The networked practice of online political satire in China: Between ritual and resistance

Abstract

Online political satire is an important aspect of Chinese Internet culture and politics. Current scholarship focuses on its contents and views it primarily from the perspective of resistance. By reconceptualizing online political satire as a networked practice, this article shifts the focus of analysis from contents to practice. Five types of networked practices of online political satire are identified and analyzed. Practices which mainly fulfill social functions are referred to as ritual satire and distinguished from explicitly political practices. The article thus shows that online political satire has multiple meanings and uses. Its proliferation in Chinese digital spaces results from the complex and interlocked conditions of politics, technology, history, and culture.

From ‘moments of madness’ to ‘the politics of mundanity’ - researching digital media and contentious collective actions in China

“…Esarey & Qiang, 2008;Yang & Jiang, 2015). Moreover, Chinese phonetics mean that many characters share the same sound with a different tone, or even the same sound and same tone, which consequently allows people to use different characters with phonetics similar to a politically sensitive or censored phrases.…”

“…Similarly, as a result of careful interrogation, a few studies have probed into humor, jokes, parody, satire, and homophones that have been used on the Chinese internet as cultural forms of contentious activity, as well as its meaning and significance (e.g. Esarey & Qiang, 2008;Yang & Jiang, 2015).…”

Social activism on social networks sites

“…L (2016) Сатиричне објаве представљају важан облик друштвено-политичког акти-визма на ОПДУ. Овде је реч о једном виду умрежене друштвене праксе која се заснива на самониклом критичком изражавању путем динамичке циркулације сатиричних садржаја насталих кроз интеракцију значењских мрежа (Yang and Jiang, 2015). Заправо, онлајн друштвено-активистичка сатира није пуко средство критике власти, што се може подвести под традиционалну улогу сатире у друшт-веном животу, већ и значајно средство мобилизације чланова и симпатизера.…”

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“…For example, "harmony 和谐" refers to the ideology of social harmony proposed during Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao's administration (2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013). People use "river crab 河蟹," a homophone of "harmony 和谐," to circumvent the list of sensitive words (Yang & Jiang, 2015).…”