Mei Wu

Debating China-India relations on the internet: netizens’ dialogue for constructive international politics

The internet has been viewed as a vehicle for promoting communication among grassroots netizens in international politics. However, internet debates are also criticized for being deficient in deliberation and respect for others, and a breeding ground for cyber-hate and nationalist extremism. As Sino-Indo relations are among the hottest subjects in the Chinese internet, this paper sets up an inquiry into the significance of the internet debate in facilitating a better understanding between netizens of the two countries. The case in focus is the first cross-country online debate on Sino-Indo relations, the ‘Sino-Indo Internet Users Debate Contest’, which was organized by the Global Times, one of the most popular newspapers in China. A Fantasy Theme Analysis (FTA) is applied to identify the rhetorical visions in the debate represented by the Chinese and Indian teams. The paper evaluates the importance of this new initiative in several aspects. First, it analyses how the debate is structured to be different from normal online discussion. Second, it examines the fantasy themes and rhetorical visions constructed in the debate by the Chinese and Indian teams. Finally, it evaluates the implications of this more formally structured online debate in relation to the role of the internet discussion among netizens in facilitating a more promising future of international relations, specifically the Sino-Indo relations.

'Magic Wand': Mobile Phones and Fujian Entrepreneurs in China

Mobile telephony was first adopted by business people, specifically small and medium-sized entrepreneurs. Their use habits have thus contributed to the evolvement of the mobile and change in business practice. However, there are limited studies that examine individual business users, even fewer exploring the social roles of mobile phones for Chinese entrepreneurship. This study, applying social shaping of technology complemented with affordance theory and domestication theory, qualitatively analyses implications of the mobile phone constructed by entrepreneurs in Fujian Province, China. Findings indicate that mobile telephony has significantly transformed business practice of time and space by Fujian entrepreneurs. It changes time constraints by enabling a 24-hour business contact. It affects the spatial location with a ‘mobile office’. It becomes a platform for staging a tricky business performance. It interconnects business and private lives. Consequently it becomes the ‘magic wand’ -- the central axis around which the lives of Fujian entrepreneurs revolve.