A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details 1 The Politics of Blogging in China Hai Tang University of Sussex Thesis submitted March 2016 in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 2 Dedication This thesis is dedicated to my family – my father, my mother, and my sister. 3 Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisors, Sharif Mowlabocus and Caroline Bassett. Without their support and encouragement during my study, I would not have arrived at this stage – Thanks for your patience and inspiration. You have established not only my intellectual landscape, but also my endeavour to do this research. Thanks for your understanding of an international student, someone who has different cultural background, but your patience and understanding that have guided me through all the obstacles, difficulties, along with challenges Iencountered. I would say, your supervision not only helps me improve my work; but also, you helpme to believe in myself. My greatest indebtedness is given to my family, my dearest parents – my father Tang Rongquan and my mother Tao Wenying, my dearest sister Tang Jing and my brother-in-law Yang Jun. I would not have finished this study without your sacrifice and full support. I also want to thank my friends – Ding Yi and Qiu Yunyu, Gao Yixuan, Hao Lei, Huang Jue, Kim Poon, Kim Sohyung, Liao Cancan, Liu Feiying, Lu Jun, Xue Jia and Yuan Lingling, who always provide help when I need it, not only in my study, but also in my daily life. Special thanks are given to Astha Soniah, Luke Midson, Martin and Ye Xiaolan – Thanks for reading my thesis, but most importantly, for helping me improving this writing. 4 Statement I hereby declare that this thesis has not been submitted, either in the same or a different form, to this or any other University for a degree. Signature………………………………… 5 University of Sussex Hai Tang Doctor of Philosophy The Politics of Blogging in China Summary This thesis aims to conceptualize the growing use of the blog as socio-political practice in an emerging Chinese public sphere. It is built on the study of three key blogs that, for different reasons, are held to be important in the recent history of blogging in China: a sexual blog (Muzi Mei’s Love Letters Left, 2003), a journalist’s blog (Lian Yue’s Lian Yue’s Eighth Continent, 2007), and a satirical blog (Wang Xiaofeng’s No Guess, 2006-2011). I say they are important because the three blogs support my central argument of this thesis: blogging can be seen as a new form of political expression/participation in China. Such expression/participation is embedded in its creative challenges and negotiations pushing the political boundaries of tolerance subsequently operating within an authoritarian media system. Through a combination of analyses, I explore how Chinese ‘intellectuals’ (loosely defined as educated, urban and middle-class netizens) use their professional skills, expertise and cultural capital in the public space of the Chinese blogosphere, how their blogs reshape the form of China’s political culture, and how the blogosphere, through such interventions, proceeds in the development of political communications. Through these analyses I address three key issues, all of which arise in these cases, and were drawn attention in the Chinese blogosphere from 2003 to 2011. Firstly, the rise of individualism in China, and the rise of peer-to-peer media means that bloggers who pursue self-expression simultaneously engage in political discourse through such self-expression. The three examples given in this study demonstrate that individual opinions across the blogosphere have significantly reflected public consensus and implicitly challenged orthodox political discourse. My chapter on Muzi Mei’s sexual diary, for instance, explores this theme – a young woman’s 6 sexual life, I argue, works as a controversy challenging to Chinese gender politics – and perhaps translates also to become political in other ways too. Secondly, drawing on the concept of ‘blogging culture’, I argue that blogging has potentially reconfigured political information (taking people’s everyday lives as a starting point), increasing the visibility of political struggle and offering alternative modes of ‘public talk’. This can be seen in both the case of Lian Yue and Wang Xiaofeng – the former writes about a well-known government project – Xiamen PX event in 2007, presenting a radical practice of news reporting that has challenged the legitimacy of traditional sense of journalism in China. The latter uses satire to make fun of the State, Party leaders, mainstream media, policies and established ideologies, improving a previously restricted communicative environment towards more open. Thirdly, the Chinese blogosphere has arguably created a new generation of elites – these ‘new’ elites are ‘ambiguous’ or ‘dissident’ elites in contrast to the older, more traditional understanding of an ‘establishment’ elite. In other words, even though the orthodox elite culture promoted by politicians, celebrities and cultural elites is still the mainstream in the blogosphere, such a ‘mainstream’ is gradually questioned, criticized and challenged by the commonly shared ideas, beliefs and values disseminated by Chinese radical bloggers such as Muzi Mei, Lian Yue and Wang Xiaofeng who are aware of new cultural, social and political contexts. However, as this thesis suggests, political or political-based expression in China still has to constantly negotiate with ongoing censorship, along with an unstable discursive space and thus, can only enjoy a limited success. Therefore, the Chinese blogosphere, as a public space for political communication, still has a long way to go. 7 Contents Chapter One – Introduction: The Emergence of Blogging in China 11 1. The Communication System in China 15 2. Changes of Media Policies in Chinese History 17 3. ICTs as a Source of Socio-Political Change in China 19 4. Comparing Participation Modes across the Media Spheres – ‘politics’ VS ‘Politics’ 24 5. The Conception of the Public in the Chinese Blogosphere 28 6. The Structure of the Thesis 33 Chapter Two –Literature Review 36 1. Introduction 36 2. Analyses of the Public Sphere 38 2.1. Discussions of the Habermasian Public Sphere 38 2.2 The Chinese Characteristic of the Online Public Spaces 42 2.2.1. Analysis of the Network Society 42 2.2.2. The Online Communications as Public Spaces in China 44 3. Analysis of the Network Society 47 3.1. Discussions of Manuel Castells’ s Network Society 47 3.2. The Rise of a Wangluo Shehui (Cyber Society) in China 51 4. Discussions of Blogging in China – Burgeoning Democracy Versus State Censorship Policies 54 4.1. Censorship Policies of the Blogosphere 54 4.2. Going to the Public through Blogging: The Active Female Blogs in China 57 4.3. Blogging as Journalism Practice – Journalist Blogs Versus Established Journalism in China 59 4.4. Online Amusement and Satirical Blogs in China 63 5. Individualism Work in the Chinese Blogosphere 65 6. Conclusion 66 Chapter Three – Research Methodology 68 1. Introduction 68 2. Why the Three Blogs Are Selected? 70 3. Why A Comparative Study? 72 4. Content Analysis 76 4.1. Analysis of Blog Posts 77 4.2. Analysis Feedback and Comments of the Blog 78 5. Discourse Analysis 80 6. Limits of the Methodology 82 7. Sources of the Removed Posts Relating to the Three Blogs 84 8. Conclusion 85 8 Chapter Four – Blogging Sexuality in China: The Case of Muzi Mei 86 1. Introduction 86 2. Sexuality, Women’s sexual Discourse and the Control of Sexuality in China 90 3. Who Is Muzi Mei? 98 4. Muzi Mei’s Conception of Sexuality and the Challenges Made Against her in 2003: Yiqingshu (Love Letters Left) 99 4.1. Characteristic 100 4.2. Attitude of Sex 102 4.3. Emotional Reaction 110 5. Freedom of Expression VS Internet Censorship: The 2003 Sohu’s Controversial Discussion on Love Letters Left 116 5.1. Media Comment 116 5.2. Experts’ Opinion 119 5.3. Netizens’ Viewpoint 121 6. Re-Reading Muzi Mei’s Yiqingshu: Interviews with Muzi Mei (2004-2011) 124 7. Conclusion 130 Chapter Five – Political Dissent and the Practice of Public Journalism in the Blogosphere: The Case of Lian Yue 134 1. Introduction 134 2. News Dissemination, Media Control, and the Limitation of Public Journalism in China 141 3. Public Journalism in Practice: Lian Yue de Diba Dazhou (Lian Yue’s Eighth Continent) on Xiamen PX Project in 2007 147 3.1. Stage One: Exposing the official cover-up (From March to May2007) 149 3.2. Stage Two: Exposing the Weakness of Xiamen Media during EnvironmentalAssessment Period (Mainly in June 2007) 153 3.3. Stage Three: Exposing the Process of Removing the PX Project (Mainly in December2007) 157 4. Other Means of Concerning the PX Project: Lian Yue’s Live Columns on the Print Media (from March to December 2007) 160 4.1. Layer One: Focusing on Social Issues behind Environment Policies in China (From March to June 2007) 161 4.2. Layer Two: Advocating for Public ParticipationProcesses (From August to December 2007) 162 5. Analysis of Diverse Media Reporting: How Domestic and International Media Publicized the PX Event 165 5.1.