Micro-blogging Memories: Weibo and Collective Remembering in Contemporary China PDF
Preview Micro-blogging Memories: Weibo and Collective Remembering in Contemporary China
Micro-blogging Memories Weibo and Collective Remembering in Contemporary China Eileen Le Han palgrave macmillan memory studies Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies Series Editors Andrew Hoskins University of Glasgow Glasgow , United Kingdom John Sutton Macquarie University Macquarie , Australia The nascent fi eld of Memory Studies emerges from contemporary trends that include a shift from concern with historical knowledge of events to that of memory, from ‘what we know’ to ‘how we remember it’; changes in generational memory; the rapid advance of technologies of memory; panics over declining powers of memory, which mirror our fascination with the possibilities of memory enhancement; and the development of trauma narratives in reshaping the past. These factors have contributed to an intensifi cation of public discourses on our past over the last thirty years. Technological, political, interpersonal, social and cultural shifts affect what, how and why people and societies remember and forget. This groundbreaking new series tackles questions such as: What is ‘memory’ under these conditions? What are its prospects, and also the prospects for its interdisciplinary and systematic study? What are the conceptual, theo- retical and methodological tools for its investigation and illumination? More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14682 Eileen Le H an Micro-blogging Memories Weibo and Collective Remembering in Contemporary China Eileen Le Han University of Tennessee at Chattanooga USA Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies ISBN 978-1-137-59880-6 ISBN 978-1-137-59881-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-59881-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016953474 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2 016 The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identifi ed as the author(s) of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub- lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover illustration: © YAY Media AS / Alamy Stock Photo Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Macmillan Publishers Ltd To Sidney A CKNOWLEDGEMENT Writing this book is a long journey. This is a painful subject to write about, but I am grateful that I had the opportunity to witness the social transi- tion in China through the writing process and had better understanding of how memory matters in everyday life. Through such a long and some- times painful journey, I did not feel lonely because of so many people’s support and company. This space is too limited for me to express my grati- tude to them. At the University of Pennsylvania, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to Barbie Zelizer, who has walked with me through the entire process of writing a dissertation and turning it into a book. She read every- thing I wrote, and offered valuable and insightful comments and sugges- tions for the dissertation and then the book to take shape. From her, I have learned to have faith in what I am doing, and always push further than where the limits seem to be. I am equally blessed to have the support and guidance of Guobin Yang. His work on social theories, activism and digital media, as well as his insightful observations about China has tre- mendously inspired me in this project and in many ways transformed my research. I am also grateful to have worked with wonderful scholars such as Marwan Kraidy and Sharonna Pearl who have offered me great advices at different points of my doctorate study and the completion of the book. I am also very grateful for having a wonderful cohort and fellow doctoral students. Having studied together with them at the Annenberg School for Communication is my most cherished memory on my academic journey. Elsewhere in the United States, I am blessed to have the support of many friends, who are young and promising scholars, especially Miao Feng, vii viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Zehui Dai, and Yu Xu. Although we are not at the same geographical loca- tion, our conversations are fun and mind-refreshing, and never failed to revitalize me after a long-time writing that seemed to lead nowhere. In China, I want to thank Qin Wang, Fei Jiang, and Lushan Shi, for helping me arranging interviews. I also want to thank the seventeen par- ticipants of the interviews in my research. At Palgrave Macmillan, my gratitude goes to the series editors of Memory Studies Series, Andrew Hoskins and John Sutton, for consid- ering this book as part of the series. My editor Felicity Plester and her assistant Sophie Auld are always so responsive and effi cient. They offered me a lot of guidance for the publication process. I also want to thank the anonymous reader for providing such helpful comments, suggestions, and most importantly, encouragement. My special thanks to Tian Huang, for her intellectual inputs that even- tually gave this book a new look. It was always very inspiring to see her comments not only on the things I wrote but also on what was happening in social media. Finally, I would like to express my gratefulness to my family. My mother Xuemei Peng and my father Hui Han have always had faith in me. Their understanding, care, and love always give me hope and strength. My hus- band Sidney Lu is the one who has witnessed the daily struggles I had in writing this book. I cannot be thankful enough for having his patience, encouragement, and sacrifi ce. C ONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 Weibo, Collective Memory, and Social Tensions 1 Weibo as a Research Site 5 Materials and Methodological Approaches 8 Organization of This Book 11 2 Weibo and Memory: Analyzing an Event-O riented Platform with a Three-D imensional Framework 1 7 Conceptualizing Collective Memory in Social Media: A Three- Dimensional Framework 1 8 Weibo as an Event-Oriented Platform and the “7.23” Accident 22 Remembering Topical Events in Entangled Interests: Control and Resistance 3 0 Remembering Topical Events in the Blurring Past–Present Distinction 3 4 Remembering Topical Events in the Global–Local News Flows 3 8 Event-Oriented Platforms and Collective Remembering 42 3 Control and Resistance: Remembering and Forgetting in the Changing Dynamics of State, Market, and Individuals 5 1 Tightening Control of the Chinese Internet 5 2 Weibo as a News Platform: Constructing a Community of Interests 5 3 ix
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