Character Creation and Promotion in Social Media Era China

This research explores the creation and promotion of cartoon characters in China's social media era, focusing on grassroots creators who leverage digital platforms to participate in cultural production. Through a qualitative, case-study approach, the research examines four social media cartoon characters—Aoda Cat, Fan & Bao, Rumi, and Toby—using interviews with their creators and insights from experts in the field.

The study identifies the characteristics of social media as a context for character creation, highlighting the role of light content formats, iterative production processes, and audience interaction in shaping character image, personality, and engagement strategies. It also reveals the pivotal role of individual creators and their authentic expression in fostering relatable and impactful character designs. These findings are synthesised to generate an empirically grounded conceptual framework that illustrates and analyses the creation and promotion dynamics of cartoon characters in a platformed cultural production environment.

This research makes both theoretical and practical contributions. Theoretically, it enriches existing character-creation frameworks by incorporating insights from digital entrepreneurship and social media studies. Practically, it offers practical strategies for creators and industry practitioners to navigate the challenges of content creation in an algorithm-driven, fastevolving social media landscape. By situating these findings within the context of China’s digital ecosystem, this research provides a fresh perspective on character production and serves as a resource for creators and researchers seeking to understand and engage with the opportunities and complexities of social media character design.