Presentation Reflection

Renee’s presentation about censorship in China was particularly interesting to me due to the fact that I still can’t wrap my head around the topic in general. It amazes me how an entire country filled with an Internet using population of over 700 million is so successfully censored by the government. After this presentation it came to my attention that I have taken my freedom of speech and internet/social media usage for granted here in America. I can’t begin to imagine American millennial culture without freedom of speech, especially in our current political situation.

One specific moment in the presentation that haunts my thoughts is China’s attempt to bury the story of the train wreck by literally burying the entire scene and those still trapped in the train. This is truly frightening because it makes me wonder what other tragic stories they have successfully erased from the world/their citizens by censoring articles and reports in the news. It was nice learning that internet-using activist in China have found loopholes to take advantage of in their insanely censored world. Their use of art and word play is brilliant and opens up the door to a whole new range of discussions through social media, blogs, and other websites.

Reflecting on the actions of these activists, I’m not sure I would be brave enough to risk being sent to jail for a period of time to discuss what the government wants to keep quiet. Although Renee mentioned lawyers often defend these activists by claiming they weren’t trying to make any political statements, just be humorous on the internet, I would still be too afraid the possible consequences. It will be interesting to see what new loopholes activists will get away with next.

Thesis moment and RBA Roadmap

Creative title, right?

Research Question and Working Thesis:

How can online activism in China transcend the boundaries of strict censorship imposed by the Chinese Communist Party to create meaningful change? Current Chinese “activist” groups such as public interest NGOs have been permitted to remain online by only promoting causes  that are deemed “unthreatening” by the Chinese government and do not outwardly challenge its authority (e.g. campaigns for endangered species, charities for rural school children, environmental awareness, etc.) These institutions have been allowed to advocate for their causes to the Chinese web population because they choose to avoid oppositional politics and purposely seek a non-confrontational approach to their “activism.” However, this current mode of compliance and coexistence only solidifies the Chinese government’s  monolithic control over the Internet, as these public interest groups satisfy the desires of netizens to collectively create social change and provides a semblance of offline involvement that true activism would otherwise create. To avoid this type of false online activism that acquiesces to the oppressive government’s censorship and thought control, the collective potential of social media must be harnessed. With its pervasive reach (over 91% of all Chinese netizens use social media daily) and speed (a subversive blog post can reach up to 5 million reblogs within the first thirty minutes of its creation, far before many censors can react), social media in China has the power to draw public attention to the many violations of freedom of speech and expression in modern China.

As a road map for the remainder of my RBA, I plan to highlight specific examples of the efficacy of social media in mobilizing enormous groups of netizens around government-targeted activism (e.g. corruption, imprisonment of human rights lawyers, etc.) I also hope to address the small instances when online outrage over governmental corruption does result in change, albeit small — are these small appeasements meant to defuse a momentous collective action? How does the Chinese government prevent the many social media outbursts from escalating into an outright revolution or rebellion?

If you have any suggestions or examples that are relevant, please let me know! Thanks for reading 🙂

CENSORED

CENSORED – an infographic 

The feedback I received, both in-class and outside of class, was incredibly useful in narrowing down my research topic and reorganizing my research proposal. For example, during the proposal peer review, many of my classmates noted that the way I concealed information about the true meaning of the characters “占占占占人 占占占点 占占点占 占点占占 点占占占 灬占占占占” until the concluding paragraph was potentially confusing for many readers. Instead, they found that it would be more effective if I revealed the truth at the beginning before delving into the history of freedom of speech and Internet censorship in China, so as not to leave the audience guessing.

Furthermore, I reorganized the way I introduced background information in my proposal after hearing positive feedback about the way I formatted the statistics and facts on my Genre Modes infographic. As you can see on the first few panels of the infographic, appealing to logos by including indisputable facts about the scope of the issue at the beginning of the page demands the audience’s attention and immediately creates a framework to structure future arguments. From the concrete statistics about Chinese internet usage to the abstract concepts of wordplay, parody, and collective action, I am able to craft the narrative of internal subversion by setting the stage properly with adequate information and context.

I was also inspired by the comments on both my research proposal and Genre Modes presentation to research more about subtle character slang that Chinese people use to subvert the censorship system. For example, 大裤衩 (dà kùchǎ) or “Big Boxer Shorts” is the internet nickname for the China Central Television building in Beijing, because of its stunning similarity

• 喝茶 (hē chá) or “to drink tea” is code for a police interrogation, in which police would use bribes or coercion (tea) to get people to confess.

There are many, many more amusing examples to be found online, and I’m so delighted to start exploring them.

In conclusion, I’d like to reframe my research question and start working towards a possible thesis for my RBA:

To what extent and through which methods can Chinese citizens subvert censorship and mobilize activism in modern Communist China?

I’ll be looking at examples, both past and ongoing, from internet archives and reading (extensive) literature on the growth of videos, memes, internet slang, and sublanguage to answer the research question. Let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas!