Asian Celebrity Capital in Digital Media Networks: Scandal, Body Politics and Nationalism

This chapter analyzes Zhang Ziyi's beach scandal as an example of how the Asian female star publicity is scrutinized by the global public in digital media networks. Asia has developed a maturation of a celebrity industry. By contending the scandalous imaginaries of Zhang, the chapter provides insight on how far digital media apparatuses facilitate the private life of stars going public, unpacking the intricacies of morality, body politics and nationalism as well as digital users' engagement in current Asian celebrity culture. As the analysis has unfolded, scandal ushers the moment that the star image is evaluated against the moral and ideological parameters, risking the celebrity capital in dynamic and capricious fashions. In Asia, popular culture celebrities, as a form of soft power, are key agents to generate socio-cultural and political capital and bolster ideological dissemination. The discourse of moral decline is associated with the politics of the female body, legitimizing rather than problematizing the patriarchal ideals in Asian societies.