Remediation of Desire: Gendered Fantasies, Class Anxiety, and Emotional Compensation in Chinese Micro-Short Dramas
Abstract
Micro-short dramas have become an influential form of digital cultural consumption in China, combining short episodes, dense conflict, and rapid emotional payoff with fragmented mobile viewing. Existing research has largely focused on industrial models, platform circulation, and narrative form, while comparative work on how male-oriented and female-oriented micro-short dramas reorganize gendered fantasies remains limited. Drawing on the concept of remediation, this study examines how established narratives from popular fiction and online literature are reshaped in the mobile media environment. To describe this formal shift, it uses narrative compression to explain how character development, conflict, and emotional resolution are condensed into high-density narrative units. The study focuses on Hongguo Short Drama and combines ranking-list analysis, close readings of four representative cases, qualitative analysis of highly liked comments, and an exploratory survey of 99 viewers. The findings suggest that male-oriented narratives more often confirm value through competence and public achievement, whereas female-oriented narratives more often emphasize identity restoration, relational negotiation, and emotional security. Both, however, remain connected to concerns about social mobility, recognition, and relational uncertainty. By linking remediation to narrative compression and emotional compensation, the paper shows how platform form can reorganize the timing of lack and gratification without assuming that entirely new gendered desires have emerged.
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