Internet, “Rivers and Lakes”: Locating Chinese Alternative Public Sphere

Abstract

Internet is supposed to have natural and inherent relationship with democratization, and is also supposed to act as the main battlefield for the public to fight against the authoritarian. The Internet in China, however, does not serve as the “democratic public sphere” for people to fight against the ruling power directly and roundly; instead, it seems to be a Chinese style term of “Jianghu” 江湖—literally means “rivers and lakes”—an “alternative public sphere” for Chinese people. This article was from the perspective of cultural studies, based on the methodology of case study and textual analysis. It took two cases, namely, the Event of South China Tiger Photos and Event of Deng Yujiao 邓玉娇, to analyze the cultural practice of Internet events, particularly the expression channels, emotion mobilizations and communication mechanisms of netizens, indicating the emergence of China alternative public sphere and its implication to the state and society.

Share and Cite:

Lin Zhongxuan (2014) Internet, “Rivers and Lakes”: Locating Chinese Alternative Public Sphere. Chinese Studies, 3, 144-156. doi: 10.4236/chnstd.2014.34021.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1] Arendt, H. (1970). On Violence. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
[2] Atton, C. (2002). Alternative Media. London: Sage.
[3] Bakhtin, M. (1984). Rabelais and His World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
[4] Barber, B. (1984), Strong Democracy: Participatory Politics for a New Age. Berkeley: University of California Press.
[5] Barney, D. (2000). Prometheus Wired: The Hope for Democracy in the Age of Network Technology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[6] Bruns, A. (2009). Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage. New York: Peter Lang.
[7] Castells, M. (1997). The Power of Identity. Oxford: Blackwell.
[8] Castells, M. (2007). Communication, Power and Counter-Power in the Network Society. International Journal of Communication, 1, 238-266.
[9] Chen, G. M. (2012). The Impact of New Media on Intercultural Communication: In Global Context. China Media Research, 8, 1-10.
[10] CNNIC [China Internet Network Information Centre] (2013). Basic Data.
http://www1.cnnic.cn/IDR/BasicData/
[11] Comaroff, J. (1985). Body of Power, Spirit of Resistance: The Culture and History of a South African People. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
[12] Dahlberg, L. (2001). The Internet and Democratic Discourse: Exploring the Prospects of Online Deliberative Forums Extending the Public Sphere. Information, Communication and Society, 4, 615-633. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13691180110097030
[13] Dahlgren, P. (2006). Doing Citizenship: The Cultural Origins of Civic Agency in the Public Sphere. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 9, 267-286. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1367549406066073
[14] De Certeau, M. (1984). The Practice of Everyday Life (S. Rendall, Trans). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
[15] Dean, J. (2003). Why the Net Is Not a Public Sphere? Constellations, 10, 95-112.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-8675.00315
[16] Debord, G. (2002). The Society of the Spectacle. New York: Zone Books.
[17] Dentith, S. (2000). Parody: The New Critical Idiom. New York: Routledge.
http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203451335
[18] Downey, J., & Fenton, N. (2003). New Media, Counter Publicity and the Public Sphere. New Media & Society, 5, 185-202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461444803005002003
[19] Downing, J. (2001). Radical Media: Rebellious Communication and Social Movements. London: Sage.
[20] Dyer-Witheford, N. (1999). Cyber-Marx: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High Technology Capitalism. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
[21] Foucault, M. (1990). The History of Sexuality III: The Care of the Self. London: Penguin.
[22] Foucault, M. (2004). Society Must Be Defended. London: Penguin.
[23] Foucault, M. (2007). What Is Critique? In L. Sylvère (Eds.), The Politics of Truth (pp. 41-82). Los Angeles, CA: Semiotext(e).
[24] Fraser, N. (1992). Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy. In C. Calhoun (Eds.), Habermas and the Public Sphere (pp. 109-142). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
[25] Frye, N. (1957). The Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
[26] Gardiner, M. E. (2004). Wild Publics and Grotesque Symposiums: Habermas and Bakhtin on Dialogue, Everyday Life and the Public Sphere. The Sociological Review, 52, 28-48.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2004.00472.x
[27] Garrett, R. K. (2006). Protest in an Information Society: A Review of Literature on Social Movements and New ICTs. Information, Communication & Society, 9, 202-224.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13691180600630773
[28] Gibson, R., Roèmmele, A., & Ward, S. (2004). Electronic Democracy: Mobilisation, Organisation, and Participation via New ICTs. London: Routledge.
[29] Gimmler, A. (2001). Deliberative Democracy, the Public Sphere and the Internet. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 27, 21-39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/019145370102700402
[30] Green, J. E. (2009). The Eyes of the People: Democracy in an Age of Spectatorship. New York: Oxford University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195372649.001.0001
[31] Grossman, L. K. (1995). The Electronic Republic: Reshaping Democracy in America. New York: Viking.
[32] Habermas, J. (1989a). The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of a Bourgeois Society (T. Burger, & F. Lawrence, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
[33] Habermas, J. (1989b). The Public Sphere. In S. Seidman (Eds.), Jurgen Habermas on Society and Politics: A Reader (pp. 231-236). Boston, MA: Beacon Press.
[34] Hachigian, N. (2001). China’s Cyber-Strategy. Foreign Affairs, 80, 118.
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/56857/nina-hachigian/chinas-cyber-strategy http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/20050069
[35] Hall, S. (1997). Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Sage Publications & Open University.
[36] Hardt, M., & Negri, A. (2004). Multitude. New York: The Penguin Press.
[37] Harold, C. (2007). OurSpace: Resisting the Corporate Control of Culture. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
[38] Huang Zhenhui 黄振辉 (2011). Biaoyanshi kangzheng: Jingguan, tiaozhan yu fasheng jili 表演式抗争:景观、挑战与发生机理 [Showy Fights: View, Challenge, and Generative Mechanism]. Kaifang Shidai, 2, 71-83.
[39] Jakubowicz, K. (1991). Musical Chairs? The Three Public Sphere. In P. Dahlgren, & C. Sparks (Eds.), Communication and Citizenship: Journalism and the Public Sphere (pp. 155-175). London: Routledge.
[40] Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press.
[41] Jordan, T. (2002). Activism! Direct Action, Hacktivism and the Future of Society. London: Reaktion Books.
[42] Kalathil, S., & Boas, T. (2001). The Internet and State Control in Authoritarian Regimes: China, Cuba, and the Counterrevolution. Working Paper of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, No. 21, Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
http://carnegieendowment.org/files/21KalathilBoas.pdf
[43] Khan, R., & Kellner, D. (2005). Internet Subcultures and Political Activism. In P. Leistyna (Eds.), Cultural Studies: From Theory to Action (pp. 217-230). Oxford: Blackwell.
[44] Kluver, R., & Qiu, J. L. (2003). China, the Internet and Democracy. In I. Banerjee (Eds.), Rhetoric and Reality: The Internet Challenge for Democracy in Asia (pp. 26-60). Singapore: Eastern University Press.
[45] Laclau, E. (2005). On Populist Reason. London: Verso.
[46] Le Bon, G. (1896, Trans. 1947). The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. London: Ernest Benn.
[47] Lee, R. E. (2003). Life and Times of Cultural Studies: The Politics and Transformation of the Structures of Knowledge. Durham: Duke University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/9780822385127
[48] Li Yonggang 李永刚 (2009). Women de fanghuoqiang: Wangluo shidai de biaoda yu jianguan 我们的防火墙:网络时代的表达与监管 [Our Great Firewall: Expression and Governance in the Era of Internet]. Guangxi: Guangxi Shifan Daxue Chubanshe.
[49] Liu Jianming 刘建明 (2002). Shehui yulun yuanli 社会舆论原理 [Principles of Public Opinion]. Beijing: Huaxia Chubanshe
[50] Liu Shih-Diing 刘世鼎, & Lou Lai-Chu劳丽珠 (2009). Wangluo zuowei aomen de linglei gonggong lingyu 网络作为澳门的另类公共领域 [The Internet as Macau’s Alternative Public Sphere]. Xinwenxue Yanjiu, 102, 253-293.
[51] Liu Shih-Diing刘世鼎 (2009). Wangluo shengming zhengzhi zai zhongguo de fuxian 网络生命政治在中国的浮现 [The Emergence of Internet Biopolitics in China]. Sixiang, 11, 57-77.
[52] Liu, S. D. (2013). The Cyberpolitics of the Governed. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 14, 252-271.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649373.2013.769755
[53] McChesney, R. W. (1999). Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
[54] Noelle-Neumann, E. (1984). The Spiral of Silence: Public Opinion—Our Social Skin. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
[55] Norris, P. (1999). Virtual Democracy. Press/Politics, 3, 1-4.
[56] Norris, P. (2001). Digital Divide? Civic Engagement, Information Poverty and the Internet Worldwide. New York: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139164887
[57] Papacharissi, Z. (2002). The Virtual Sphere: The Internet as a Public Sphere. New Media & Society, 4, 9-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/14614440222226244
[58] Poster, M. (1998). Cyber Democracy: The Internet and the Public Sphere. In D. Holmes (Eds.), Virtual Politics: Identity and Community in Cyberspace (pp. 212-228). London: Sage.
[59] Poster, M. (2001). What’s the Matter with the Internet? Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
[60] Rancière, J. (2011). The Emancipated Spectator. London: Verso.
[61] Rheingold, H. (2002). Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing.
[62] Scott, J. C. (1985). Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
[63] Sheff, O. (2002). Internet Gives a Voice to Chinese. Taipei Times Online.
http://taipeitimes.com/news/2002/04/15/story/0000131934
[64] Stevenson, N. (2003). Cultural Citizenship: Cosmopolitan Questions. Berkshire: Open University Press.
[65] Tilly, C. (2008). Contentious Performances. New York: Cambridge University Press.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511804366
[66] Tumber, H. (2001). Democracy in the Information Age: The Role of the Fourth Estate in Cyberspace. Information, Communication & Society, 4, 95-112. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13691180122542
[67] Vandenberg, A. (2000). Citizenship and Democracy in a Global Era. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
[68] Vegh, S. (2003). Classifying Forms of Online Activism: The Case of Cyberprotests against the World Bank. In M. McCaughey, & M. Ayers (Eds.), Cyberactivism: Online Activism in Theory and Practice (pp. 71-95). New York: Routledge.
[69] Wang Shaoguang 王绍光 (2008). Dazhuanxing: 1980 niandai yilai zhongguo de shuangxiang yundong 大转型:1980年代以来中国的双向运动 [Great Transition: China’s Two-Ways Movements since 1980]. Zhongguo Shehui Kexue, 1, 129- 148.
[70] Willis, P. (1990). Common Culture: Symbolic Work at Play in the Everyday Cultures of the Young. Buckingham: Open University Press.
[71] Wu Guoguang 吴国光 (2003). Zixun chuanbo, gonggong kongjian yu jiti xingdong: Shilun hulianwang dui zhongguo minzhuhua de zhengzhi zuoyong 资讯传播, 公共空间与集体行动:试论互联网对中国民主化的政治作用 [Information Communication, Public Space and Collective Movement: Internet’s Political Impacts on China’s Democracy]. In Chang Maukuei 张茂桂, & Chang Yungnien 郑永年 (Eds.), Liang’an shehui yundong fenxi 两岸社会运动分析 [Analysis on the Social Movements across the Strait] (pp. 263-280). Taipei: Xin Ziran Zhuyi Chubanshe.
[72] Wu, X. (2007). Chinese Cyber Nationalism: Evolution, Characteristics, and Implications. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
[73] Xiao Shu 笑蜀 (2010). Guanzhu jiushi liliang, weiguan gaibian zhongguo 关注就是力量,围观改变中国 [Attention is Power, Spectatorship Changes China]. Dangdai Sheke Shiye, 2, 47-48.
[74] Xu Zhiyuan 许知远 (2008). Cong jike manzu dao jike yiwang 从即刻满足到即刻遗忘 [Begin with Instantaneous Satisfaction, End with Instantaneous Oblivion]. Yazhou Zhoukan.
http://www.minzhuzhongguo.org/ArtShow.aspx?AID=6486
[75] Yang Guobin 杨国斌 (2009). Beiqing yu xinue: Wangluo shijianzhong de qinggan dongyuan 悲情与戏谑:网络事件中的情感动员 [Of Sympathy and Play: Emotional Mobilization in online Collective Action]. Chuanbo Yu Shehui Xuekan, 9, 39-66.
[76] Yang, G. B. (2003). The Internet and Civil Society in China: A Preliminary Assessment. Journal of Contemporary China, 12, 453-475. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10670560305471
[77] Yang, G. B. (2009). The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online. New York: Columbia University Press.
[78] Yang, G. B., & Calhoun, C. (2007). Media, Civil Society, and the Rise of a Green Public Sphere in China. China Information, 21, 211-236. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0920203X07079644
[79] Yu Jianrong 于建嵘 (2008). Diceng shehui de quanli luoji 底层社会的权利逻辑 [The Right Logic of the Subaltern Society]. Nanfengchuang, 5, 22-23.

Copyright © 2023 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.

Creative Commons License

This work and the related PDF file are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.