Internet memes and the mobilization of a “One-China” cyber nationalist campaign: the case of the 2016 Diba Expedition to Taiwan

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study examines the 2016 Diba Expedition to Facebook, a mass collective organized campaign directed at independence-leaning Taiwanese individuals and institutions, as an example of cyber nationalism through a highly organized meme war between anti- and pro-Taiwan independence users on Facebook. Drawing upon a social semiotic multimodal discourse analysis of the nationalist campaign, this study examines the ways Diba members deployed multimodal elements of political propaganda and popular culture in the preparation and mobilization of the campaign as well as the playful memetic interaction between the two camps on the battlefield. The analysis and discussion underscore the playful and carnivalesque ecology of Chinese social media that users deployed in the 2016 expedition while also demonstrating the dilemma of undertaking a Chinese nationalism campaign beyond the Great Firewall, where those based in the Mainland needed to overcome the state's regulations of online security to defend the motherland. This study contributes to the growing research on cyber nationalism in China and adds a further dimension to the study of Chinese social media.