Personal Worship in Contemporary China: A Cultural and Theoretical Review in the Context of the C-Star Paradigm

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Graduate School of International and Area Studies, Republic of Korea, 107 Imae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul

Abstract

This paper examines the phenomenon of personal worship in contemporary China through the lens of the C-Star paradigm. It argues that personal worship has shifted from a primarily state-orchestrated and institutionally anchored form of charisma to a platform-mediated and ideologically sensitive field of symbolic power. Drawing on discourse analysis, cultural theory, and Chinese digital culture, the paper traces the historical and political roots of personal worship from the Mao era to the present, showing how charismatic authority has been reconfigured rather than simply weakened. It then introduces the C-Star framework and the core concept of semiotic elasticity, understood as the capacity of a public figure’s image to be reinterpreted across multiple ideological and affective contexts without losing basic recognizability. A focused case study of Li Ziqi illustrates how seemingly apolitical personas can become nodal points of national branding, aesthetic desire, and ideological negotiation. The analysis highlights the role of platform governance and algorithmic curation in shaping visibility and worship. A short discussion of counterexamples—C-Stars who sustain long-term legitimacy despite ideological tensions—helps to stress-test the framework. Finally, the paper reflects on the implications of C-Star worship for emotional governance, social identity, and the stability of China’s symbolic order in an age of networked media and surveillance capitalism.