Communication, Society and Media 
ISSN 2576-5388 (Print) ISSN 2576-5396 (Online) 

Vol. 7, No. 2, 2024 

www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm 

53 

 

Original Paper 

Title of the Manuscript the phenomenon of Ma Baoguo under 

the Use and Gratification Theory 

Dongxu Wang
1,2*

, Y. Ahmad
2
, & Syed Zulkarnain Syed Idrus

3
 

1 
School of Education, Zhanjiang University of Science and Technology, Zhanjiang 524088 

2 
Faculty of Applied Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Malaysia Perlis, 01000 Kangat Perlis, 

Malaysia 

3 
School of Human Development and Technocommunication, University Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia 

* 
Corresponding Author: dongxu@studentmail.unimap.edu.my 

 

Received: June 28, 2024           Accepted: July 14, 2024         Online Published: July 31, 2024 

doi:10.22158/csm.v7n2p53                       URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/csm.v7n2p53 

 

Abstract 

The multi-form self-media technology has expanded the speed of media culture and the sharing of 

social information resources. The development of science and technology promotes the diversification 

of media communication, the rapid development of information and the deep integration of society has 

provided a new resource development. The phenomenon of Ma Baoguo is a society culture which uses 

martial arts as a symbol from the perspective of Use and Gratification theory. Under the network 

platform as the medium and, using pseudo-shaped traditional cultural concepts as the form of 

expression, the phenomenon of Ma Baoguo spreads a ugliness and entertainment of society by using 

the way of information commercialization thinking image. through the Use and Gratification theory, the 

phenomenon of Ma Baoguo is an epitome of traditional Chinese literature under the imbalance of 

rapid economic development and cultural diversity, which highlights the crack between the traditional 

and modern culture represented about Chinese martial arts under the embarrassing and contradictory 

situation. The impact of non-mainstream rational values and irrational mainstream entertainment 

thinking is a group phenomenon under the diversified information. 

Keywords 

media studies, informatization, Ma Baoguo, martial arts 

 

 

 

 



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1. Introduction 

Today is an era in which media and culture interpenetrate, complement each other and confirm each 

other. The globalization of mass communications was driven by the spread of satellite and cable TV, 

cellular mobile telephones, the Internet, and multimedia convergence (Norris & Inglehart, 2009). With 

the rapid development of network, Communication technology has improved by the terminal and 

optical fiber and the channel, the form of personality and information exchange between platforms has 

become the mainstream of contemporary network communication. The important role of mass 

emotions as a tool that unites people in social communications, induces a centrifugal force that 

reformats “collective soul” of the audience to the state of “public opinion” through communication 

apperception (Demutska, 2021). Mass media is strongly influencing public opinion and our worldview, 

and media narratives shape and change the way we view the world (Muzzatti & Rigato, 2007). 

Undoubtedly, the essence of communication is still the dissemination or sharing of social information. 

In the new information age background of diversified network platform resources, explosive change of 

information, commercialization of digital media, mainstreaming of media entertainment and inclusive 

ideology, every individual has the opportunity of cultural communication and a platform for innovation. 

The Internet industry has become the “fertile soil” that cultivates the modern economic system, and the 

support of capital has undoubtedly promoted the rapid development of the Internet industry. In the 

process of capital and the Internet, capital undoubtedly plays the role of catalyst promoting the Internet 

consumption and industry. From this, many small platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Whats-App, 

TikTok, Bilibili, SNS, WIKI are represented, and many other anchor information platforms with 

individuals as the main body are derived. New network applications are staged new Cultural business 

model. The continuous development of new media technology and Internet technology has changed the 

power structure of the audience to obtain and disseminate information, and promoted the empowerment 

of groups on the basis of self-empowerment, thus promoting the empowerment of society and 

organizations (Dai, 2022). Social media, the interactive, global and hypertext link Internet 

communication form formed by the form of network socialization, the interaction, immediacy, equal 

rights, diversity and low cost of communication communication are highly appreciated by the public. 

the connection and interaction by approved the trust and social interactions strengthen, which 

contribute to enhancing the user‟s motivation for sustainable consumption (Ertz & Elgaaied-Gambier, 

2023). 

Chinese martial arts have 5,000 years of inheritance traces. Chinese martial arts thought have been 

deeply influenced by multiple local cultures such as traditional Chinese Confucianism, Taoist 

philosophy, and Buddhist culture in the historical changes. It has formed symbols of body culture and 

martial arts, full of Chinese national spirit and a national culture with aesthetic appeal. It can be said 

that Chinese martial arts is a mirror of Chinese traditional culture. From the thought of Chinese martial 



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arts, we can get a glimpse of the spiritual belief and national character and quality of Chinese people in 

the farming era (Ciembroniewicz, 2019). However, with the diversification of culture and the change of 

social ecological model, Chinese martial arts is facing the impact and extrusion of multiple external 

environments such as the weakening of the value of fighting skills, the rupture of the master-apprentice 

inheritance model, and the impact of emerging fitness and competitive sports. Like Beijing opera, 

acrobatics and other local traditional cultures and skills, traditional Chinese martial arts are facing a 

marginalized situation on the verge of being forgotten (Liu & Liu, 2016). With the legalization of 

modern times, the fighting essence of martial arts has gradually lost the essence of its skills and the 

way of inheritance, forming a kind of imaginary memory. 

On the contrary, with the rapidity of mobile communication resources and the increase of people‟s 

fragmented time, the benefits of commercialized Internet traffic from individual or team-based 

multi-platform communication have become increasingly prominent, and have become a new 

entertainment and economic ecology. The cultural dissemination of the Internet is also a microcosm of 

the values and aesthetics of the public opinion field. Ma Baoguo in the self-media era and the 

phenomenon of Ma Baoguo‟s Internet culture caused by it are just such a representative figure who has 

no intention of spreading martial arts values and has aroused the pursuit of the Internet. Ma Baoguo‟s 

words “mouse tail juice” and “young people do not talk about martial arts” have become the new 

generation of online buzzwords. Although Ma Baoguo‟s words and deeds and a series of subsequent 

commercialization behaviors have been controversial by major mainstream media and the public, the 

communication phenomenon projected by Ma Baoguo himself and the causes of its internal 

environment are worthy of our deep thinking and exploration. 

 

2. Background 

The interaction effect of the group extends an extended era of network communication. The popularity 

of new media allows people to immerse themselves in the dual spiritual world of reality and 

virtualization more freely, expanding and supplementing the spiritual needs and spiritual enjoyment in 

real life in the network world. The new communicative surroundings are radically transforming 

traditional communication between people. It is destroying channel information, experience and 

spiritual values created by men (Korableva, 2015). And when this virtual ecology gradually becomes a 

part of life, people will gradually blur the cracks and boundaries between reality and virtual space, 

creating a sense of recognition and satisfaction psychologically. The network society offers a radically 

new view of the world and metaphoric of thinking (Frolova & Volkov, 2015). Therefore, the new media 

is called a pan-socialized ecological mode in the individual or society. Under the cultural ideology, 

economic complemented mode and social coexistence mode, the individual living space gradually 

realizes the “universal” form of globalization. 



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In 2020, coincides with the historical period of the global COVID-19 pandemic, Ma Baoguo, an 

ordinary person with no political qualifications or capital background, has aroused the enthusiasm of 

the Internet on China‟s Internet platforms. Ma Baoguo‟s short video of actual combat and post-match 

self-defeat interpretation, and his iconic actions of “mouse tail juice” and “five whips with lightning” in 

strong language slang, once caused a media top stream with 1 billion traffic on the Internet. As a result, 

Ma Baoguo once became a celebrity on the Internet platform. The imitation of Ma Baoguo‟s image and 

the creation of new media such as language and animation technology have been continuously 

refreshed and pushed by major platforms, which has triggered a wave of entertainment in the whole 

society about the essence of Chinese martial arts and Ma Baoguo‟s sect. China‟s mainstream media and 

the official People‟s Daily commented that it is characterized as a culture of judging ugliness because 

of its value orientation of “sensationalism, bluffing, traffic supremacy, and pursuit of interests”. As a 

result, Ma Baoguo‟s related media works and commercial promotions were suspended from various 

platforms, and became jokes or stories containing Chinese martial arts symbols among the media. A 

series of social phenomena such as the traffic value generated by the Ma Baoguo phenomenon, the 

mainstream attention of social groups, the controversy of the era of martial arts, and China‟s official 

cultural criticism and guidance are worthy of our reflection. 

 

3. Use and Gratification Theoretical 

Based on the use and gratification theory, this paper studies the social background and public 

psychology of Ma Baoguo phenomenon, and analyzes the era communication effect factors and game 

characteristics of Ma Baoguo phenomenon, so as to explore the cultural communication essence of Ma 

Baoguo phenomenon. 

In 1974, American sociologist Elihu Katz and J. G. BroMel edited (The Uses of Mass Communications, 

1974). Elihu Katz summarized media contact as a causal chain process of “social factors + 

psychological factors” and “media expectations-media contact-demand satisfaction”, and proposed the 

basic mode of “use and satisfaction”. Under the “use and satisfaction” mode, the audience uses the use 

of the public to use the media to achieve the dependence psychology of families or social levels with 

the help of the media (Child & Haridakis, 2017). The medium of communication can compete with 

interpersonal communication or other traditional ways of satisfying needs. The Internet has promoted 

the spiritual needs of individuals for online virtual games and social (Liu et al., 2017). It is the best 

competitive strategy for network media to expand the popularity of the media by using hot events or 

emergencies on the Internet.  

In the context of Internet platforms and group participation, Ma Bao‟s Chinese language and martial 

arts movement form new fission -type communication on social media such as Weibo, WeChat, and 

Zhihu, and thus has further strengthened its scope of communication and communication. From station 



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B to the entire network, the catalysis of the platform enables the Malaysian national fans to get the 

attention of people from different circles in the Internet, and then promote the expansion of the scope of 

the spread of the “Malaysian Phenomenon” (Zhou & Cheng，2016). Based on this, after sorting out the 

source and development process of the Ma Baoguo phenomenon, we found that the Ma Baoguo 

phenomenon is just a social phenomenon in the “use and satisfaction” communication effect (the 

relationship of Ma Baoguo phenomenon: Figure 1). 

 

 

Figure 1. The Relationship between the Factors of the Use and Satisfaction of the Spread Effect 

in the Ma Baoguo Phenomenon 

 

4. Discussion 

4.1 The Imbalance of Chinese Social Economy and Cultural Development under the Background of Ma 

Baoguo Phenomenon 

China‟s economy accounts for 10% of the global economy, making it the second largest economy in the 

world. China‟s overall economic strength has increased, infrastructure investment has increased, 

people‟s material living standards have improved, and the pace of life and life pressure have shown a 

squeeze-like increase amid rapid economic growth. Under the dual economic structure, urban-rural 

division, urban-rural development, and excessive income gap have become the main contradictions in 

China‟s economic development, resulting in a kind of “involution” form of factors such as real estate, 

education, work, pension, competition, and life mental stress. Correspondingly, China‟s cultural 

development is lagging behind, and even under the influence of multicultural factors and the promotion 

of commercial culture, the positive cultural guiding effect is showing a weak trend. Fueled by social 

ethos such as unrestrained entertainment, flaunting wealth, fraud, and comparison psychology, the 

crime rate has risen, etc., and the prevalence of Internet culture presents and reflects the imbalance of 



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China‟s mainstream culture and ideology under the contemporary economic background. 

Unreasonable reform mechanisms lead to social stratification and differentiation, which in turn leads to 

social rupture. Similarly, serious cultural deviations cannot be fundamentally reversed in a short period 

of time. China‟s social transformation and cultural change are facing severe challenges. The 

legalization of China‟s social order and serious cultural deviations, as well as the inconsistency 

between local culture and modern global culture, have formed a new social and cultural contradiction. 

The media communication intuitively presents the focus and dilemma of this contradiction. At the same 

time, new media communication also brings a new consumer market and market brand value for 

commercialization to expand the strategic market, increase the integration of strategic capital, and the 

aggregation of product production resources. Based on the content of radio, television, film, and new 

media technologies, a person creates an image of himself, his own potentials, values, success, as well 

as his own affiliation, a certain class, race, nationality, and thus media culture has a remarkable social 

significance (Ljajić, 2020). The audience is gradually changing from the recipient of traditional media 

to the role of the leader. 

There is a rational law of co-prosperity and balanced development between economy and culture. 

When business and culture produce ideological imbalance or confrontation in the social development 

trend, the true spiritual value of culture must rationally exclude and restrain the irrational economic 

development. Deviation of group values. The internet provides a platform for the exchange of ideas and 

perspectives, and it has the potential to shape and transform social and cultural norms and values 

(Laoebela et al., 2023). Against this background of culture and social ecology, the Internet star 

phenomenon represented by Ma Baoguo is the inevitable status quo of the lack of traditional Chinese 

culture and aesthetic values, and the imbalance between rapid economic development and cultural 

diversity. In other words, the phenomenon of Ma Baoguo is more like a rebellion and ridicule of the 

values of mainstream media and social norms under the state of imbalance of China‟s economy and 

culture. 

4.2 The Thrust of the Internet Economy Era under the Background of the Ma Baoguo Phenomenon 

Bakhtin pointed out in the Carnivalization theory that people live two lives in reality. One is daily life, 

one is a carnival life, and in the carnival life, people are not restricted by the hierarchical world. 

Emotional emotions are the total celebration, etiquette, and form of all carnival (Eweis, 2021). With the 

advent of the information age and the popularization of multimedia platforms, the economic benefits of 

entertainment have become prominent. Various entertainment programs in China have multiplied. The 

era of individual independence and loss of social ecology brought about by the Internet and the era of 

economy and entertainment have gradually formed a new cultural form. Virtual culture and virtual 

consumption have become new ways of enjoying in the digital age. While the Internet brings 

convenience to people‟s life and work, it also implies some potential dangers and disadvantages. News, 



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rumors, and information of all kinds can spread quickly without being constrained by adversaries or 

institutions (Hongchuaru, 2015). A series of problems caused by the Internet are also prominent, such 

as fraud, managing anchors, etc., which have become an important part of social instability. 

Information dissemination and lifestyle represented by “floating symbols” are constantly changing and 

updating people‟s living and cultural cognition. The Internet has promoted the way of social and 

cultural communication, and at the same time endowed art forms with new cultural connotations and 

emotional experience transmission. Digital media art creates and integrates people‟s rational thinking 

and artistic thinking, forming a shared communication of new aesthetic appeal and value experience. 

The dissemination of new media has driven the progress of civilization such as the openness of social 

information, cultural inclusiveness and diversity, and fair competition. At the same time, it is inevitable 

to face the impact of multiculturalism on local culture and the crisis of homogenization. The Network 

KUSO phenomenon has become a self and self realization of the platform of public display. But for the 

public, it is important to realize themselves in the network, and get the opportunity to be read and 

accepted, so as to meet the public‟s desire to show themselves (Lei, 2017). 

The Internet economy brings various media platforms, disseminates various information cultures and 

reaps cultural and commercial benefits at the same time. The new digital communication platform has a 

positive value of the times for the national culture that expresses the common truth, goodness and 

beauty of mankind. Mutations make the fans of Ma Baoguo seemed more adaptable to the public‟s 

environment, which causes more Internet users to actively or passively participate in the carnival of the 

“Ma Baoguo Phenomenon”, strengthening the exposure and spread of the style of Ma Baoguo in the 

field of public, so the “Ma Baoguo Phenomenon” was expanded in the strong spread in the network 

medium (Li & He, 2021). The phenomenon of Ma Baoguo reflects a highly commercial hype and 

pursuit of capital interests of the Internet star effect. However, the aspect of the Ma Baoguo 

phenomenon reflects the rapid development and popularization of the Internet traffic economy, and 

traffic earning has become a new way and means of economic development under the social 

background of the new era. Whether the social group cultural orientation caused by the flow benefit 

pursued by the individual platform represented by the Ma Baoguo phenomenon is positive or negative 

is worthy of in-depth reflection by managers and participants at multiple levels of society. 

4.3 The Rise of Subject Entertainment under the Background of Ma Baoguo Phenomenon 

The American “Wired” magazine said that it is a new information age of “person to person”. The 

Internet business platform has brought a new form of individual cultural media and business models. 

The dissemination of network culture in the form of traffic and management has become a new digital 

network business model. This kind of network ecology provides a new consumption space for 

disseminating positive cultural values, displaying personal skills and abilities, developing free speech 

views, expanding commodity markets, and satisfying spiritual entertainment needs. 



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The spoof culture meets the needs of people‟s pursuit of entertainment, creating an abnormal effect 

through various expression methods such as collage, irony, and imitation, and creation and enjoying the 

joy of spoof in subversion and deconstruction (Cui, 2008). China‟s emerging Internet celebrities 

represented by Ma Baoguo are the representatives of this kind of main entertainment exporter. The 

needs of netizens and the tolerance of “spoof” are the widespread spread of ““spoof” works. At the 

same time, entertainment, as one of the functions of mass media, has been manifested in the spread of 

“spoof” work (Zhao, 2006). With the promotion and support of the entertainment platform, the Internet 

has become an emerging position for individual entertainment. The Ma Baoguo phenomenon is 

essentially the status quo of social value consciousness that earns traffic dividends with information 

capital at the cost of slandering traditional Chinese martial arts culture in the form of smearing and 

passive entertainment. 

4.4 The Psychological Needs of Group Entertainment under the Background of Ma Baoguo 

Phenomenon 

The media guru McLuhan once described the media as the greatest driving force leading to social 

change. According to relevant research, by December 2022, China‟s webcast users will reach 751 

million, and China‟s mobile Internet users will reach 1.067 billion. The mobile phone, as a basic 

communication tool, has gradually become a tool for mass entertainment. The entertainment 

information disseminated by the Internet media has become one of the focuses that attract people‟s 

entertainment psychology and curiosity. 

The public has evolved its own context and experience in the real society into such a popular cultural 

phenomenon, which eliminates the pressure, emotions, and encounters in social life. Coordination with 

virtual space (Jiang & Zhang, 2020). The value of the media lies in spreading positive energy, guiding 

the public to rationally recognize and face real life, and create a sense of happiness. The entertainment 

psychology of the people also reflects the social and cultural characteristics under the background of 

the times. The non-binding nature of the law, the blindness of the group, as well as the star effect and 

curiosity have created the public‟s aesthetic taste in entertainment. In the pressure of life and the 

spiritual satisfaction of needs, drawing on common interests and awareness has become the mainstream 

of the cultural needs of the people. 

Internet users use the characteristics of the Internet freely and virtual anonymity in the 

micro-propagation environment to play their creativity to perform social events and phenomena to 

drama, ridicule, and entertainment spoofs to alleviate the pressure of real life, release the energy of 

daily depression, pursue carnival, and pursue carnival Life experience (Ye, 2016). Behind the 

phenomenon of Ma Baoguo, there is no doubt that it reflects the entertainment psychological needs of 

the Chinese people today and a true reflection of the use of media. 

 



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4.5 The Questioning of Traditional Chinese Martial Arts and the Decline of Self-confidence under the 

Background of Ma Baoguo Phenomenon 

Hovland proposed that the higher the authority of the communicator, the greater its influence on the 

audience, and the better the effect of communication. However, the dissociation of communicators and 

messages can occur over time. After reminding the audience again of the identity of the communicator, 

the influence is restored again. 

The questioning of Chinese martial arts stems from the lack of essence of Chinese martial arts and the 

decline of the market. There is a long history of written records of Chinese martial arts owners. The 

essence of Chinese martial arts is to prohibit violence and suppress armed warfare, that is, the pursuit 

of peace for self-protection and a strong military force. As an ancient China in the era of agricultural 

environment and cold weapons, martial arts are highly valued in military warfare. Therefore, martial 

arts presents more fighting skills that emphasize equipment and fights that weaken boxing limbs. 

However, with the institutionalization of ancient Chinese civilization and the stable development of 

social ecology, the performance art of martial arts and the health value of martial arts have evolved into 

a fusion art performance after absorbing many local cultures such as Chinese Confucianism, Taoism, 

Mohism, Buddhism, martial arts skills, health care, military fighting and other cultural forms of 

multiple identities. In particular, the promotion of martial ethics in martial arts ethics, combined with 

Chinese Confucian ethics and morals, forms a cultural identity of martial arts groups, which has been 

respected and imitated by generations of people. 

At the level of life of martial arts, the martial arts people use health to make the “body appliances” and 

the objective link that completes the formation of life, and through the educational “body props” and 

ethical interactive objective connection. The “body weapon” and competitive opponents are compatible 

with each other (Chen, 2022). The offensive and defensive strategies and fighting skills advocated by 

the ancient army, as well as folk bodyguards pressing goods and guarding homes, and even robbers and 

bandits in society, all use martial arts as their basic survival skills and survival instincts. The dart 

bureau has demanded that the spirit of martial arts promotes the spirit of “justice”, “Anmin”, “Kuang 

Fuzheng”, “seeing righteousness” and the martial arts demanded that it has become the main force of 

the Chinese martial arts spirit (Liu et al., 2008). 

The essence of martial arts is the existence of people‟s needs, the existence of traditional Chinese 

morality, and the existence of “people” and “self-transcendence” (Dong & Zhang, 2013). However, the 

emergence and prevalence of modern gunpowder equipment gradually weakened and replaced the 

military value of ancient martial arts. As a result, the abolition of the social status of martial arts as an 

official represented by the “martial arts system” and the development of modern weapons, martial arts 

gradually lost Abandoning the original social value, it has evolved into a new-age routine image 

performing a form of health preservation. Chinese martial arts is a process from simple and constantly 



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moving to complex, a process from “strike” to “culture” (Wang, 2019). As a result, it has gradually lost 

its original authentic cultural and social value, and has been questioned by the world. 

The marginalization of traditional martial arts transmission channels, the weakening of Chinese martial 

arts culture dissemination, the satisfaction of Chinese spiritual culture and the impact of Western 

Hollywood film and television culture, and the false negative effects of fake martial arts masters in 

society, the combat value of traditional Chinese martial arts has been highly valued question. At the 

same time, in the context of legalization, the lack of practicality of Chinese martial arts has made 

Chinese martial arts gradually become a form of memory and imagination, and traditional Chinese 

martial arts have gradually lost their cultural self-confidence. The martial arts philosophy spread by Ma 

Baoguo and the various ugly martial arts images derived from it once again highlighted the 

embarrassing situation of traditional Chinese martial arts, and it is also the social status quo in which 

traditional Chinese values are being impacted in the new multicultural environment. 

 

5. Conclusion 

The phenomenon of Ma Baoguo is a phenomenon of networked cultural commercialization and an 

inevitable phenomenon of the development of media studies under the highly integrated culture of 

economy. From the perspective of communication, the entertainment art phenomenon of false behavior 

is a normal social phenomenon, but a series of negative entertainment values and aesthetic values 

reflected and derived by it are worthy of criticism and reflection. In terms of using and satisfying the 

value of dissemination, the phenomenon of group entertainment is also a kind of spiritual therapy of 

culture. Behind the suppression of the Ma Baoguo phenomenon is a rational expression of the 

mainstream values leading the public to be positive under the belief of China‟s economic recovery and 

national rejuvenation.  

There is no justice behind culture and entertainment, only ideological approval and controversy. The 

Ma Baoguo phenomenon is just a social phenomenon that has been controversial and entertaining due 

to the high degree of integration of technology platforms with commerce, culture, and entertainment 

under the background of rapid information development. The era of fragmentation. The phenomenon of 

Ma Baoguo highlights the embarrassing and contradictory situation in the breakup period between 

traditional and modern culture represented by Chinese martial arts. The Ma Baoguo phenomenon is a 

group cultural phenomenon under the impact of non-mainstream rational values and irrational 

mainstream entertainment thinking under the information diversification. Rational entertainment and 

values are the mainstream media orientation for the stable development and progress of a country and 

society, while irrational and entertainment-based distorted spiritual satisfaction is becoming the 

mainstream of network cultural communication. This contradiction and imbalance between rational 

non-mainstream media orientation and irrational group blind entertainment spiritual consumption 



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reflects the potential crisis and development trend of Chinese spiritual culture. 

 

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