Bingchun Meng

From Steamed Bun to Grass Mud Horse: E Gao as alternative political discourse on the Chinese Internet

This article examines e gao (online spoofs) as a popular form of political expression which has recently emerged on the Chinese internet. I first introduce a cultural approach to internet-mediated political communication that emphasizes discursive integration and the mutual constitution of communicative activity and subjectivity. I then discuss how these two dimensions are configured in the specific media ecology in China with regard to the emergence of e gao. I will analyse the political implications of e gao through a close reading of the two most influential cases. Granted that these online spoofs neither qualify as rational debates aiming to achieve consensus nor have produced any visible policy consequences, but they constitute a significant component of civic culture that offers both political criticism and emotional bonding for all participants.This article examines e gao (online spoofs) as a popular form of political expression which has recently emerged on the Chinese internet. I first introduce a cultural approach to internet-mediated political communication that emphasizes discursive integration and the mutual constitution of communicative activity and subjectivity. I then discuss how these two dimensions are configured in the specific media ecology in China with regard to the emergence of e gao. I will analyse the political implications of e gao through a close reading of the two most influential cases. Granted that these online spoofs neither qualify as rational debates aiming to achieve consensus nor have produced any visible policy consequences, but they constitute a significant component of civic culture that offers both political criticism and emotional bonding for all participants.

Who needs democracy if we can pick our favorite girl? Super Girl as media spectacle

This article examines the 2005 Super Girl phenomenon in China through the lens of media spectacle. I first review some general debate on reality TV and introduce the perspective of media spectacle for analyzing the specific Super Girl case in the Chinese context. I then look at strategies employed for making Super Girl into a media spectacle and how the spectacle mediates between the state, the market, media institutions, and spectators. The production, participation, and interpretation of this spectacle worked together to maintain a series of myths, which reinforce and naturalize the existing power structure rather than challenging the status quo.

A Change of Lens: A Call to Compare the Media in China and Russia

This article makes what Western scholars call a “leap in the dark” by suggesting that, instead of comparing the “West” with the “Rest”, we should compare the “East” with the “East”—in this case the media in China with the media in Russia. We have identified three blind spots in previous comparative media research that have resulted in turning attention away from comparative study of China and Russia. These are: (1) ahistoricism; (2) misunderstanding the relationship between the state and the market; and (3) understanding national media and communication as closed and homogenous systems. We propose three remedies: (1) historicizing comparative media studies; (2) re-conceptualizing the relationship between the state and media markets; and (3) rethinking the dynamics between the global, the national and the local.

Political scandal at the end of ideology? the mediatized politics of the Bo Xilai case

In this article, I use the high-profile Bo Xilai case to illustrate the dialectics of media and politics in contemporary China. I start by explaining some of the similarities and key differences between mediatized politics in the West and in China. This leads to an emphasis on the ideological dimension of media logic that is largely missing from discussions derived from a liberal democratic context. I then analyze the dialectics of the mediatized ideological struggle and politicized media logic running through the Bo Xilai scandal. In the last section, I summarize the theoretical contributions that the Chinese case makes to the study of mediatized politics.

Commons/Commodity: Peer Production Caught in the Web of the Commercial Market

The development of digital technology and computer networks has enabled many kinds of online collaboration. This article examines Zimuzu, a Chinese case of online peer production that produces and distributes online Chinese subtitles of foreign media content. Zimuzu provides an opportunity to extend our understanding of how the tensions between the commodity and commons production models are being articulated in an online setting. Using empirical evidence collected from face-to-face interviews, online posts and online ethnographic observation, our analysis demonstrates that there is constant negotiation over which aspects of the two seemingly opposing models will be adopted by the community. We argue that it is important to conceptualize the peer production process as being influenced by power relations within and between the translation groups as well as between the groups and other commercial organizations.

Patriarchal capitalism with Chinese characteristics: gendered discourse of ‘Double Eleven’ shopping festival

ABSTRACT In this article we consider the Double Eleven shopping festival as a major discursive site where the hegemony of what we call patriarchal capitalism with Chinese characteristics is articulated. The state, the market, the corporations and the media, both mainstream and social media, all played an important role in building up a national spending spree that is deeply embedded in the current class and gender structure of China. The phenomenon of Double Eleven emerged at a time when state capitalism has been overwriting socialist institutions, while patriarchal ideology being further intensified through consumerism. As a consequence, the intersectionality of class and gender becomes increasingly manifest in the Chinese society. We start with a brief overview of the trajectory of gender politics in China since 1949, with specific focus on how the socialist project of seeking gender equality was gradually replaced by the quest for ‘womanhood’ and ‘femininity’. We then discuss, using both secondary sources and our own analysis of news coverage of Double Eleven, why maintaining a high level of consumer demand is of crucial importance for the Chinese state and what the state’s role has been in configuring the hegemonic gender order. A brief section on ideology and discourse lays out the conceptual framework of our analysis. It is at the intersection of a dissipating socialist ethos, emerging economic stagnation and ascending consumerism that the sexist discourse in relation to Double Eleven proliferates, and this is the analytical focus of our empirical section. We elaborate on the theoretical implications of the empirical analysis before concluding.