Affective labour on Kuaishou: Sister Zhao and her cyber karaoke Bbr

Key Points

• Sister Zhao experiences both empowerment and community through her work, and yet faces challenges from structural inequalities.
• The dual nature of Kuaishou's platform reveals both positive and negative aspects of gendered digital labour in rural settings.
• Social and technological protocols on Kuaishou often reinforce existing gender hierarchies and precarity for users like Sister Zhao.
• The exploration highlights the complexities of digital empowerment in relation to gendered dynamics in online spaces.

Abstract