Dr Crystal Abidin, Prof Michael Keane, and the Centre for Culture and Technology at Curtin University hosted a virtual symposium on Cultures of TikTok in the Asia Pacific in December 2020. This event was a critical forum for cutting edge research on TikTok, the globally influential short video platform that has captivated international attention and made headlines over the past two years. In particular, this event focused on the cultures of TikTok (including but not limited to the platform, players, and politics) throughout the Asia Pacific Region.
This half-day virtual symposium took place via Zoom on 7 December 2020 featuring presentations from thirty contributors from around the world and a keynote delivered by Associate Professor Haiqing Yu (RMIT).
Read the abstracts and bios here.
Keynote: TikTok and Platform Geopolitics
Presenter: A/Prof Haiqing Yu (RMIT)
Video available here
Duration: 31min 23sec
Session 01: Platforms and Pedagogy
Video available here
Duration: 46 min 33sec
Chunmeizi SU & Xu CHEN: Creative labour and monetization in the age of TikTok: MCN and sustainability of Chinese short video industry
Duration: 13 min 20sec | Timestamp: 00:13
Yiran SU & Bradley BAKER: TikTok (Douyin) and influencer economy: Insights from a Chinese sport-focused multi-channel network
Duration: 11min 7sec | Timestamp: 13:33
Catherine HARTUNG, Rosie WELCH, Natalie HENDRY & Kath ALBURY: ‘Mr Luke’ and teachers of TikTok: Generative figurations of professional practice, pedagogy, and identity
Duration: 12min 30sec | Timestamp: 24:40
Giselle NEWTON & Clare SOUTHERTON*: Everyday TikTok Talk: A method for a reflexive encounter with #donorconceived
Duration: 9min 27sec | Timestamp: 37:00
Due to slight technical issues slides of this presentation are available here.
Session 02: Gender and Class
Video available here
Duration: 42min 21sec
Nunnapan PUATHANAWAT: TikTok: The transformation of online beauty culture in Thailand
Duration: 10min 23 sec | Timestamp: 00:22
Sidra KAMRAN: “TikTok didn’t die, it merely fainted”: Gender, Class and Emerging Digital Cultures in Pakistan
Duration: 11min 35sec | Timestamp: 10:45
Satveer KAUR-GILL: Snippets of Precarity: TikTok and Storytelling Practices of Low-Wage Migrant Workers
Duration: 9min50sec | Timestamp: 22:20
Ain NABILA: TikTok’s Politics of Transnational Flirtation: The Example of Migrant Workers in Malaysia
Duration: 10min 12sec | Timestamp: 32:10
Session 03: Popular Culture
Video available here.
Duration: 9min 05sec
Due to technical issues only one video from this session is available.
Jin LEE*: Connecting the Global and the Local through TikTok Stage in the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Duration: 9min 05sec
Sonja PETROVIC: From Karaoke to Lip-syncing: TikTok use in Japan
Slides available here.
Samuel CABBUAG: Humor and TikTok Influencers in the Philippines
Slides available here.
Dang NGUYEN: From Ratchet to Riches: TikTok and transnational hip hop culture in
Vietnam
Slides available here.
Session 04: Regional Cultures
Video available here
Duration: 49min 26sec
Xu CHEN & D. Bondy Valdovinos KAYE: Platform Sinophobia: TikTok and ByteDance Controversies
Duration 12min 20sec | Timestamp: 00:10
Puwati DUTTA: TikTok Use in Rural India and its Appropriation as a Daily Activity for Children
Duration: 12min 30 sec | Timestamp: 12:25
Devina SARWATAY: From Viewers to Makers: Young People’s TikTok Cultures in India
Duration: 12min 35sec | Timestamp: 24:55
Guo CHEN: Inter-generational Interaction on TikTok and the Image of the Third
Age in the Chinese Diaspora
Duration: 11min 56sec | Timestamp: 37:30
Session 05: Anxieties and Learnings
Video available here
Duration: 42min 31sec
Darsana VIJAY: Playing Politics: Before and After India’s Ban on TikTok
Duration: 10min 29 sec | Timestamp: 00:13
Anand BADOLA & Fatima ALI: Who’s Afraid of TikTok? Moral Panic and the Rise of Cultural Anxieties in South Asia
Duration: 10min 28sec | Timestamp: 10:42
Liudmila SHAFIROVA, Boris VASQUEZ-CALVO, & Leticia Tian ZHANG: Cultural and Ideological Discourses in #LearnChinese Videos and Comments on TikTok
Duration: 9min 45sec | Timestamp: 21:10
Marc PACOMA: Participatory Ethnographic Filmmaking Through TikTok and Video Diaries in COVID-19 Pandemic Times
Duration: 11min 36sec | Timestamp: 30:55
TikTok Cultures Research Network 