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Reconfiguring Guangzhou Identity – a Study of Place and Locality on Sina Weibo

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Reconfiguring Guangzhou Identity – a Study of Place and Locality on Sina Weibo Reconfiguring Guangzhou identity – a study of place and locality on Sina Weibo Wilfred Yang Wang Master of Media and Communications (Monash University) Bachelor of Economics and Arts (Monash University) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology 2015 i Key Words Cantonese China Framing Analysis Geo-identity Guangzhou Internet Geography Locality Political Participation Sina Weibo Social Networking Sites (SNSs) Abstract This thesis investigates how the Chinese microblogging platform known as Sina Weibo is implicated in constructing and negotiating identity. It draws on interdisciplinary approaches and argues that Weibo is not borderless. Although the Chinese government is trying to orchestrate a homogeneous national identity, local places remain significant and relevant to Chinese people’s everyday lives. The study enriches our understanding of the role of digital media, in particular social media, in human society. Specifically, it opens up a new approach to examine the Internet’s role in an authoritarian state and shows that political changes come gradually through the formation of individual selves rather than by bringing structural transformation to the political system. Since its launch in 2009, Sina Weibo has become a major conduit for information and public opinion. The majority of current scholarly works locate Weibo within China’s social stratifications, where the source of contention and deliberation is about unequal class- relationships. This thesis does not dismiss this perspective but argues that Weibo should also be located within asymmetric spatial arrangements, in particular the tension between the central state and local places. After all, China has one of the world’s oldest and most enduring systems of territorial scale hierarchy such that its spatial administrative management system can be dated in centuries. The study examines how Weibo mediate the spatial tension between the national space and local place in China. The former is an expression of power and domination, the latter is the everyday experience and social practices that define one’s sense of self and sense of belonging. Guangzhou, the capital city of China’s southern province Guangdong, was the first region to launch China’s economic reforms back in the late 1970s. The region’s geographic distance from the political centre in the north and its proximity to Hong Kong is important in the context of this study. The study uses framing analysis to examine Weibo data collected from three different case studies: the pro-Cantonese protest in 2010, a longitudinal study of a Guangzhou Weibo group and the anti-Japan protest in Guangzhou in 2012. Framing analysis explores how identity is strategically constructed, communicated and negotiated on Weibo. iii Weibo and its users played an important role in these events. The government attempted to marginalise the local Cantonese language in 2010 and endorsed the nation- wide anti-Japan nationalistic demonstrations in 2012. Both campaigns saw strong local resistance on Weibo. Weibo’s role is not merely to disseminate protest related information; rather, Weibo was used to construct and reinforce a local community (on the Internet) that provides shared spaces, resources and routinised practices. This reflects the norms and values of a Guangzhou identity. Even when there is no major social controversy, Weibo continues to play a key role in connecting individuals in Guangzhou and to articulate a collective sense of community. The use of Weibo articulates the sense of locality and is being articulated by people’s embodiment to the geographic location. The geo-techno interplay enacts the construction and negotiation of a Guangzhou identity. More importantly, during these processes of identification, Weibo allows political participation, helping Guangzhouers to realise and exercise their citizenry rights and responsibilities through their online experience. A more profound implication is that the realisation of citizenry rights and responsibility in China also transforms into an effort to re-narrate and re-negotiate the meaning of a national identity. The identification to a local place is not merely organising one’s sense of locality, but the process is also facilitating a redefinition of ‘the nation’ from a local perspective. Table of Contents Key Words ......................................................................................................................... ii Abstract .............................................................................................................................. ii List of Figures and Tables ................................................................................................ vii List of abbreviations ........................................................................................................ viii Statement of Original Authorship ...................................................................................... ix Acknowledgement .............................................................................................................. x Introduction Place, identity, and Sina Weibo ....................................................................................... 1 1. Weibo and Identity .................................................................................................. 6 2. Place, Identity and China’s spatial politics ............................................................... 8 3. Thesis outline ........................................................................................................ 14 Chapter 1 Geo-identity and China’s Internet ................................................................................. 18 1. Weibo as a social network site (SNS) ..................................................................... 20 2. A geo-identity framework ...................................................................................... 28 3. Geo-identity, an approach to move forward ........................................................... 46 Chapter 2 Guangzhou Under Reform - a transformative place..................................................... 52 1. City as the space of place .......................................................................................... 53 2. Guangzhou and its surrounding region – a brief overview ......................................... 56 3. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 70 Chapter 3 Researching Weibo: design and methods ...................................................................... 72 1. Weiguan Zhongguo (Looking at China through Weibo) ......................................... 74 2. A Case Study Approach ......................................................................................... 77 3. Method – data collection ........................................................................................ 83 4. Understanding Weibo through framing analysis ..................................................... 99 5. Conclusion........................................................................................................... 104 Chapter 4 The formation of resistance identity The pro-Cantonese protest and Sina Weibo ................................................................ 106 1. The protest, Cantonese, and identity..................................................................... 107 2. Methods ............................................................................................................... 115 3. Discussion ........................................................................................................... 120 4. Conclusion........................................................................................................... 128 v Chapter 5 Remaking Guangzhou Place-making on Sina Weibo ....................................................................................... 130 1. Place-making and EDPF in GZ ............................................................................ 131 2. Method and findings ............................................................................................ 136 3. Discussions .......................................................................................................... 138 4. Conclusion........................................................................................................... 147 Chapter 6 In the name of nationalism – towards a project identity ............................................ 149 1. The anti-Japan protests ........................................................................................ 150 2. Nationalism and the notion of guomin in China ................................................... 154 3. Method ................................................................................................................ 159 4. Discussion............................................................................................................ 165 5. … but Diaoyu Islands are still China’s ................................................................. 171 6. Conclusion........................................................................................................... 174 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 176 1. Contribution
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