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Presentation slides for the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) 15th Annual Meeting on 23-25 October 2014, @ Daegu, Korea
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Searching GuangzhouRegionalizing China’s Weibo
Prepared for IR15 2014Wilfred Yang Wang
[email protected] University of Technology
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The study•A study about the formation of geo-identity on the Internet•Ask: How geography intersects with new media technologies;- How do we learn about a place (nature and humanity) from digital information and data-How do we understand new media practices through the lens of human/cultural geography
* Today: why geographic places
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Sina Weibo
• Launch by Sina Corporation in 2009• 280 million users by the end of 2013• 140 Chinese characters input per post• Basic functions include: follow, post, repost,
LIKE, comment, favour, IM, inbox; upload image, video, URLs …
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Sina Weibo
• Launch by Sina Corporation in 2009• 280 million users by the end of 2013• 140 Chinese characters input per post• Basic functions include: follow, post, repost,
LIKE, comment, favour, IM, inbox; upload image, video, URLs …
Why ‘geography’?
• The myth of a borderless cyberspace• Recent scholarships shows otherwise• Sub-national region is always part of China’s
Internet• Local-central is historical • Weibo is located within China’s asymmetric
spatial structure between local places and the central state.
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Place as a historical logic‘That which is long divided must unify; that which is lon
g unified must divide.’
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A CCP’s paradox• The Chinese Dream as a unified Chinese ethnicity--- Xi Jinping
(2012);• Linguistic law: tuipu (promoting Mandarin);• Standardised text books;• Historical genre film and TV productions (collective memories).BUT… • Household registration system (Hukou) since Mao;• Regional economy and development;• Decentralised administration;• Sub-national region as the container of identity.
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Place as an Internet logic
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Baidu Index
BBS
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Regional Forums
Guangzhou – the place
Guangzhou (Canton)• Capital city of the Guangdong Province• Population: 14 million (2014) • Dialect: Cantonese • Climate: humid subtropical (68% humidity) • Economy: first to reform; hospitality and trade-driven: ‘China’s southern gate’.
One of the wealthiest regions in China (GDP)• Geographic: close to HK and Macau • Media: outspoken (Nanfang Media Group)• Recent Histories: Opium Wars; Taiping Revolution; the Nationalist Revolution
and the Communist Revolution (nationalism)• Social changes: rapid population growth rate since 2000s due to migrants
(workers, new settlers, investors) ... But very mobile population … a rapid shifting sense of cultural identity
• Some issues: social inequalities, cheap labor, unemployment, inflation (if not hyper-inflation)
‘How we think of China’
Northern People
Pro-Cantonese Protest in 2010
•A proposal to abolish Cantonese broadcasting at local TV station’s news and current affairs programs in July 2010; change to Mandarin
•Public uproar and anger
•A street protest on 25 July, with more than thousands participants; another protest on 1 August at HK.
•The provincial governmet withdrawn the proposal
A linguistic war
Type in Cantonese instead of Mandarin
For example: 蚊 = mosquito (Mandarin) = Dollar (Cantonese)
You first go (Mandarin) 你先走You go first (Cantonese) 你行先
政府 (government) = zf, 天朝 (the heaven Dynasty)/ 正虎 (square tiger) 公安部 (police department) = gong an bu / gung on bou
Visualise dissents
GZ-HK Cultural Identity• Woai Feisinai (18:48, 25/07/2013): ‘pro-
Cantonese is a common course for Guangzhouers and Hong Kongers!’.
Why geography?
• The interaction between the shared virtual and geographic spaces;
• Place defines online practices and culture, and is being reproduced by the online contents;
• Allow for interregional perspective of the Internet;• Historical and social continuity• The formation of a local subjectivity, hence, sense
of right (of ownership) and responsibility (to defend) to the local place.
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Geo-identity framework
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A note on Methodology
• Case study approach• Three case-studies:1. The pro-Cantonese protest in 2012 (key word)2. Guangzhou's Weibo group (Weibo group)3. The anti-Japan protest in 2012 (opinion leade
r) Geo-identity as the central concern
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Data
• Maually collected, no free API• None of the 'big data' software work • Locative based instead of event based• Time specific• Key words not #tag• Embedded search function not API• Opinion leaders (individual and online groups)• Approached with framing analysis
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CategoriesLabel/Code Counts
Information
Protest Information 149
Personal plan on protest day 55
Future actions (second protest in HK) 7
Information about censorship 16
RationaleCultural and historical uniqueness of Cantonese
38
Linguistic and identity right 22
Seeking external supports 19
Alternative actions 21
Slogan 66
N=393
THANK YOU!
QUESTIONS?