“Who benefits, who is left behind, and who controls the narrative?”: E-commerce livestreaming and digital gentrification in contemporary rural China

As China’s countryside becomes increasingly entangled with digital technologies, a new form of rural gentrification is emerging—one driven by narrative control, cultural commodification, and algorithmic visibility. This paper examines how e-commerce livestreaming reshapes rural space in contemporary China. Drawing on a multi-site case study approach, this study reveals that gentrification in the digital era is no longer imposed solely by urban elites but is increasingly enacted from within rural communities and mediated by digital platforms. This process arises from the intersection of algorithmic market logics, state-led rural development policies, and the aspirations of rural communities to balance tradition with monetization. We identify this process as “co-constitutive gentrification from within” and trace it through three mutually reinforcing dynamics: the symbolic economy of rural imaginaries, the material remaking of livestreamable space, and the revaluation of earthy rural labor. The findings contribute to a broader theorization of digital rural transformation, demonstrating that gentrification in China’s countryside is as much about who gets to tell the story as it is about who owns the land.