Chinese Social Media Platform Research Articles

Navigating the Ethical Tides: The Blurred Lines of Social Media Realities

In the digital era, the rise of self-media has ushered in a torrent of information dissemination, blurring the boundaries between truth and fabrication. This article explores the challenges posed by the unchecked spread of misinformation on Chinese social media platforms. It critiques the lack of a nuanced, tiered approach in China's censorship system and advocates for a more discerning regulatory framework. Through an examination of recent events and the responsibilities of both self-media and official media, it underscores the imperative of upholding journalistic integrity and societal trust in an age dominated by viral content and fleeting clicks.

Exploring the Connection Between Attitudes Towards New Chinglish and Social Media Among Chinese College Students

New Chinglish has emerged as an undeniable and popular trend on Chinese social media platforms, particularly among Chinese college students. These college students are not only the main force of English users and learners in China but also the major netizens on Chinese social media platforms. However, within a cultural context where ‘standards and adherence to norms have traditionally been of paramount importance to the Chinese’ (Kirkpatrick, 2017: 278), the conflicting attitudes and use towards either upholding traditional viewpoints or adopting opposing stances regarding the New Chinglish warrant intriguing and meaningful exploration. Thus, this study aims to explore the connection between their attitudes towards New Chinglish and its usage behaviors on social media among Chinese college students. It seeks to unveil the reasons underlying their attitudes towards the use of New Chinglish. The in-depth exploration reveals a contradictory and uncertain evaluation of their usage of New Chinglish on social media, despite its high level of understandability and acceptability among them. Personal acceptability and preference do not solely determine their attitudes towards their use of New Chinglish on social media; instead, various social factors, such as language inequality, influence their language use behavior and attitudes, leading to a compromise between individual preferences and social influences. Specifically, this study offers insight into the genuine reactions and usage tendencies of English in real-life situations, indicating the future trends in English language development in China.

Social media sentiment of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in China: Evidence from artificial intelligence algorithms

Hydrogen energy is significant in the energy consumption, especially in Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles(HFCVs) market. Social media data is critical for exploring public perceptions of HFCVs. To find hot topics and understand the public sentiment of HFCVs, we employ a computational model, which combines Kmeans algorithm, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), and SnowNLP. The training data consists of 42,063 comments sourced from Bilibili-a popular Chinese social media platform. The analysis has identified 12 clusters, each with distinct topics and sentiments. The results reveal that the Chinese public generally holds a neutral stance on the hydrogen energy market, while some stakeholders maintain a positive on the technology and development of HFCVs, but some concerns about the transportation and safety of hydrogen fuel. Furthermore, this study offers suggestions for the technological, operational, and strategic advancement of HFCVs.

Rethinking Two-Way Socialisation: Cultural Governance on Chinese Social Media Platforms

During the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in China, Chinese netizens engaged in protracted entanglements with the state across major platforms. They called on the Wuhan (武汉, wuhan) government to be accountable for the rapid spread of the pandemic. Interestingly, this same group of netizens had sung praises to the Chinese Communist Party's tune and lauded the extraordinary achievements of the regime before the outbreak of COVID-19, during the seventieth anniversary of the country. In fewer than six months, the national binge spiralled into poignant criticisms. Against this backdrop, this paper investigates two questions: First, why was there a marked shift in opinions towards the state? Second, what discourse did netizens adopt when expressing their discontent? We argue that the shift is indicative of two-way socialisation in the party-state's legitimacy-building process. While netizens have bought into the official narratives of a celebratory event, they hold the state to the same standard when a crisis occurs.

Evaluating the American-Chinese trade war on Chinese social media: discourses of nationalism and rectifying a humiliating past

ABSTRACT The US and China have both benefited greatly from their trading relationship. However, motivated by a US concern that their partner was becoming more of a rival, then-president Donald Trump began a ‘trade war’ in 2018. In US news outlets and, of particular interest here, on American social media platforms, China was represented as a global menace, with extreme xenophobia against Chinese people. Yet less is known about how Chinese people responded on social media to the same situation. This paper explores the discourses carried on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, focusing on the 2021 Alaska talks between the US and China, where negotiations took place. As with their US counterparts, Weibo users comment little on actual trade benefits or damages caused by the conflict. We find a strong sense of nationalism, but this is not based on xenophobia; rather on a discourse comparing the talks to similar events early in the twentieth century, where the ‘Century of Humiliation’ began, and where territories such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and Shaoshan were taken by colonial powers. Foregrounded is China’s ability now to end this humiliation.

“Climate Change” or “Global Warming”? The (Un)Politicization of Climate in Chinese Social Media Platform

ABSTRACT Though previous research shows the terminology and framing way that political elites choose can influence public climate attitudes, the association between term preferences and politicization of climate change is understudied. This study focuses on how different social groups in China use terminologies and frames and how the wording and framing choices affect public climate opinions. Using manual and computer-assisted content analysis of the highest viewed videos and users’ comments on Bilibili, we found government accounts tended to use climate change (CC) and associated climate problems with politics, while individuals were likely to use global warming (GW) and understood climate mainly from its potential impacts. Post-video comments under the CC-titled videos were about climate politics, while comments under the GW-titled videos focused on humanity and earth. Meanwhile, users’ comments to specific video frames had certain emotional patterns. We characterized the differences of CC- and GW-titled videos and comments as politicization and unpoliticization respectively. Our findings suggest that the preferences of terminologies and associated frames among different social groups can affect public opinions and facilitate (un)politicization of climate change in China. This study sheds light on how communication strategies could significantly spin public understanding of important public issues.

Digital Work, Emotion Commodification, and Moral Legitimacy: Transnational Bloggers on Chinese Social Media Platforms

Abstract Transnational bloggers, a rising breed of digital workers, foster emotional connections with followers, expand their influence through diverse digital interactions, and generate income through commercial activities. However, the commodification of emotions is met with resistance from select Chinese netizens, raising moral questions. This article explores how transnational bloggers integrate emotion and commerce within China’s platform economy. Our findings show that these bloggers establish positive emotional connections with Chinese followers, characterized by friendship, support, and sharing, which are crucial for sustaining their careers. In their quest for moral legitimacy in transnational digital commerce, they employ various strategies, including posting techniques, marketing strategies, and moral self-negotiation. This article encourages further research on emerging digital workers in the global platform economy, shedding light on their resources, actions, and competencies.

Support-Seeking Strategies, Family Communication Patterns, and Received Support Among Chinese Women with Postpartum Depression: A Content Analysis of Zhihu Posts

ABSTRACT The incidence of postpartum depression (PPD) among Chinese women surpasses the global average, and this disparity is closely associated with the level of social support they receive. Using Sensitive Interaction Systems Theory and Family Communication Patterns Theory as guiding frameworks, we conducted a content analysis of 705 posts gathered from the hashtag #PPD (chanhou yiyu) on Zhihu, a popular Chinese social media platform. Our findings reveal that postpartum women primarily seek social support from their husbands and mothers-in-law through indirect nonverbal and direct verbal communication strategies. They tend to receive more problem-focused support than emotion-focused solace. Moreover, the use of direct verbal communication strategies promotes potential support providers’ problem-solving behaviors, while the use of indirect nonverbal strategies elicits their avoidance behaviors. In addition, the conversation-oriented family communication pattern strengthens the positive association between direct verbal communication and support-providing behaviors, whereas the conformity-oriented family communication pattern weakens this relationship. This study contributes to the applicability of the abovementioned theories in the Chinese context and provides insights for future interventions aimed at addressing PPD among women.

A Virtual Battlefield for Embassies: Longitudinal Network Analysis of Competing Mediated Public Diplomacy on Social Media

ABSTRACT Mediated public diplomacy is a critical way of strategic communication for governments to influence global public opinion, especially during international conflicts. Based on the theories of mediatization and digitalization as well as the layered model of communicative space, this study investigates how the United States and Iranian embassies competed on the Chinese social media platform Sina Weibo over 13 months. Following a network ethnography approach, this study conducts longitudinal network analysis and textual analysis. The findings suggest that the macro-layer function (i.e. hashtag) facilitated horizontal dissemination of news about the US-Iran conflict from mainly China’s state-media accounts, increasing public awareness of the issue within a short time. The meso-layer (repost and follower network) and micro-layer (mention and comment) functions helped establish vertical communication facilitated by opinion leaders and crowd-enabled leaders that perpetuated public attention on relevant issues. The two embassies engaged with the Chinese public in different communicative layers. The US embassy interacted with the Chinese publics through reposts and replies, while the Iranian embassy constructed their posts in the form of replies. The Iranian embassy leveraged China’s state media agendas as narrative agency to conduct diplomatic communication by incorporating relevant hashtags in their posts. A layered model of mediated public diplomacy is proposed. The findings deepen our understanding of competing mediated public diplomacy, and contribute to the field of international communication of international conflicts.

Responses to self-praise on Chinese social media

Self-praise is a very common practice on social media and has attracted researchers’ attention in recent years. In contrast, how interlocutors respond to other netizens’ self-praise on social media has rarely been explored. This study investigates internet users’ responses to online self-praise by examining a dataset of 569 netizens’ self-praise responses to 75 self-praising microblogs collected from the Chinese social media platform Weibo. The study examines the strategies of users’ responses to bloggers’ self-praise and whether bloggers’ self-praise strategies influence netizens’ responses. It was found that Chinese netizens responded to self-praising blogs with various strategies, including compliment, congratulation, inquiry/remark, evasion, and challenging. The findings showed that netizens’ self-praise responses varied with the categories of self-praise strategies. Possible factors motivating the various strategies involved in netizens’ self-praise responses are also discussed. The study contributes to the literature on self-praise interaction and speech act responses.

Chinese Women's Concept of Childbirth Based on the Social Media Topic "What Does Childbirth Mean to a Woman": Content and Thematic Analysis.

In recent years, women's fertility desire has attracted increasing attention in China. This study aims to detect attitudes toward giving birth among young female users on Douban, a very popular Chinese social media platform. A total of 2634 valid posts from 2489 users discussing the topic "What does childbirth mean to a woman" on Douban were crawled and retained for analysis. We utilized content and thematic analysis methods to capture users' concepts of childbirth. The findings reveal that a significant majority of users conveyed generally neutral (1060/2634, 40.24%) or negative (1051/2634, 39.90%) attitudes toward childbirth, while only about one-fifth of users expressed positive (523/2634, 19.86%) sentiments. Notably, posts with negative attitudes garnered more replies and likes, and the proportion of posts expressing negativity exhibited fluctuations over time. Health risk (339/2634, 12.87%) emerged as the most frequently cited aspect of childbirth cost, with subjective happiness and the fulfillment of mental needs identified as primary benefits. Surprisingly, only a minimal number of posts (10/2634, 0.38%) touched upon the traditional objective benefits of raising children for old-age care. Thematic analysis results suggest that discussions about fertility on social media platforms might contribute to an exaggerated perception of health risks among women. Additionally, a lack of knowledge about childbirth was observed, partially attributable to longstanding neglect and avoidance of communication on these matters, likely influenced by traditional cultural biases. Moreover, there is a prevailing assumption that women should naturally sacrifice themselves for childbirth and childcare, influenced by the idealization of the female figure. Consequently, women may harbor hesitations about having a baby, fearing the potential loss of their own identity in the process. The results indicate a shift in the perception of childbirth among modern Chinese women over time, influenced by their increasing social status and the pursuit of self-realization. Implementing strategies such as public education on the health risks associated with pregnancy and delivery, safeguarding women's rights, and creating a supportive environment for mothers may enhance women's willingness to undergo childbirth. RR2-10.2196/preprints.50468.

Networked framing of GMO risks and discussion fragmentation on Chinese social media: a dynamic perspective

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) have been highly controversial in China and beyond. The burgeoning of social media has created an online activist field where participants utilize networked framing practices to engage in connective actions related to GMO risks. However, a dynamic perspective on the co-production of GMO risk discourses has yet to be fully explored, and it is still under debate whether such a collective interpretation is fragmented. To address this gap, this study investigates the risk-invoked GMO controversy by longitudinally exploring the structural characteristics and discursive power structures in the networked framing of GMO risks on social media. This study examines 356,227 GMO risk posts from 2010 to 2020 on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. A longitudinal social network analysis and computational text-mining approach are used to construct representation networks among participants based on their joint sponsorship framing practices of GMO risks. The findings suggest that there is a multipolar discussion fragmentation in the networked framing of GMO risks. However, the temporal evidence shows that the risk discussion has become increasingly interconnected and less structurally fragmented over time. In addition, this study highlights the unequal distribution of discursive power among participants; nevertheless, the analysis reveals that this inequality has shown signs of easing over the study period. Overall, this study provides a comprehensive analysis of the GMO controversy from a risk perspective and sheds light on the dynamics of networked framing practices and discursive power structures on social media.

Depression detection via a Chinese social media platform: a novel causal relation-aware deep learning approach

Depression detection via a Chinese social media platform: a novel causal relation-aware deep learning approach

Leading Content Producers in Chinese Social Media Platform: Theories and Case Study on Blilibili Vloggers

The rise of social networks has changed the way people live and see the world. Because it is easy for many people to reach, it has given independent people a chance to be heard. Every year, there are more and more outsiders living in China, and there are more and more foreign vloggers on social media. This group is getting bigger and more influential, and its unique character and wide range of creative material is opening up new ways for people from different cultures to talk to each other. Many foreign vloggers have settled on Bilibili, making it one of the most popular platforms. This makes it a good place to look at how foreign vloggers and their viewers are different. So, this study will look at the personal traits, image-building processes, and how well the public accepts the image-building of foreign vloggers on Bilibili. It picks I am Guo Jerry, who shows the impact and content, and Vlad, who is also a foreign YouTuber but gets bad reviews from the public, to do a comparison audience study. The foreign vloggers community is looked at critically in this study. This can help protect against the bad effects and outcomes it causes and bring its social value. At the global level, videos made by foreign vloggers are a new way for people from different cultures to talk to each other. They share Chinese stories and encourage cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world. At the micro-level, the group of foreign vloggers can teach Chinese content producers from their experiences.

#metoo in China: visceral accounts of rape culture, a non-domestic feminist counterpublic, and networked solidarity

ABSTRACT Since its emergence in January 2018, the Chinese #MeToo movement has mobilized #MeToo, #RiceBunny, and other hashtags on Weibo, a major Chinese social media platform. Countless #MeToo stories, accusations of sexual harassment and assaults, and vigorous discussions of rape culture and sexual violence have unfolded. However, the government has sought to quash the movement with successive waves of heavy censorship to prevent further criticism and any collective action. In this paper, I explore the ways in which Chinese women and feminists have reinserted their bodies and voices into online and offline spaces despite state and platform censorship and the misogynistic digital culture. Employing critical discourse analysis, I identify and analyze three themes of #MeToo activism: visceral accounts of rape culture, a non-domestic feminist counterpublic, and networked solidarity. While scholarship of feminist counterpublic often remains on a discursive level, my analysis attends to the visceral and embodied fabric of #MeToo in addition to the discursive aspects. By articulating diverse modes of #MeToo activism in forming a feminist counterpublic where women center their bodies and voices, this research contributes to a further understanding of the multifaceted nature of digital feminist activism.

Constructing ambivalent masculinity and constant femininity in interracial families: Media representations of African-Chinese marriage on Xiaohongshu

Interracial marriage has increasingly gained visibility on Chinese social media platforms, especially African-Chinese marriage which has been popularly represented, sparking heated discussions publically. However, although several studies have touched upon interracial marriage with analyses through political and geographical lenses, few studies investigated the media representations and mediated comments towards African-Chinese marriage in China as it has become a hot topic on Chinese social media platforms recently. To fill this niche, this study explores how African-Chinese marriage is represented on Chinese social media through mediated public comments, and what ideological implication of represented subjectivity of male and female in African-Chinese marriage. Through feminist critical discourse analysis and intersectional perspective, it found that ambivalent masculinity and constant femininity are constructed in African-Chinese marriage through comments where Chinese males are predominantly represented as positive figures, while African men are greatly dehumanised and criticised. As for women, although public attitudes are distinctive towards Chinese and African women, they, sharing the collective identity of females, are restricted in the traditional conception of gender dichotomy. Finally, the social contextualisation of such representations and potential ideological implications will be generally discussed.

Netizens' concerns during COVID-19: a topic evolution analysis of Chinese social media platforms

PurposeThis study analyzes the evolution of topics related to COVID-19 on Chinese social media platforms with the aim of identifying changes in netizens' concerns during the different stages of the pandemic.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 793,947 posts were collected from Zhihu, a Chinese Question and Answer website, and Dingxiangyuan, a Chinese online healthcare community, from 31 December, 2019, to 4 August, 2021. Topics were extracted during the prodromal and outbreak stages, and in the abatement–resurgence cycle.FindingsNetizens' concerns varied in different stages. During the prodromal and outbreak stages, netizens showed greater concern about COVID-19 news, the impact of COVID-19 and the prevention and control of COVID-19. During the first round of the abatement and resurgence stage, netizens remained concerned about COVID-19 news and the prevention and control of the pandemic, however, less attention was paid to the impact of COVID-19. During later stages, popularity grew in topics concerning the impact of COVID-19, while netizens engaged more in discussions about international events and the raising of spirits to fight the global pandemic.Practical implicationsThis study contributes to the practice by providing a way for the government and policy makers to retrospect the pandemic and thereby make a good preparation to take proper measures to communicate with citizens and address their demands in similar situations in the future.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature by applying an adapted version of Fink's (1986) crisis life cycle to create a five-stage evolution model to understand the repeated resurgence of COVID-19 in Mainland China.

Analysis of Favoritism on Chinas Social Media in the 2022 Russia-Ukraine War

The Russian-ukraine conflict is the most significant in Europe since World War II, and it is also the first social media conflict of humankind. In China, the attitude of public opinion towards the Russian-ukraine war has been very torn apart by the development of the situation. To understand the Chinese position in the Russian-ukraine conflict, this study uses crawler technology to capture the relevant data of comments and bullet subtitles on Chinese social media platforms. It uses popular tags specific to the conflict to collect data, depicting both sides neutral or biased views. At the same time, it investigated the social media public opinion communication situation of the Russian-ukraine conflict. Finally, after collecting the information released on the Bilibili platform, it summarized the characteristics of Chinese public opinion in the social media public opinion war as the main pro-Russian. It summarized and analyzed the reasons and positions of different views.

The effect of social media environmental information exposure on the intention to participate in pro-environmental behavior.

With the threat of global warming, countries worldwide have enhanced their environmental campaigns on social media to increase users' willingness to take pro-environmental actions. In this study, we examined the direct and indirect effects of exposure to environmental information on Chinese young adults' (18-25 years old) intention to participate in environmental protection actions (e.g., recycling, using public transportation, involvement in an environmental group, and participation in eco-friendly events). Data were collected from a sample of 291 Chinese young adults using a web-based survey and a thoroughly designed questionnaire. The accumulated data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Hierarchical regression and mediation analysis were performed for testing hypotheses. The results indicated that exposure to environmental information on Chinese social media platforms (WeChat and Xiaohongshu) positively affected individuals' intention to participate in pro-environmental behavior, perceived pro-environmental behavior control, pro-environmental attitude, and fear of victimization. The indirect effect demonstrated that pro-environmental behavior control and attitude mediated the relationship between exposure to environmental information on both WeChat and Xiaohongshu and the intention to participate in pro-environmental behavior. Extending the existing literature, this study provides empirical evidence on the influence of environmental information exposure on the intention to participate in environmental protection among Chinese adults. In addition, it provides valuable insights into the mediating mechanisms involving cognitive, psychological, and emotional factors in this relationship. Policy makers should implement effective pro-environmental promotions on social media to inspire individuals to engage in environmentally friendly actions. In addition, social media managers should strictly authenticate and remove misleading environmental content.

The Research on the Impact of Chinese Social Media Platform RED upon Chinese Female Consumers Consuming Willingness on Gucci Bags

With the development of technology, the influence of social media on consumers cannot be underestimated. Especially during the epidemic, when most parts of the world were in a state of lockdown, online social platforms became almost the best hope for many luxury and fashion brands. This also provides a new opportunity for luxury goods marketing. How to use social media to increase consumers' willingness to buy has become a new hot topic that brands are increasingly concerned about. This paper uses the questionnaire to investigate whether female is influenced by RED to have willingness to buy Gucci bags, how often they are influenced, and what kinds of content influence and what kinds of content influence their willingness to purchase to 200 female customers in RED. While the economic situation, environment, and practicality are all issues that consumers consider, the majority of people will initially build their brand image and purchase because of the social media content. It suggests that RED will develop future potential customers for Gucci. In theory, this paper analyzes the types of content and atmosphere on social platforms that lead to consumer purchases, filling the research gap where most previous studies have analyzed the reasons why social media users share luxury goods on social platforms while ignoring luxury purchases under the influence of social media.