Discourse analysis of knowledge-based live streaming: a case study of East Buy streamer Dong Yuhui

Abstract

Live streaming e-commerce is not only an important part of China’s digital economy but also the preferred way of purchase for many Chinese, especially the young. Since 2022, a new model initiated by East Buy has emerged, quickly becoming known as knowledge-based live streaming. The most famous streamer from this novel type of live streaming is Dong Yuhui, a former English teacher of the New Oriental School. As a top Internet influencer with millions of followers, Dong Yuhui has become a conspicuous social sign of the rising China that is undergoing fast technological, economic, and cultural changes. This study thus takes Dong Yuhui as an example to examine the typical discourses of the knowledge-based live streaming. Through a triangulation of case study, discourse analysis, and sentiment analysis, it finds that Dong Yuhui mainly employs the strategies of disseminating encyclopedic knowledge, telling intriguing stories, and using poetic language in his live streaming discourse. This unique discourse has the main function of fulfilling customers’ intellectual, emotional, and psychological needs. As such, it is warmly received by customers, whose comments are centered on the talents of the streamer rather than the attributes of the commodity.