Lower than life: The neo-folk art in China’s era of short videos

This article explores the emergence of neo-folk art in contemporary China through the viral figure of Ding Zhen, a young Tibetan man whose grassroots fame on short-video platforms was rapidly appropriated by commercial and state interests. Bridging media studies, ethnic representation and platform governance, the study conceptualizes ‘neo-folk art’ as a hybrid cultural form shaped by vernacular creativity, digital infrastructure and ideological curation. The analysis unfolds across four dimensions: (1) the transformation of folk art from revolutionary minjian to digital remix; (2) the co-construction of Ding Zhen’s fame through meme logic, fandom and affective economies; (3) the platformed landscapes of Shangri-La as tools of visual governance and (4) the negotiation of folk aesthetics in the curated environment of the Chinternet. Drawing on textual analysis of viral content, user-generated remixes and official campaigns, the article shows how ethnic identity, authenticity and algorithmic visibility intersect to produce new forms of symbolic capital. Rather than viewing folk expression as residue or revival, the article argues that neo-folk art functions as a mode of infrastructural folk imagination – a performance of tradition shaped within the logics of platform capitalism and state media.