Negotiating Expression: Cultural Fields and AI-Mediated Production in Chinese Web Series

Shangmingzhu Zhang, Hasrul Hashim, Nurzihan Hassim

Abstract


Chinese web series production operates within overlapping forces of state regulation, platform governance, commercial capital, and audience participation. This study examines how creators negotiate creative freedom within this AI-mediated ecosystem. Based on Bourdieu’s theory of cultural fields, the research develops a four-field analytical model to analyse interactions among cultural production, capital, symbolic capital, and power. This qualitative study draws on six semi-structured interviews with actors, directors, writers, and producers in Beijing and Shanghai, complemented by thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke’s (2006) framework. A co-occurrence matrix was constructed to identify the semantic relationships among eight subthemes and the four broader fields. Findings show that creators navigate a constrained environment shaped simultaneously by platform algorithms, policy expectations, and data-driven audience feedback. The strongest thematic linkage emerged between the Field of Cultural Production and the Field of Symbolic Capital (12.7%), indicating that creative intentions are closely intertwined with audience participation and symbolic valuation on digital platforms. In contrast, the tight coupling between capital and power (12.0%) highlights how institutional and commercial logics jointly structure the production process.
This study contributes a theoretical model illustrating how creative freedom is negotiated within an AI-mediated cultural production system. It also highlights the need to reconceptualize symbolic capital in platformised environments shaped by algorithmic visibility and participatory metrics.

 

 


Keywords


Chinese web series; cultural production; AI-mediated; symbolic capital; audience participation

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/ebangi.2026.2301.24

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