Humour and TikTok memes during the 2020 pandemic lockdown

Tensions of gender and care faced by Chinese mothers working from home

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4765610
AutoresXiao Han (0000-0001-5129-3788, Communication University of China, autor de correspondencia), Giselinde Kuipers (0000-0002-5767-1054, KU Leuven)
Año2021
Volumen35
Número3
Páginas393-419
Fecha de publicación2021-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaChina Information (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0920-203X • E-ISSN: 1741-590X
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0920203x211049634
OpenAlexW3210214266
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas23
Referencias citadas20

This article examines a humorous meme that emerged on Chinese TikTok during the COVID-19 pandemic in China. Using #workfromhomewithchildcare, Chinese working mothers shared humorous clips of their experience of working from home with their children who were also at home during the pandemic lockdown. By analysing the themes, protagonists, and humour techniques of a sample of 85 videos, we ask why the mood of these clips is so strongly marked by humour, and what this tells us about contemporary Chinese society, particularly about the position of women and mothers. We show that these memetic clips consist of three distinct genres of mothers working from home: (1) 'balancing mothers' who balance between work and childcare, (2) 'pedagogic mothers' who give childcare tips, and (3) 'commercially oriented' mothers who offer tutorials by means of product placement and advertisement. While these memes express what Mary Douglas called 'a joke in the social structure' without offering either relief or critique, they do create an online joking culture that offers temporary relief as well as awareness that others are in the same position. Our analysis tempers enthusiastic claims about both the critical potential of humour and the new 'liberating' affordances offered by digital platforms to produce liberating female spaces

Affordance · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Joke · Literature · Media studies · Pandemic · Product (mathematics · Sociology · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Humor Studies and Applications · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Medicine · Psychology