Searching GuangzhouRegionalizing China’s Weibo

Prepared for IR15 2014Wilfred Yang Wang

wilfred.wang@hdr.qut.edu.auQueensland 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!

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