Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T09:17:58.540Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Surviving Online Censorship in China: Three Satirical Tactics and their Impact

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2016

Siu-yau Lee
Siu-yau Lee*
Affiliation:
Department of Asian and policy studies, the Education University of Hong Kong. Email: [email protected] .
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

What accounts for online satirical campaigns that survive censorship in China where the state has formidable power to censor and manipulate online communication? Through comparative case studies of three attempts to challenge the policies or malpractices of the Chinese state in 2009, this article explains how different satirical tactics can influence the outcomes of online activism. It argues that online satirical campaigns are most likely to survive when activists adopt the tactic of “parodic satire,” whereby activists mimic a specific practice of the state and skilfully transplant it to other contexts. Since the language used by the activists resembles that of the powerful, the tactic allows netizens to exaggerate the internal contradictions of the policies or practices concerned without creating an easily identifiable symbol of resistance in the process. This tactic not only increases the cost to the state of censoring critical messages, but also restrains activists from extending their criticisms of the original subject to other areas. As a result, it increases the chance for the activists to exert insistent pressure on the state.

摘要

为何某些讽刺政府官员或政策的网络群众运动能避过中国严密的网络审查? 透过比较三个针对政府的讽刺运动, 本文厘清不同网络讽刺手法的分别, 并指出 “戏仿式讽刺” 最有可能在网络审查下生存。戏仿者往往只是把其讽刺对象 (即政府) 的语言或做法有技巧地复制到其他语境以凸显其矛盾之处, 过程中不会产生一个明显的反抗符号。此策略不但增加政府网络审查的成本, 同时亦防止其他参与戏仿者把运动的批判范围不断扩大, 因而较其他讽刺手法更能提高运动对政府持续施压的机会。

Keywords

online satirecensorshipparodyironyresistanceChina网络讽刺网络审查戏仿反讽抗争
Type
Articles
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 228 , December 2016 , pp. 1061 - 1080
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Booth, Wayne C. 1974. A Rhetoric of Irony. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Chen, Siwu. 2009. “Rewriting the rules of language triggers controversy,” China Daily, 28 August.Google Scholar
Chen, Xiaoqin. 2011. “Yu Shaolei: caomin zaozi, yijia luanzhen” (Yu Shaolei: passing off characters created by the grassroots as genuine), Nanfang dushibao, 27 March.Google Scholar
Cho, Mun Young. 2011. “‘We are the state’: an entrepreneurial mission to serve the people in Harbin, Northeast China.” Modern China 37(4), 422–455.Google Scholar
Collins, Ross F. 1996. “A battle for humor: satire and censorship in Le Bayard.” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 73(3), 645–656.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Certeau, Michel. 1984. The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Dentith, Simon. 2000. Parody. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Freedman, Leonard. 2009. The Offensive Art: Political Satire and Its Censorship around the World from Beerbohm to Borat. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Fu, King-wa, and Chau, Michael. 2014. “Use of microblogs in grassroots movements in China: exploring the role of online networking in agenda setting.” Journal of Information Technology & Politics 11(3), 309–328.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gong, Haomin, and Yang, Xin. 2010. “Digitized parody: the politics of egao in contemporary China.” China Information 24(1), 3–28.Google Scholar
Griffin, Dustin. 1994. Satire: A Critical Reintroduction. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Lindsay H., and Young, Dannagal G.. 2011. “Satire, punch lines, and the nightly news: untangling media effects on political participation.” Communication Research Reports 28(2), 159–168.Google Scholar
Jingyan, Hua. 2009. “Wangyou zichuang hanzi e'gao wenzi zhengxing feng jiaoyubu xiazheteng” (Netizens create characters to mock the Ministry of Education for its time-wasting character reform), Xinkuaibao, 2 September.Google Scholar
King, Gary, Pan, Jennifer and Roberts, Margaret E.. 2013. “How censorship in China allows government criticism but silences collective expression.” American Political Science Review 107(2), 326–343.Google Scholar
Kinservik, Matthew J. 2002. Disciplining Satire: The Censorship of Satiric Comedy on the Eighteenth-century London Stage. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press.Google Scholar
Knight, Charles A. 2004. The Literature of Satire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kreuz, Roger J., and Roberts, Richard M.. 1993. “On satire and parody: the importance of being ironic.” Metaphor & Symbolic Activity 8(2), 97–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LaMarre, Heather L., Landreville, Kristen D. and Beam, Michael A.. 2009. “The irony of satire, political ideology and the motivation to see what you want to see in the Colbert Report.” The International Journal of Press/Politics 14(2), 212–231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Siu-yau. 2014. “Defining correctness: the tale of the Contemporary Chinese Dictionary .” Modern China 40(4), 426–450.Google Scholar
Li, Hongmei. 2011. “Parody and resistance on the Chinese internet.” In Herold, David Kurt and Marolt, Peter (eds.), Online Society in China: Creating, Celebrating, and Instrumentalising the Online Carnival. London: Routledge, 71–88.Google Scholar
Li, Xiaoming. 2009. “Jiaoyubu: hanzi diaozheng yin fandui shengyin jiaoduo, keneng buhui gai” (The Ministry of Education: the character reform might be abandoned because of opposition), Xinwen chenbao, 1 September.Google Scholar
Lieberthal, Kenneth G. 1992. “Introduction: the ‘fragmented authoritarianism’ model and its limitations.” In Lieberthal, Kenneth G. and Lampton, David M. (eds.), Bureaucracy, Politics, and Decision Making in Post-Mao China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1–32.Google Scholar
Link, Perry, and Qiang, Xiao. 2013. “China at the tipping point? From ‘fart people’ to citizens.” Journal of Democracy 24(1), 79–85.Google Scholar
Mertha, Andrew. 2009. “‘Fragmented authoritarianism 2.0’: political pluralization in the Chinese policy process.” The China Quarterly 200, 995–1012.Google Scholar
O'Brien, Kevin, and Li, Lianjiang. 2006. Rightful Resistance in Rural China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Orlik, Tom. 2011. “Unrest grows as economy booms,” The Wall Street Journal, 26 September.Google Scholar
Qiang, Xiao. 2011. “The battle for the Chinese internet.” Journal of Democracy 22(2), 47–61.Google Scholar
Rill, Leslie, and Cardiel, Christopher L.B.. 2014. “Civic engagement through presidential debates: young citizens’ political attitudes in the 2012 election.” American Behavioral Scientist 58(1), 755–775.Google Scholar
Seawright, Jason, and Gerring, John. 2008. “Case selection techniques in case study research: a menu of qualitative and quantitative options.” Political Research Quarterly 61(2), 294–308.Google Scholar
Slater, Dan. 2010. Ordering Power: Contentious Politics and Authoritarian Leviathans in Southeast Asia. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Steinmüller, Hans. 2016. “Introduction: irony, cynicism, and the Chinese state.” In Steinmüller, Hans and Brandtstädter, Susanne (eds.), Irony, Cynicism and the Chinese State. Abingdon: Routledge, 1–13.Google Scholar
Sullivan, Jonathan. 2014. “China's Weibo: is faster different?” New Media & Society 16(1), 24–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tang, Lijun, and Bhattacharya, Syamantak. 2011. “Power and resistance: a case study of satire on the internet.” Sociological Research Online 16(2), http://www.socresonline.org.uk/16/2/11. Accessed 18 June 2014.Google Scholar
Tang, Lijun, and Yang, Peidong. 2011. “Symbolic power and the internet: the power of a ‘horse’.” Media, Culture & Society 33(5), 675–691.Google Scholar
Tarrow, Sidney G. 1994. Power in Movement Social Movements and Contentious Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wines, Michael. 2009. “A dirty pun tweaks China's online censors,” The New York Times, 11 March.Google Scholar
Wu, Vivian. 2009. “Censors strike at internet content after parody hit,” South China Morning Post, 3 April.Google Scholar
Xu, Janice Hua. 2014. “Communicating the right to know: social media in the do-it-yourself air quality testing campaign in Chinese cities.” International Journal of Communication 8, 1374–93.Google Scholar
Yang, Guobin. 2009. The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Yang, Guobin, and Jiang, Min. 2015. “The networked practice of online political satire in China: between ritual and resistance.” International Communication Gazette 77(3), 215–231.Google Scholar
Yang, Kenneth C.C. 2011. “The aborted green dam-youth escort censor-ware project in China: a case study of emerging civic participation in China's internet policy-making process.” Telematics and Informatics 28(2), 101–111.Google Scholar
Yi, Shi. 2009. “Ruhe jian changxiao? Qi bumen liangjian, hulianwang di er pi disu wangzhan puguang” (How to achieve long-term results? Seven departments take action and the second list of obscene websites is exposed), Xinhua Net, http://news.xinhuanet.com/forum/2009-01/09/content_10626964.htm. Accessed on 19 January 2013.Google Scholar
Young, Dannagal G. 2015. “Humor and satire, political.” In Mazzoleni, Gianpietro (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Political Communication (Volume 1). Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 487–89.Google Scholar
Young, Dannagal G., Holbert, R. Lance and Jamieson, Kathleen Hall. 2014. “Successful practices for the strategic use of political parody and satire: lessons from the P6 Symposium and the 2012 election campaign.” American Behavioral Scientist 58(9), 1111–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zheng, Yongnian. 2008. Technological Empowerment: The Internet, State, and Society in China. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar