转载：「我在中国」（Co-China）论坛第二十三期——「解剖」乌坎
| January 14, 2012 | Posted by admin under Uncategorized |
在网上看到这个活动：
乌坎村在抗争中获得了与公权力博弈的筹码，足以成为一个可供研究和讨论的范本。乌坎的抗争能否持续？这种抗争模式对其他的村庄维权是否有借鉴意义？本期论坛我们邀请了一直关注乌坎事件并多次进行深入报道的记者张洁平，关注大陆基层民主和乡村自治的学者叶荫聪和大家一起讨论乌坎的抗争模式。
讲者：
张洁平：《阳光时务》主笔，乌坎事件后三次到乌坎，发表《乌坎起事》、《呼啸村庄——乌坎的死亡与反抗》、《乌坎村：社会运动的乡村范本》、《乌坎热血青年团》 、《薛健婉口述》等文章。
叶荫聪：岭南大学文化研究系讲师，关注中国基层民主和乡村自治，乌坎事件之后发表文章《传统复兴？——对乌坎村的一些观察》。
时间：1月14日（周六）15：00——17：00
地点：湾仔轩尼诗道365号富德楼9F香港独立媒体
视频直播： https://cochina.org/视频直播
音频直播： https://cochina.org/音频直播
twitter直播账号：CoChinaOnline
以下是我一边听一遍做的笔记，与原意不符之处都是我的责任！
张洁平：
张建兴等伙伴都是从就是九十年代末开始上网，他们看到９１１事件说他们都比较反美，他们到现在也是这么觉得，张建兴高一辍学，因为他爸不给买手机，但是他想要一个能上网的，能拍照的，他们都不明白这个东西对我有多重要，他们从小通过互联网联系。
对中国学者，乌坎一发生觉得左派右派讨论都没用了，乌坎事件都是自发的，宗族的力量都是用原来的棋子，捐款也是和以前修庙一样
游行自发的和以前祭祀都一样的，也没有来自外界的指导。
他们不喜欢汪洋，更喜欢薄熙来，他们觉得有青天的话，乌坎就不会出事儿了
主动抗争的意识但是拜托不了一个天花板，皇恩型的政府
主持人：乌坎事件听政府的声音没有表现出来？
张：薛锦波的死亡最坏的事儿，当时村里出现了恐惧情绪，薛是大姓，人很多，一千多人，总人口一万人，死亡是凝聚村的大力量，恐惧的人觉得一定要站到一起
网络问题：乌坎１１７名代表是如何推选的？
张：乌坎有４７个主要的姓，每个姓出１-５名代表，１１７个村民代表有投票权，从中选出３８个人，每个人一个姓，有被投票权，然后选１３个人当代表
林祖鸾从经济诉求到政治诉求，一开始要求重新选举村委会，要推翻以前村委会，要承认我们选出的理事会，以后要从新选举村委会
提问：乌坎的人等清官，香港的人也是希望选一个好议员带领我们，但是要反对
网络评论：未来在年轻人，但是体制内的人不讲正义。
张：村民对薄熙来的想象在想象中，他们也知道在世界上找到好官也不容易，linzuluan觉得村里的事情一定要村自己争取，他们草根领袖他们很在意上级讲话，他们很明了政策的潜意识，他们分析这个是什么意思，汪洋“做人官不做狗官”，linzulan倒是觉得汪洋是袒护自己官的信号，zhengyanxiong不会下台了，其实他们的直觉很准，汪洋的动作连村里的人都知道，汪洋的表态可能只是讲给十八大，可能不是真应对这件事。
主持人：村民土地矛盾，香港的和乌坎有什么不一样？
caiyuancun很特别，是政府的项目，村民和政府的矛盾，但是新界是原居民和非原居民，原居民有点像中国的富农，而非是佃农，而中国的矛盾都是直接国家和村民对抗，香港的原居民其实是既得利益者，而中国宗族的力量比较弱，而宗族还不能吸纳到利益体系当中，农村里面党员的比例比我想象的要低，所以不一定能掌控住这个力量，在香港宗族反而是和政府同一个鼻孔呼吸的。
提问：乌坎更相信个人而不是政府，他们自己很期待领导人，他们另一方面确实相信自己的组织，他们不知道法制和人治，他们可不能发展出一个制度上的可能性呢？
张：他们主动有抗争意识，很有组织性，谁打头，妇女在旁边，组织很高级，但是另一方面又期待人治的出现，但是他们这个东西会慢慢变化的，所谓的启蒙还没有正式开始，我们不要一个皇恩的政府要一个问责政府，重庆的讨论不是很多人能理清楚所谓的薄个人的喜好，他们在三个月的磨练对人治没有以前那么大信心，比如政府给了承诺但是他们遵守吗，很无力，他们选村委会时候他们就想选个代表会，制衡，在运动中出现，旁观者比较容易陷入旁观者傲慢，他们完全是行动经验，所以他们制度设计的时候会吃一堑长一智。
叶：我们对反抗政治都西方中心的，这几年想象公民社会的概念对中国不是很有用，”被治理者的政治“，我们不会想象公民政治的角色，和其中权力和具体的政治当中，我不是说传统是好的，过程是要运动当中探索，其实宗族里面有很多黑暗面，研究农民工时候发现，宗族其实也是压迫当地农民工的，宗族团结是团结但也是暴力，在一个运动当中不是那么干净，要探索，乌坎很有意思，动力是什么需要进一步了解。
现场提问：我不觉得wukan是一个鼓励形成的运动，我们之前看到了很多工厂罢工的时候自己组织了纠察队，城市农村都有抗争，单靠一两个道德号召是很容易镇压的，运动是一次一次失败当中学习过来的，农民工回城可能从城市抗争的经验带回了村。我觉得可以关注城市和农村抗争结合后出现什么情况。
张：他们其实并不知道外面发生了什么罢工，他们乌坎村的人不是来自工厂，其实都是在外面做小生意。
叶：当地的工人和农民区别还是比较大，链接起来比较难。
提问２：他们怕秋后算账吗？
张：他们几个代表到现在为止都不敢出去，他们对上级政府的信心有限，他们的策略就是赶紧息事宁人，接受谈判。
叶：他们需要用隐形的抗争慢慢来，农村的领袖的风险比较高，一般的群众只要不是当头人群众风险不高。
张：秋后算账其实已经有了，１２.２１谈判后，打印店被罚款了二十万，积极的人都会收到危险，他们其实会找一些别的罪名。
提问：怎么看抗争经验的积累？
叶：抗争经验的累积应该从当时的环境经验去理解，而不是工农的想象。
张：问年轻人从哪里知道怎么组织的游行，他们说可能是因为打过游戏，红色境界，来自自己的经验。
乌坎成了上访的地方，海门的人都来见省里的调查组，乌坎人自己很怕惯以串联的罪名，工农联盟很难出现。
网友：八九民运和乌坎的区别？
叶：八九在城市发生，乌坎是地方性的，我们的想象有重要的改变，八九很重要，但是也会限制我们的想象，但是整个社会的改变，地方性的抗争在某个时刻没有特别改变，但是要放到一个过程当中，整个社会的改变是慢慢累积的，而不是一下子某个中央性的改变。
网友：乌坎事件是不是社会维稳手段的转折点？
张：广东和其他不一样的是，广东比较有弹性，薛锦波刚死风声很紧，杨色茂会收到陆风市委书记劝说的电话，但是其他省可能说抓就抓了，不会很激烈，当地组织力量的强大可能真的获得谈判的筹码，被迫从刚性到软性。
叶：维稳可能都有两方面，你和他力量对比的时候，有策略选择，村民的组织很重要，和时机也很重要。政府要看维稳也不能每天刚性维稳。
提问：抗争的可能不会马上改变，但是会累积，转到越来越激烈的过程吗？
张：他们对媒体的策略是多方位的传播渠道，他们有乡音传单，有乌坎电视台，他们还自己制作的了一个电影，一个半小时，在村里的戏台拨，年轻人自己制作的
问题：没有宗族的地方怎么办？
张：秦晖的研究认为中国小共同体的散架是从４９年开始的，但是从秦朝就开始衰落了，在中原一直都很弱，小共同体和公民联盟和大共同体抗衡是一条路
叶：小的宗族的单位在抗争里面很重要，相对自然村的抗争性很强，他们普选的制度比较重要，小的宗族单位扮演重要角色。我觉得宗族只是一种团结的方式，可能有其他的可能性，可能是民间宗教，所以党很害怕这个宗教，小共同体不一定从过去过来的。
张：台湾是靠农会，小共同体不是威胁问题，而是真的谈判机制
提问：领袖是男性，年长的，女村民什么作用？薛锦波的女儿也有发言
张：潮汕重男轻女，从年轻到年长的女性都很积极，上半夜女人守，这件事情之后村里的女人说女人的意见被重视了，他们成立的妇女会，但是被取缔了，他们觉得应该成立新的妇联。
张：联盟的事情，还是尊重事情比较重要，而不能靠想象，他们自己有做事的逻辑。
叶：运动都是学习的过程，选举监督的都是女性，我们一定要从社会当中看到改变，而不是成为虚无主义者。
主持人：女性在运动当中未必是领导者角色，但是很柔软，韧性，支撑男性，下次有机会再探讨。
Who are using Iphone?
| December 6, 2011 | Posted by admin under Uncategorized |
Another question I have in mind is that “who are using Iphone?” The price for Iphone 4S is around or over 5000 rmb ( about 800 usd) in China and it is smuggled from Hong Kong. I guess richer families from the cities can afford it, and young female users are another group because of the successful marketing strategy. Several times in our NGO2.0 project meetings, we were discussing the possibility of introducing some tools such as SANA (a medical assistance App) to China, and often our discussion ended with the conclusion that it is not realistic because grassroots communities cannot afford the smart phones. Although the social stratification made Iphone a very high end products, I am also quite optimistic about the future of Chinese smart phone markets. As I discussed a little bit with Molly and Ayse last time, the counterfeit culture of smart phones is promising to make the technology really decentralized. Xiaomi smartphone is promoted as low price but with all the functions enabled by the Android. The performance might not be as good as Iphone or Android phones produced by Moto or Samsung, but I feel the trend is quite encouraging. The process itself is interesting because we can see the interactions between the market, the stratified users, and the cultural institutions in the decentralization.
Comical Effect in Uncomical Reality
| December 6, 2011 | Posted by admin under Uncategorized |
Charlie Chaplin is often remembered as the greatest comedian in the world, but I always have the impression that he did not smile much in his films. In my memory, we watched an excerpt from Modern Times in one of our middle school classes, and it made us burst into laughter several times because of his exaggerated performances. At that time, I only laughed for his silly encounters, and it was not until the adulthood when I revisited his films again that I realized that the uncomical social reality was in fact deeply rooted in his humor. Although there are various methods to make people laugh, the superior one is not to mock the ugliness of the society, but to speak for the least powerful groups.
In the 1930s when Chaplin’s films were imported to China one of the early film critique says, “Charlie Chaplin’s films are well received by all walks of life…his body gestures are creative and audiences are touched by his performance…he can make people laugh in tears.” [1] Charlie tended to portray the characters of the weak in society, and transformed the miserable experiences into comical effects. That is why he is not only respected for bringing us laughter, but also for evoking our conscience towards social reality. Hu Ke, a contemporary film critic, argued that the popularity of Chaplin’s films in the 1930s influenced the rising of a new genre in China, namely, the comedy with uncomical social backgrounds. One example he mentioned was a film about a poor couple, who did not know each other originally but were accidentally married after going through the rituals arranged by the matchmaker.[2] It showed the absurdity of the daily life and also aroused the deep sympathy for the people living in margins of society.
Recently in Chinese college students’ online forums, one comedian, called Joe Wong, has been discussed a lot, because he uses imperfect English to perform talk shows in the United States. I am not sure whether he is well received among American audiences, but he once gave a performance in White House to express his humor, “I used to have a used car…and…with lots of stickers that are not possible to peel off.(laughter in the audience) And one of them said, ‘If you don’t speak English, go home!’ (laughter in the audience) I did not know this about two years. ” From his speech I find his humor comes from the hard experiences as an immigrant in a new land where he can not even speak sufficiently. What makes his jokes even more striking is that he actually successfully makes a living by talking to people in English. One of the characteristics of the humor shared by both Chaplin and Wong is that their profoundness comes from their concerns about the society, and they never separate themselves from the unprivileged people.
[1] Jing Bo, On Comedy, Life of Film and Drama, Vol (1), 21, 1931.
[2] Hu Ke, The Influence of Charlie Chaplin’s Film Comedy Upon the Ideas of Early Chinese Films, Rewriting Film History. Page 109.
Meanings of Materiality
| December 4, 2011 | Posted by admin under Uncategorized |
1.
Gitelman described the case of Sousa who wrote about the copyright violation by piano rolls, and he claimed the right of abstract musical thought. He worried about the situation partly because the scene of the piano rolls played by the piano resembled a live play with a person, and the promotion of the piano also emphasized the artistic values. Where do the artistic values come from? Do the artistic elements come from the performer himself as he might produce different versions of the same music? Many fans come to live concert because the unique interactions with the singer in specific settings, and the singer might give surprise out of their expectations. If this assumption is true, I kind of wonder how Miku, the programed star, attracted so many enthusiastic audiences to the concert. In contrast with Miku that is programed but achieved live effects, the CCTV gala shows on Chinese New Year Eve use live performance to achieve programed effects. Singers and actors have to rehearse again and again to match strict timeline and except for very famous comedian every actor is not allowed to perform spontaneously. The reason for the different cultural phenomena is more complicated that the artistic value that is exclusive to the performer. What do you think of other social forces or other ideological reasons to interpret the artistic value?
2.
In the beginning of Gitelman’s essay, she pointed out the narratives that tend to dematerialize the mediums, and then she positioned herself as a response to the slipperiness of the materiality. She used the case of music sheets and piano rolls to discuss the moments of media transition when legal practices, cultural norms, and perceptual patterns have not been stabilized. She directed our attention back to the meanings of materiality and challenged our natural perception on the notion of media. Last week I read a piece of news that might be relevant to this discussion: The weight of all the electrons in motion that make up the Internet at any one moment is equivalent to 50 grams.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/i … berry.html
This claim comes from a YouTube channel and to what extent it is true is still a question, but it definitely gives audiences an impression that the our huge amount of data is free from the physicality. If we think of the material meanings of piano rolls described in Gitelman’s work, the weight of the music is even lighter as no electrons are needed to transmit. I think the contribution of Gitelman’s work is to open up many different spaces to understand various levels of materiality. The music sheet and piano rolls were thought as software if they are used with the hardware of the piano, and the music or the content in digital age is easily recognized as less materialized. What is mystifying the meanings of materiality? How virtual indeed is the Internet? If someday the physical screen or sever do not exist at all, how will the meanings of the materiality change?
Red Cherry: Melodramatic Elements in Chinese Ideological Films
| December 2, 2011 | Posted by admin under Uncategorized |
Many Chinese young people born in the 1980s might have these memories: as part of the compulsory political education, our elementary schools organized free film-screening events in movie theaters after class. Many movies simplified the morality according to the ideology the party embraces by describing communist heroes fighting against Japanese intruders in the 1930s, loyal cadres serving the people while ignoring their deteriorating health, and youngsters dying just to save public properties from fire. These films reassured the dominant value by arousing the sympathy from the audience and the whole social institutions enforced its agenda in China.
One of these films called “Red Cherry” has left me with strong impression since I watched it in the 1990s. The story settings are during World War II in occupied Moscow, where a Chinese young girl in a concentration camp is later sent to detention under a fascist officer who enjoys tattooing on human skins. Much of the movie portrays her experience as the victim but with the intense emotion of hope. The climax comes after the liberation of these detainees and she burns herself to remove the tattoo of a symbol of fascism on her back as she regards it as a persistent shame. The film evoked my sympathy partly because of the melodramatic elements that are stereotyped in the sensational settings, scenes of suffering, and victimization of women. The director did not use scenes of brutal wars, bloody fights, and dead bodies to assure the empathy from the audiences, but rather he exploits the inner world with these melodramatic elements. There were striking scenes in which the heroine, surrounded by German officers, was naked on a table to show the so called artistic tattoo on her body, and through her eyes we could see her emotions changing from fear to despair. On one hand, the sympathy from the audience and the hatred of the villains, stimulated by the sensational scenes, are moral practices that serve educational purposes for the youngsters who have watched the ideological films. On the other hand, the accumulated emotions can be manipulated to create the standard morals that are politically correct.
Although it is not very explicit in this film, we can still have a taste of its ideological potential as propaganda by examining the facts that the director of Red Cherry is the grandson of a military general during 1911 Xinhai Revolution, and the story is based on the true experience of the daughter of Zhu De, one of the founding fathers of P.R. China. These facts further assured and justified the leadership of the higher officials through the establishment of their difficulties in earlier times and their legacies. In addition, the production of the film follows a pattern of production within the propaganda system. Usually movies for moral or ideological education are produced according to the scheme from official departments, and often they respond to a particular social discourse generated by the state. For example, Red Cherry was made to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the victory over the fascist war, and there was a film called “The Founding of a Republic” to memorialize the 60th anniversary of the founding of the nation, and a film “Beginning of the Great Revival” came out just before the 80th birthday of the China Communist Party. Although these facts do not directly correspond to the topic of melodramatic feelings of this essay, my emphasis here is to describe a more comprehensive picture of the ideological space that contains both the social institutions such as the propaganda machine in general, and the melodramatic sentiments within the films.
Is Television asocial?
| December 2, 2011 | Posted by admin under Uncategorized |
It is interesting to find both Lotz and Arnheim more or less directly answered the question in their articles. Arnheim’s piece written in 1935 claimed that the pervasiveness of the Television makes people retreat from the physical public life. He was quite pessimistic towards the situation and warned that “doing things at the same time and doing them together is not quite the same.” In the network-era described in Lotz’s article, the norms regarding the question changed into the argument that Television effectively serves as a cultural forum where shared contents for discussion are provided. One of the most significant characteristics identified by Lotz in post network-era is the fragmentation of viewers as multi-channel enables a broad range of niche and audiences can also view on-demand for specific shows. Theories of network-era seem to also share a concern that the fragmented audiences might be a threat to public cultural forum. However at the same time, in the post network-era, Lotz argues “Television operates as subcultural forum when it reproduces a similar experience as the electronic public sphere, but among more narrow groups that share particular cultural affinities or tastes”. It appears to be that the understandings and expectations of public life/public sphere/cultural forum also experience the changes with the shifts of the technology of the Television. Is that the fact that people expect less from each other in terms of physical interactions in the process? or in the words of Bourdieu and Putnam’s social capital, does a fragmented society mean a declining public participation?
Definition of Games
| December 2, 2011 | Posted by admin under Uncategorized |
Before Juul started to provide his definition of games in the beginning of his article, he pointed out the language issue. In English the word “game” contains the meaning of sports such as the soccer. And I remember how surprised I was in middle school when I found the translation of “Olympic Games” were actually games, because in Chinese sports and games have quite distinct meanings. In Chinese you might say “play a game” but you will not say “play soccer”, and even though in conversations, you put “play” in front of some sports, the emphasis of the meaning changes to hobbies instead of competitiveness of games. I thought Juul would proceed to analyze the differences of the understanding of games in other cultures, but he attempted to provide a universal definition of games in his article. He also pointed several games in the borderline and some do not belong to games. He must have done lots of work on testing his definition on many games to validate his theory, but I still wonder if the definition is universal? What differences are there in the definition across cultures? and does the definition change with new technology enabling new forms of games? The soccer in ancient China is not even a sport and actually its main purpose is the performance to the emperor and his families. Even though it fits Juul’s definition that it has the rules, I still doubt how easily it is equaled to modern games.
Last year I took a course on the topic of British modernity and the professor mentioned an interesting point that the culture of games and sports has played a central role in the rising of the British emperor. Team games generate the spirit of cooperation, and the addiction to games is the sign of modern concept of privateness of life. The competitiveness of games fits perfectly with the essence of capitalism and confrontational political and legal system. I do not agree there is no game culture in China but some differences of attitudes to games are noticeable in history. Ma Jiang is a widely practiced game and in some cities you can see people just play along the road. Many kids are not allowed to play it because it is little bit of gambling and it is addictive. The so-called game in many ancient literary works is like singing a song or writing a poem, and I think the culture of studying rather than encouraging kids to play games in spare time is still quite strong in contemporary China.
Fog and Darkness of Society
| December 2, 2011 | Posted by admin under Uncategorized |
In Bleak House by Charles Dickens, the word “fog” is frequently used to represent both the smoky environment of London and the corruption of the British legal system. When I read the first chapter that contains the description of the fog, what came to my mind was Chong Qing, known as the “City of Fog” in western part of China. In many Chinese literary works, the society of the city in 1940s was portrayed as dark and morally corrupted. The similarity of the metaphorical use of fog in two cultures makes me ask what the reason for the tactic is.
In the beginning of Bleak House, the fog is so pervasive that it covers the whole town and penetrates to every aspect of people’s lives. By stating, “Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls deified among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city” and repeatedly stressing how smoky the city is, Dickens successfully draws the readers’ great curiosity to question what lies behind the weather phenomenon. The words “pollution” and “dirty” may give us some hints that the settings are in the industrializing London in the 19th century and Dickens criticized the unpleasantness of the process of modernization. Then when we read the lines “The raw afternoon is rawest, and the dense fog is densest, and the muddy streets are muddiest near that leaden-headed old obstruction, appropriate ornament for the threshold of a leaden-headed old corporation, Temple Bar. And hard by Temple Bar, in Lincoln’s Inn Hall, at the very heart of the fog, sits the Lord High Chancellor in his High Court of Chancery”, we understand that the source of the fog is Lord High Chancellor, whose darkness is everywhere. Dickens metaphorically used the “fog” and directed us to the conclusion that the bureaucracy and the corruption of the legal system are the roots of the problems.
Fog is a natural phenomenon of Chong Qing because of its geographic location, but it was used as a rhetorical image by many Chinese authors in the 1940s. In Qin Mu’s Fighting in Foggy Chong Qing, it is stated, “Chong Qing, a city of fog, is covered by natural fog and political fog.” The “political fog” refers to the fact that Chong Qing was once set up as the capital city of Kuomintang regime during the War of Anti-Japanese and it was also a period of the last few years of its domination in Mainland China. Xu Chi expressed his observations of the social reality in his memoir “at that time, the fog of Chong Qing was a symbol. It was disturbing and frightening. Houses were set fire in windy weather and people were killed at night. In foggy days ferocious deeds were done. The city was full of the secret police and agencies, and some people disappeared forever in darkness.” The symbolic connection between the fog and Kuomintang’s corrupted rule might be overestimated by authors whose ideology is pro-communist party, but the metaphor used in the Chinese texts resembles many characteristics in Dickens’s Bleak House such as the darkness and the evil of the political system.
I do not intend to argue that the fog is inherently a metaphor of evil, and I agree that in many literary works the fog has been used as a positive symbol, for example, to represent the vague affections between lovers at the beginning stage of relationships. What I am emphasizing here is the importance of the influence of social reality on the choices made by the authors. Characteristics of natural phenomena, such as the pervasiveness of fog, are actually neutral, but how authors use it or interpret it in their works depends on their attitudes towards the social realities where they live.
Silent Films and Visuality
| December 2, 2011 | Posted by admin under Uncategorized |
Some people assume that the silent films are primitive and have low visual quality by modern standards. This misconception might be a result of contemporary conventions formed by modern audiences, who are accustomed to watching films with synchronized sound. I argue that the intense and varied visuality enabled by the silent films in many aspects exceeds contemporary sound films.
Actors in the silent film era have left audiences with even stronger impression because of their creative and expressive performances as compared to their counterparts in sound films. Charlie Chaplin, one of the most famous stars in the world, has brought us happiness and warmth through his visual comedy in the 1920s. In the film of The Gold Rush, when he is acknowledged that the girl he loves will come to visit him on New Year’s Eve, the way he expresses his extreme delight is to jump onto the bed, pick up and throw the pillow. Although in reality people might do the same, what is exaggerated by his performance is the creative scene: the feathers from the pillow fly around the room and fall on to his head, which produces an amusing effect. Similarly creative and expressive scenes can be found in many of his other films, such as the mechanical movements in Modern Times and the fake tree he pretends to be in Shoulder Arms. The exaggeration of performance is particularly important for silent films to transmit the messages to the audience, as there are almost no direct conversations. It is also because of his talented performance that Chaplin has been remembered by audiences of many generations.
It is also worth noting that silent films portray domestic feelings in different ways than dialogues or monologues in sound films. When it comes to the topic of truthfulness, some people readily agree that monologues might be more reliable to represent the true personality. Although I cannot say this view is a complete misconception, I argue that the visuals open up more space for imagination and escape the restrictions of dialogue-centered realism. In The Gold Rush, the Little Fellow is so optimistic and caring that finally he gets his fortune and his love. There is no conversation between characters that depicts his personality, but in the carefully performed hilarious scene in which he turns the boiled boots into a gourmet dinner under the extreme condition of coldness and hunger, every audience member must be touched by his hopefulness. Also, his romance with Georgia is another unforgettable story: He prepared New Year dinner for her but she did not show up, and finally she understood his feelings by discovering his carefully preserved pictures of her under his pillow. These powerful scenes do not have to include dialogues to explain the character’s inner world and have left audiences much room for imagination of the world without sounds. Often it is the absence of the rigid realism that gives audiences the opportunity to explore both the characters’ and their own inner worlds.
Mapping Out Civic Actions in China: Adding a Dimension of Media Centralization
| November 23, 2011 | Posted by admin under Uncategorized |
This week I am working on a model to map out civic actions in China. I borrowed models on social movements in the field of political science and added one dimension, the level of centralization of the media involved in the civic actions, to understand various types of civic actions in China. I do not intend to include all forms of participations but to provide an analytical method when categorizing them.
1. Hierarchy of Media
Newspapers/Broadcasting: State-owned national newspapers (People’s Daily), State-owned TV (CCTV), provincial party owned newspapers/TV, Southern Newspapers (South Weekend Newspaper, which is ideologically liberal in contrast with pro-party media).
Weibo,SNS, Portal Websites,Blogs: Sina Weibo, RenRen SNS, Kaixin SNS, Sina News, Sohu News, Netease News, Sina Blogging, Sohu Blogging. They are owned by large private corporations such as Sina and Sohu which adopts sensitive words filtering. It is a compromise between the urge of the development of information technology sector and traditionally rigorous censorship. On theone hand, the commercial interests drive the growth of micro-blogging, social networking, and blogging services provided by these companies, which boost the general economy. One the other hand, in comparison with various competing small companies (eg. the shutdown of Fanfou), the contents from the centralized service providers are easier to control by the state, specifically, the Party Ministry of Propaganda, Press and Publication Administration, Radio Film Television Administration.
Can your voices be heard from Weibo(it fails to address daily issues)?:–commercial interest comes first;elites domination;retweeting ( less original contents);topic disappears quickly;
The other category is described as community tools in this chart. It addresses common concern regarding both geographically aggregated communities and dispersedmembers but with shared aspects of identity with communities. Traditional communication forms such as face to face communication, flyers, and posters can still effectively generate information flow between these actors. At the same time, community members using emailing lists, local BBS, online forums and texting through mobile phones form the online networks that enable discussions on issues ofcommon concern, and have the potentiality to generate collective actions.
2. Civic Actions in China
Figure 2 Dimensions of Civic Actions in China
In the above table, I do not intend to exhaust all types of civic actions in China (more comprehensive categories of political participation can be found in Shi’s work, and Yang also demonstrated many forms of activism), but rather I would like to list some dimensions that are useful to describe the differences of these types. The indicators, to what extend the actions are organized, how institutionalized the actions are, and how strong the advocacy of the actions are, are traditionally used in political science theories when categorizing varied social movements (Dingxin Zhao, 2005). The numbers in this table ranging from 1 to 5 are only meaningful in ordinal scale, not in interval and ratio scales (numbers can only be compared within columns, but no plus or minus within numbers in a same column). In the column of centralization of media used in actions, routine politics such as voting and party meetings, can only attract attention from local newspapers, and if it is voting for district congress representative among college students, university newspapers might cover the story, while national newspapers will neglect these political actions. Routine politics are highly institutionalized in Chinese political system in contrast with radical social movements that happen spontaneously, which explains the numbers 5 and 1 in the two categories. The ability of generating discourse is another factor that defines the types of civic actions, the economic reform led by Central Communist Party, for example, the entry to WTO, comes with a discourse of neoliberal economy generated through wide coverage from national media, while in contrast, daily practices of online activism are hard to find voices in a larger scale. The last indicator, the class reflects the social reality of current China that the social inequity and stratification has impacted almost all aspects of people’s life. Regarding civic actions, the class classification is still significant as those participating in pro-democratic activism are more likely to be elites. I have to admit here that most of the conclusions come from my subjective observations, and I hope in the future or in my master thesis I might adopt cases studies, and survey reports to support my speculations.
It is also worth noting that the actions are not in their static forms, but rather they changes with time. Routine politics used to barely receive attention from individuals or the coverage from local newspapers is not of ordinary people’s concern in the early 1990s, and in 1998 since the election law that permits direct election at lowest administrative level was passed by the national congress, some routine politics such as voting for local villages have captured the public’s attention. In the past decade the fact that more independent candidates have stood out also changes the voting behaviors. A recent news (need to confirm) from Tianya BBS saying college students from Fudan University filled out names of movie actors or left blank on the vote paper. In short, the types summarized in the tables are not comprehensive and in reality there are far more nuances than researchers can imagine. If we examine the civic actions diachronically even more complexities will bring about into our scope.
