Travel logs of “colonial adventurers” in digital space an analysis of expatriates’ vlogs about India in a Chinese UGC platform

This study examines some expatriates’ vlogs about India in a Chinese user-generated content (UGC) platform. These vlogs exhibit similarities to the travel logs of “colonial adventurers,” particularly in their tendency to denigrate Indian culture and engage audiences in the form of cultural fetishism. Such vloggers not only present the culture of others but also “consume” it, reducing and objectifying culture into a commercial and consumable commodity. This study employed the theoretical perspectives of cultural fetishism and hybridity to conduct a case study of typical expat vloggers. The essay identifies that these vloggers exhibit a special gaze towards Indian culture in their vlogs, which diminishes the cultural other. Unlike earlier colonial adventure narratives underpinned by nation-state expansion, the gaze presented in such vlogs is more directly driven by platform traffic and commercial capital.