China’s Your Country, We Just Live in It

Tracking a viral, slightly subversive meme in Chinese cyberspace.

By: Alexa Olesen      Source: Foreign Policy      25/6/2015

AFP PHOTO / (Photo credit should read GOU YIGE/AFP/Getty Images)

Call it digital disownment — or perhaps imaginary immigration. A growing number of Chinese web users are voicing frustration with their government using a subtle, pronoun-based renunciation of their citizenship.

The meme of the moment on Chinese social media is ni guo — which means “your country” but is best translated as “your China.” Deployed as a hashtag or embedded in a social media post, the phrase is a sarcastic retooling of the ubiquitous Communist Party phrase wo guo, which literally means “my country” but has the flavor of more nationalist phrases like “our China” or “our motherland.” Web users can find “my country” peppering official rhetoric on state mouthpieces like People’s Daily, official sites of the Chinese Communist Party, and even the National Bureau of Statistics. On Twitter and on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media platform, the converse, “your country,” appears to have taken off in the last several months, and is new enough that many people are only now asking what it means. Continue reading →

“2015中国好网民”流行语与故事征集活动专题

“China’s Good Netizen 2015” launched to cultivate & promote socialist values, & reveal China’s healthy online culture

倡导文明健康网络生活 培育崇德向善网络行为

——“2015中国好网民”系列活动正式启动

    中国网信网6月18日电 由国家互联网信息办公室指导，新华网主办，人民网、中国网、央视网、中国青年网、中国新闻网、光明网、新浪网、腾讯网、新浪微博等网站协办的“2015中国好网民”流行语和故事征集活动今天（18日）正式上线（www.xinhuanet.com/forum/sqgj/zghwm/index.htm）。这标志着“2015中国好网民”系列活动正式启动。

此次征集活动共分为三个阶段，6月中旬至7月底是作品征集阶段，将面向全社会进行流行语和故事征集。作品内容提倡注重思想性、艺术性和网络传播规律，能体现社会主义核心价值观，传播社会正能量。8月份是作品评选阶段，8月初将评出入围作品各50件，入围作品在8月中旬公示一周后将进行网上投票。9月初是作品展播阶段，将公布最终获奖名单，并在网上集中展示。

国家互联网信息办公室网络社会工作局负责人表示，举办“中国好网民”系列活动旨在贯彻落实习近平总书记有关重要讲话精神，充分发挥网络文化活动在网络社会治理中滋养人心、凝聚力量的作用，通过倡导文明健康的网络生活方式，培育崇德向善的网络行为规范，让网民自觉践行社会主义核心价值观，弘扬网上正能量，在互联网上争做“四有”中国好网民，推动网络空间进一步清朗起来。

据悉，“2015中国好网民”系列活动还包括网络大讲堂、第十二届全国法治动漫微电影作品征集活动、公益广告设计大赛、网络媒介素养研讨会等十项活动，以“接地气”的方式，让遵纪守法、理性表达、文明上网，争做“四有”中国好网民的理念深入人心；与此同时，和活动主题相关的线上游戏、漫画也会相继推出，通过寓教于乐的方式，让网友在轻松、有趣的氛围内学到网络媒介素养知识。本次大型系列活动从6月份开始陆续启动，将一直持续到今年年底。

Propaganda converges

By: David Bandurski      Source: China Media Project     8/6/2015

In a ceremony today attended by senior officials dealing with media and propaganda, China’s official Xinhua News Service launched the second edition of its news app for iPhone and Android. Cai Mingzhao (蔡名照), the Xinhua News Agency director who served previously as director of the State Council Information Office and editor-in-chief of the People’s Daily, told the gathering at Xinhua headquarters that the launch of the mobile app “provided the basis for Xinhua Online to become the main force in the national transmission of news and information through the internet.”

The app’s launch comes amid a renewed focus in China’s top leadership on innovation combined with a more robust mobile internet-based economy, under a formula Premier Li Keqiang recently called “Internet Plus.” Responding enthusiastically to Premier Li’s overtures on innovation back in March, an English-language article on the website of the state-run Global Times newspaper said Internet Plus “will bring about the fourth industrial revolution for manufacturing.”

Continue reading →

Ai Weiwei Trades Politics for Subtlety in First Solo Exhibition in China

By: Amy Qin       Source: The New York Times/Sinosphere         8/6/2015

Visitors gather around a reassembled ancestral hall at the opening on Saturday of Ai Weiwei’s first solo exhibition in China.Credit TANG Contemporary Art

Barred since 2011 from traveling outside his home country, the artist Ai Weiwei has become a master of what might be called “remote exhibition-making” — using 3-D computer models, Skype, and a team of curators and assistants to create large-scale installations around the world from his studio in Beijing. But no virtual simulation was needed for the artist’s newest exhibition, which opened last weekend at the Galleria Continua and at the Tang Contemporary Art Center in the trendy 798 Art District of Beijing.

On Saturday afternoon, tourists, fans, and family and friends of the artist flocked to the opening of Mr. Ai’s first-ever solo exhibition in China to see the show and, more important for many, to catch a glimpse of the famous rebel artist himself. Dressed in a green short-sleeve shirt, khaki shorts and navy canvas shoes, Mr. Ai appeared to be in good spirits as he fielded an unending stream of requests for photographs, selfies and autographs. When asked how it felt finally to be able to attend an opening for one of his exhibitions, the typically outspoken artist had only a few words to say.

“It’s surprising,” he said, quietly. “It feels different.”  Continue reading →

Connected Life Conference 2015: Our Digital Society

Hosted by the Oxford Internet Institute   on   4/6/2015

Connected Life 2015 is a day-long student-run conference dedicated to sparking exchange between disciplines and showcasing emerging internet research. Bringing together participants from across the humanities, social sciences, and physical sciences, Connected Life will foster collaborations within and beyond Oxford in pursuit of an enhanced understanding of the internet and its multifaceted effects.

I’ll be delivering a paper in the morning session as part of the panel entitled ‘Cultures and Conflicts’, the full programme is below: Continue reading →