公会的关系以及主播如何利用情感劳动应对成功与风险。本文为中国农村到城市的 migrant 提供了一个更广阔的视角。通过考察年轻 migrant 如何成为主播，本文能够为不断发展的劳动研究领域提供见解。
