Tutors as brands: Exploring the celebrification of the Hong Kong shadow education sector

Abstract

Celebrities play an important role in contemporary society and culture. Becoming a celebrity, in several sectors, is much easier in our days, considering the growing popularity of the process of celebrification. This study focuses on the Hong Kong shadow education market and explores how a group of tutors, who participate directly in marketing practices, are perceived by the media and themselves as celebrities. Following empirical research, we critically discuss tutors' performance and celebrity status as a phenomenon which has remained under-examined in the literature around celebrity endorsement. Our findings seek to provide some novel insights in the process of celebrification of tutors in the context of Hong Kong and draw wider conclusions around the marketisation of shadow education.