The Interaction of Discourse and Acts: Spectating Grassroot Livestreamers in China

This paper examines the streaming behavior of grassroot game live-streamers in China and the spectating behavior of their viewers, focusing on how discourse and interactive acts shape audience relationships on platforms such as Douyu.com. Its central thesis is that a streamer's self-image, verbal and playful interactions with viewers, and the resulting communication rituals together build symbolic boundaries that distinguish one streamer from competitors and cultivate a distinctive fan culture capable of sustaining a livelihood from livestreaming. The author frames the phenomenon against the rapid growth of e-sports and game livestreaming, noting that over ten thousand grassroot gameplayers reportedly make livestreaming a full-time career and that the audience on livestreaming platforms exceeded four hundred million by June 2018, with game content the most preferred category.

The study rests on a single-case observational method, following one prominent streamer, "Zhangdaxian," a top performer in the mobile game King of Honor with more than five million viewers, on Douyu.com over a period of more than six months. The researcher tracked the streamer's appearance, acts, and conversations with viewers to test three hypotheses: that self-image builds boundaries through distinctive visual markers, daily-life displays, and fixed streaming schedules and spaces; that interactive acts such as playing games with viewers and recurring verbal expressions link streams and audiences, with "barrage" comments enabling rapid two-way communication; and that these repeated interactions form a communication ritual that develops into a broader fan culture. Because the findings derive from one streamer, generalizability is necessarily limited, though the analysis offers a detailed account of how grassroot livestreamers cultivate sustainable audience relationships.