Wang Baochuan Beyond Traditional Theatre: Feminist Discourse, Digital Fluidity and Transmedia Character Network

This article explores the evolving figure of Wang Baochuan, a traditional Chinese traditional theatre character, as a “transmedia character network” within contemporary digital culture. Once celebrated in theatrical form for her loyalty and virtue, Wang Baochuan has recently re-emerged across digital platforms through feminist reinterpretations and creative remixes. Drawing on Thon and Pearson’s theory of transmedia character networks and Ashley Hinck’s concept of digital fluidity, the article examines how her image is reshaped through three case studies: 武家坡2021( Wujiapo 2021), the feminist slogan Wang Baochuan Wa Yecai (王宝钏挖野菜 ) or Wang Baochuan Collecting Wild Vegetables, and the mobile-first short video drama Hunchuan Kuqing Nvzhu Wobuzuo Lianai Nao (魂穿苦情女主我不做恋爱脑) or Soul-Traveling to a Miserable Heroine, I Refuse to Be Blinded by Love. The article argues that digital fluidity operates as a social affordance, enabling feminist critique to emerge through the distributed reanimation of transmedia characters in China’s commercially mediated and gendered digital environment.