Cute politics

Articulating the kawaii aesthetic, fandom and political participation

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12780449
AutoresHsin-Yen Yang (Fort Hays State University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2023
Volumen21
Número2
Páginas85-97
Fecha de publicación2023-04-03
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaPopular Communication (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1540-5702 • E-ISSN: 1540-5710
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/15405702.2023.2219661
OpenAlexW4380079816
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas29

This article explores the affective power of the kawaii (“cute” in Japanese) aesthetic in politics by drawing from the successful “cute” campaign in Taiwan’s vital presidential elections of 2000 and 2004. Based on field participation, interviews, and secondary sources, this study offers a historical-textual analysis of the ways in which cute aesthetics and fan participation alter the political communication process in postauthoritarian Taiwan. This study suggests that the prevalence of kawaii in protests and political campaigns, most salient in East and Southeast Asia today, indicates an ideological shift from masculine communication styles to an “effeminate” voice in politics. This study also exemplifies the significance of the “minor aesthetics” such as cute, zany, glamorous, and whimsical because they give voice to weak, silenced and marginalized groups. These minor aesthetic categories deserve the same level of serious attention that academics have given to the grand, the beautiful and the sublime

Aesthetics · Art · Fandom · Ideology · Mainstream · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Sublime · Asian Culture and Media Studies · Gender Studies · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Japanese History and Culture · Law