Crossing Cultural Boundaries: Analyzing Digital Emotional Contagion in POV Meme Videos in China

In recent years, POV (Point of View) meme videos have rapidly gained popularity on Chinese social media platforms. Despite significant cultural differences between China and other countries, POV meme videos featuring foreign image macros have achieved widespread dissemination in China, highlighting their unique advantages in cross-cultural communication. Given the critical role of emotions in the cross-cultural transmission of memes, this study, grounded in digital emotional contagion theory, aims to analyze whether POV meme videos can effectively transcend cultural boundaries to achieve emotional transmission, thereby enhancing their global spread. Specifically, the research employed a mixed-method approach, combining experimental design and questionnaire surveys, to measure the emotional responses of Chinese users while viewing POV meme videos that utilize both Chinese and foreign image macros, as well as under the influence of comment interventions. The results reveal that, despite the cultural disparity between the image macros in the POV meme videos and the viewers' cultural backgrounds, these videos can effectively induce digital emotional contagion. Moreover, cultural disparity significantly influences the intensity of emotional responses among Chinese users and their receptiveness to comments of varying valence.

近年来，视角（Point of View，POV）梗视频在中国社交媒体平台迅速走红。尽管中国与其他国家存在显著文化差异，但搭载外国梗图素材（image macro）的POV梗视频却在中国实现了广泛传播，凸显了其在跨文化传播中的独特优势。鉴于情感在梗的跨文化传播中发挥关键作用，本研究以数字情感传染理论为基础，旨在探讨POV梗视频能否有效跨越文化边界实现情感传递，进而助力其全球传播。具体而言，本研究采用混合研究方法，结合实验设计与问卷调查，测量中国用户在观看同时使用中外梗图素材的POV梗视频时，以及受到评论干预影响的情境下的情感反应。研究结果表明，尽管POV梗视频中的梗图素材与观众的文化背景存在差异，但此类视频仍可有效引发数字情感传染。此外，文化差异会显著影响中国用户的情感反应强度，以及他们对不同情感效价评论的接受度。