Digital Authenticity: Negotiating Subcultural Identity in Chinese Skateboarding Videos

This study examines the construction and performance of cultural identities among Chinese skateboarders through the lens of digital content production, focusing specifically on skateboarding videos. Employing a mixed-methods approach combining in-depth interviews and content analysis across various digital platforms, we investigate the dialectical relationship between video format, content, and the self-conceptualization of cultural identity within this urban subculture. Our findings illuminate how the form and content of skateboarding videos significantly shape the processes of identity formation and subcultural affiliation. Core members of the skateboarding community often articulate their central identity through participation in collective "team videos," a format that reinforces group solidarity and subcultural authenticity, serving as a medium for establishing cultural capital within the field of skateboarding culture. Conversely, individualized trick demonstrations on platforms like Douyin (TikTok) are perceived within the community as a less authentic form of identity performance, framed by skateboarders as a strategic adaptation to the "rules of the game" in the attention economy of digital media. This tension between subcultural authenticity and digital visibility underscores the complex negotiation of identity that Chinese skateboarders navigate in the contemporary mediascape. Our research contributes to the sociological understanding of how digital platforms and their inherent structures shape the performance and perception of subcultural identities, offering insights into the broader implications of digital media on youth subcultures in China and illustrating how traditional notions of authenticity are challenged and redefined in the digital age.