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.