Techno-cultural domestication of online Tarot reading in contemporary China

Abstract

This article examines the contemporary popularization of Tarot reading on China’s prominent online video platform Bilibili. It tries to make sense of the cultural and political import of the phenomenon through the conceptual lens of techno-cultural domestication, defined as a process in which a non-native cultural artifact or practice becomes embedded in and tamed by a techno-cultural arena in a receiver country. Based on digital ethnography and textual analysis, the article presents how Chinese online Tarot diviners constructed their participatory ritual by drawing upon the symbols of Western occultism and the technological affordances of Bilibili, especially the function of danmu. However, Tarot divination was also brought in line with dominant social values and state ideologies. It ultimately became a form of ‘sheer entertainment’ promoting common sense ideas, an image of a good Chinese citizen, private solutions to life’s challenges, and a positive social atmosphere.