Public Sphere In China Research Articles

The Dilemma of Women Participating in the Discussion of Public Issues on Weibo: A Case Study of Sichuan Changing the Rule for Birth Registration

Weibo, as a new channel for online political participation and a becoming important platform for the feminist movement, has become the most important Internet public sphere in China, and more and more women are participating in the discussion of public issues on Weibo. This research focuses on the dilemma of women participating in the discussion of public issues on Weibo through a case study of Sichuan changing the rule for birth registration. Based on the three characteristics of Weibo: freedom, immediacy, and interactivity, this study selects the discussion period of the night of the announcement that is worth studying, which was intense and the sample size was large. A total of 282 valid data from Weibo users and the observations on the discussion of the rule demonstrate that traditional moral values have a profound influence on women. Women still need to improve their subjective awareness and improve their participation and influence in the discussion of public affairs, while men need to increase their attention to the dilemma of women. Weibo platform must simultaneously reduce its restrictions on free speech. The government should spread education about gender equality and protect victims.

Stalled and uneven? A hierarchical age-period-cohort analysis of gender attitudes in the public sphere in China 1995–2018

This study investigates gender attitudes in the public sphere in China from 1995 to 2018 using World Values Survey data. Although overall support for gender equality in the public sphere has been stable, gender attitudes in the constituent domains of work, politics, and education differ from one another and over time. Egalitarianism is highest in education, while attitudes in the domain of work are on a trajectory to become more egalitarian than in politics. To identify what factors contribute to attitudinal change the Hierarchical Age-Period-Cohort (HAPC) model is used. Age effects are always significant, and there is a U-shaped relationship between age and egalitarianism. Period effects are moderately significant and cohort effects are less statistically significant. Higher education levels are associated with higher levels of gender egalitarianism for women than for men. While rural residency is associated with less egalitarian gender attitudes, rural residency for women is associated with more egalitarian attitudes than for men. These results suggest that an age-, domain- and gender-specific approach is helpful to understand gender attitudes in the public sphere in modern China.

The emerging scientific public sphere in China's digital economy: Weibo discussions on facial recognition technology.

The present study investigates the Chinese public's perception toward the widely adopted (and often accused of misuse) technology of face recognition. Through topic modeling and a social network analysis of 151,654 Weibo posts, we examine the "content dimension" and the "actor dimension" of civic discussions on facial recognition technology. Our results demonstrate that there is rising social concern and skepticism directed at the commercial use of this biodata-collected technology in China's cyberspace, despite the state's adoption, supervision, and regulation of facial recognition technology being broadly granted. Moreover, while our findings illustrate an extent of openness and equality within the public debates on facial recognition technology, they also show the Chinese government becoming an important "interlocutor" within the said debates, with discursive engagement from industry and academia largely marginalized. Drawing on the results, we suggest that further investigation into the formation of China's scientific public sphere should be located within the broader context of China's vision of a centrally planned digital economy.

Tackling fake news in socially mediated public spheres: A comparison of Weibo and WeChat

While studies have documented the difference between political and public discussions on Chinese social media platforms, few have interrogated and compared how state and social media companies shape corresponding public spheres across different platforms. Building on research concerning socially mediated publicness, we advance the understanding of the public sphere in China as a communicative space in which the (Party-)state carries its power into society, with the platform as the structural designer and facilitator of this mediated public sphere. We further examine empirical data from the official accounts countering COVID-19 fake news on two dominant social media sites, Weibo and WeChat, between December 1, 2019 and April 30, 2020. Semantic content analysis of these posts reveals that the two social media sites showed distinctive socially mediated public spheres in terms of authoritative actors, topics and content, and media frames. The results shed light theoretically and empirically on the heterogeneity and complexity of socially mediated public spheres in Chinese cyberspace.

The Elitist Public Sphere in China: A Case Study of Online Contestation by Former Critical Journalists During the Coronavirus Outbreak

This paper explores a contingent sub-public sphere promoted by a group of former critical journalists in China during the coronavirus outbreak at the beginning of 2020. During the initial outbreak of coronavirus in China, the observed former journalists, who left the field of critical journalism during the re-structure of Chinese news industries under Xi Jinping’s leadership, drew on their knowledge of Chinese politics and censorship to contest information cover-up by the state, online censorship, and the state’s discourses of China as a successful model of combating the virus. Their activities effectively engaged mass participation of Chinese people and promoted critical opinions of the public. The paper bears the primary aim to deepen the understanding of the episodic formation of elite-driven public spheres in China by investigating the nuances of each case. I therefore, in this particular case study, explore concepts of habitus and capital from Bourdieu’s field theory as analytical tools in the investigation of the persistence of political participation and government scrutiny by former critical journalists on social media after leaving the field of critical journalism. The empirical research combines materials collected through 15 former critical journalists’ WeChat accounts between January and May 2020, along with in-depth interviews.

Rethinking crisis dynamics from the perspective of online publics: A case study of Dolce & Gabbana’s China crisis

On November 18, 2018, the Italian fashion house Dolce & Gabbana (D&G) released a controversial video on all their social media channels. The video triggered an instant outcry from the general Chinese public, who called the video a racist caricature of Chinese culture. D&G responded to the crisis with several image repair strategies. This study examines D&G’s crisis communication efforts in the wake of this incident. Departing from corporate-oriented perspectives prevalent in the field of public relations, this study employs a dynamic, public-oriented view of crisis communication, which focuses on the dynamic, interactive process of crisis development from the standpoint of the publics. By analyzing communicative behavior on Twitter (an increasingly influential alternative public sphere in China) and in particular, comments and responses toward the crisis communication strategies employed by D&G, we have identified four prominent themes, or ways that publics framed their key messages against the corporation: “Apology not enough”; “Apology done badly”; “Call to unite against D&G”; and “Sarcasm, mockery, and abuse.” And they can be interpreted as a number of crisis communication strategies of the global, online publics. Based on our analysis of the D&G case, we discuss the theoretical implications of a dynamic, public-oriented perspective (DPOP) on crisis communication, highlighting its key areas of difference from the corporate-oriented perspective (COP).

Confucianism as a Eurasian Driving Force: What Does It Really Mean for Women in China and Eurasian Space?

Confucianism is persistently named one of the main Eurasian driving forces, cultural, legal, social and political. However, such definitions are usually given by male researchers that are often eager to ignore the real impact of Confucianism on women social roles and statuses in imperial China, modern China and in wider Eurasian space. In Confucian culture, although all rules and regulations are focused on the patrilineal, patriarchal, and patrilocal family system functioning to manage the state and the family, they promote the unequal gendered division of labor, social roles differentiated in a highly biased manner, and often unjust class hierarchy. In fact, Confucian norms strictly and rigidly regulate women’s roles, course of life and even destiny. Despite plethora of examples of women’s outstanding performances in the public sphere in China’s historical past, women are not regarded as social entities capable of occupying public tenures and positions within middle and late Confucianism. Even worse, several modern Confucian discourses degrade women to lowest social strata in the wide Eurasian space. In the paper, I examine what modern Confucianism – in additional to historical Confucianism – may really mean for a woman in Eurasia.

RELIGION, CULTURE, AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE IN CHINA AND JAPAN. Edited by Albert Welter and Jeffrey Newmark. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. Pp. ix + 259. Hardback, $139.99.

RELIGION, CULTURE, AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE IN CHINA AND JAPAN. Edited by Albert Welter and Jeffrey Newmark. Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017. Pp. ix + 259. Hardback, $139.99.

The Alternative Public Sphere in China: a Cultural Sociology of the 2008 Tainted Baby Milk Scandal

This article studies critical news reports about the 2008 Chinese tainted baby milk scandal, which the World Health Organization identified as one of the largest food safety crises in recent years. Examining the discursive practices adopted to legitimize journalistic criticism in authoritarian China, it reveals that critical-minded journalists avoid criticizing the state during the period of heavy censorship, preferring instead to target local governments. Journalists develop more explicit criticisms of the state as censorship becomes loosened, but they continue to rely on the strategic use of official statement and a heavy dose of praise to appear complimentary. Findings indicate that while critical journalism is constrained by political censorship, the Chinese critical press has managed to circulate counter-hegemonic interpretations of the scandal through strategic discursive practices.

Slacktivist USA and Authoritarian China? Comparing Two Political Public Spheres With a Random Sample of Social Media Users

The rise of social media has put back on the agenda questions about the Internet's potential as an online public sphere, particularly in authoritarian states. However, random samples have never been employed to investigate political speech on social media, necessarily limiting knowledge. This article presents an analysis of political speech based on a random sample of more than 1,000 active U.S. Twitter users and Chinese Weibo users collected in late 2014. Political speech by ordinary users was found to be more frequent on both platforms than expected—9.4 percent on Weibo and 6.8 percent on Twitter—lending support to hopes of an online public sphere. However, existing powerholders make up around a fifth of U.S. Twitter accounts, and political speech acts by ordinary U.S. Twitter users are largely “slacktivist” in nature. In contrast, 98 percent of active accounts on Weibo belong to ordinary users, with active political speech making up more than 1 in 50 posts by these users. Although they largely fall within the bounds of what is permitted by the Chinese state, these findings point to the potential of the Internet as a (limited) public sphere in China, while raising questions about its contribution to political processes in the United States.

Agri-food transitions and the “green public sphere” in China

Studies of China’s agri-food transitions have so far largely overlooked the role of the public in policymaking and practice. We argue that a deeper understanding of public perceptions of – and engagement with – agricultural innovation, is required to better understanding the dynamic responses that exist to the multiple complex and intersecting challenges facing China’s food and agriculture system. In order to demonstrate the kinds of additional evidence that might contribute to an enhanced understanding of the role of the public sphere in China’s agri-food transitions, we present findings from an exploratory project drawing on qualitative field research. Focussing in particular on public perceptions of genetically-modified crops, we suggest a number of preliminary insights that confirm, challenge or supplement earlier findings. We use this study, in the particular socio-political context of China, to shed light on the complex role of public perceptions (elsewhere in the transitions literature referred to as ‘market/ user preferences’ or ‘culture’) in agri-food transitions. This raises important questions for the governance of Chinese agri-food transitions and how future research might better inform its response to a changing public sphere.

Research dialogues on the intellectual public sphere in China (Part II)

Research dialogues on the intellectual public sphere in China (Part II)

Features of the microblog and its role in the formation of a green public sphere in China: The case of 2015 Tianjin Explosions

Abstract This article tries to take the case of the Tianjin explosions, which happened in 2015, as an example to address two questions. First, what are the features of the online microblog, as distinct from traditional media, in the context of contemporary China? Second, what is the role of new media (represented by the microblog), in forming the green public sphere in China? In the case of the Tianjin explosions, the first report was from a microblogger, minutes after the explosions. However, the traditional media did not report any news of the fire until four hours later, and subsequent related news was greatly regulated and manufactured by the central controlling agency. This delayed response and continued diversion of the incident invoked outrage among the public, who were kept updated by active microbloggers. From this brief research, it can be concluded that as netizen numbers grow and more agencies are added to netizens’ voices, the microblog obviously has become the indispensable new media platform in China, although it is still dismissed as an unreliable and valueless source by government officials. It indeed contributes to the formation of the green public sphere somehow, but the development of the green public sphere in China is still in its infancy.

The rise of New Confucianism and the return of spirituality to politics in mainland China

In the past two decades, the revival of New Confucianism in mainland China has accelerated and become a crucial component of the intellectual public sphere. New Confucians have appeared alongside the larger groups of liberals and the New Left, often developing in dialogue or contrast with these intellectual neighbours. As part of the series of research dialogues on mapping the intellectual public sphere in China, this article examines recent discourse from New Confucian intellectuals, particularly dialogue with liberals and the New Left, to highlight the major debates and leading figures that define the cultural nationalist movement of Mainland New Confucianism. We show that, despite the immense difficulty of finding power as a minority voice in contemporary China, an integration of the religious and political dimensions of Confucianism in mainstream Chinese social, political, and intellectual culture remains the primary ideal that fuels and unites these intellectuals in the 2010s.

Freedom and its limitations: The contemporary mainland Chinese debate over liberalism

The emergence of Chinese liberalism carries with it a specific China-centric character that reflects both a Chinese and a foreign focus on the nation’s complicated domestic situation. As part of the research dialogue on the intellectual public sphere in China, this article provides a historical perspective of the development of contemporary Chinese liberalism and explores the complexities of those Chinese liberals’ engagement with a number of key issues in political thought, both among themselves and with their principal opponents, the New Left. We review four themes in these ongoing debates: the relationship between freedom and equality; the liberals’ demands for a more open civil society; their call for balanced social structures, including a mechanism for expressing interest; and their search for a new synthesis of Chinese tradition with a strong nation state. Contemporary Chinese liberals propose their visions for a China that operates within and against a Euro-American-dominated system. Thus, their interpretation of classical liberal texts is characterized by one of creative adaptation, and informed by both local and foreign intellectual resources. The article’s ultimate goal is to provide a deeper understanding of the internal debates among Chinese liberals, which may give a sense of the multifarious predicaments and opportunities that China’s intellectuals face as China attempts to pursue wealth, power, and a revitalized role in a new world order.

Mapping the intellectual public sphere in China today

The papers in this research dialogue section are the product of a project that examines intellectual life in China since the 1990s – chiefly the efforts by academic public intellectuals to rethink China’s past, present, and future in light of the excesses of Mao’s revolution, the challenges emerging from reform, and the rise of China to the status of world economic power. Chinese scholars, having benefited from China’s openness to the world and the relative relaxation of political pressure in China (until recently), have much to say about China and the world that merits our attention. Through creative collaboration between Chinese and international scholars, the articles collected here explore that intellectual public sphere since the late 1990s. The articles were written in Chinese by young PRC scholars and rendered into English through ‘collaborative translation’ teams that pair these Chinese with non-Chinese scholars based in Canadian universities. The net result, grounded on repeated conversations and revisions, is not a simple translation but a co-production of knowledge about China that aims to capture the discourse of Chinese scholarship in a way to make it meaningful to anglophone readers. The articles themselves are not traditional surveys of academic scholarship. Rather they map significant areas of an intellectual world and the arguments within it. Three widely accepted intellectual streams of thought ( sichao 思潮) organize these soundings: liberals, New Left, and New Confucian. These reports explore connections between and diversity within and beyond each.

The recasting of Chinese socialism: The Chinese New Left since 2000

In post-Mao China, a group of Chinese intellectuals who formed what became the New Left (新左派) sought to renew socialism in China in a context of globalization and the rise of social inequalities they associated with neo-liberalism. As they saw it, China’s market reform and opening to the world had not brought greater equality and prosperity for all Chinese citizens. As part of China Information’s research dialogue on the intellectual public sphere in China, this article provides a historical survey of the development of the contemporary Chinese New Left, exploring the range of ideas that characterized this intellectual movement. It takes as its focus four of the most prominent New Left figures and their positions in the ongoing debate about China’s future: Wang Shaoguang, Cui Zhiyuan, Wang Hui, and Gan Yang.

Role of PM2.5 (particulate matter) event in the formation of a green public sphere in China

ABSTRACTA green public sphere is important for the free environmental communication in a country. However, this concept is relatively new to the public in China. Here we show that the PM2.5 event in 2011 play an important role in the formation of a green public sphere in China. First, we reviewed the PM2.5 event in China and the basic theory of green public sphere. Next, we investigated the role of the PM2.5 event in the formation of a green public sphere in China. Finally, we concluded that a green public sphere has complicated structures and is multilayered.

The Rise of Han‐Centrism and What It Means for International Politics

AbstractThis article addresses the rise of Han‐centrism, a form of hyper‐nationalism, in contemporary China. As Chinese nationalism has become more ethnocentric since the 1990s, the cultural chauvinism of Han‐centrism has become increasingly more influential in the debate over national identity. Within this narrative, Han culture is considered to be the authentic character of the nation; to deviate from the Han identity will only tarnish Chinese exceptionalism and impede China's rise. While Chinese nationalism consists of many competing discourses, we argue that Han‐centrism has a significant influence within both policy‐making circles and the public sphere in China, and, as a result, has important consequences for the future of international politics.

Public Sphere in China: A Literature Review

Controversies have been longstanding around the application of the concept of public sphere to a Chinese context since China did not ever have the equivalent historical circumstances for the sprouting of public sphere as the eighteenth century Europe did. With a postmodern constructivist perspective, this paper combs a series of important academic works henceforth from the discussion of Chinese public sphere began in late 1980s and tries to unpack the trajectory of the development of public sphere in China as well as the discussions arising therefrom. It argues that the concept of public sphere can be extrapolated but with distinct manifestations taking root in its respective socio-political conditions. The paper echoes with some scholars’ proposal that studying Chinese public sphere should break free of the conceptual constrains and establish the theoretical autonomy by examining it in social movements rather than in theoretical argumentation.