The Weiguan Culture Phenomenon in Chinese Online Activism

‘Weiguan’ is a cultural phenomenon that involves drawing a crowd to observe a problematic event or issue, while not becoming involved. In this paper, we examine online Weiguan as the expression of China’s collective consciousness captured in a moment that is emotionally mobilised by a collective chattering. We argue that it involves judgements, cognition solutions, blame, and actions, even when under media state political censorship, but crucially never forming into organising solutions, outside collective actions, or protest responses. We also consider online Weiguan in the context of citizen journalism (eyewitness reporting, and independent investigation initiated by public citizens) combined with emotional structure, exploring the mobilization of an emotional medium of collective memories and collective action in the public sphere.

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Author and article information

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Bao Han: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Han-Bao-22

Jonathan P. Bowen: http://www.jpbowen.com

Conference

Publication date: July 2021

Publication date (Print): July 2021

Pages: 129-136

Affiliations

[0001]Department of Digital Humanities

King’s College London

London, UK

[0002]School of Engineering

London South Bank University

London, UK

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/EVA2021.22

SO-VID: 50808226-1791-43ed-bb4a-fa9c3895b2d1

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of EVA London 2021

Conference acronym: EVA 2021

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Conference location: London

Conference date: 5th July – 9th July 2021

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: AI and the Arts: Artificial Imagination

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1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/EVA2021.22

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

REFERENCES

D. Bandurski (2011) The Surrounding Gaze 围观. China Media Project (CMP), 4 January 2011. https://chinamediaproject.org/2011/01/04/the-surrounding-gaze-围观/
S. Black, J. P. Bowen, and K. Griffin (2010) Can Twitter Save Bletchley Park? MW 2010: Museums and the Web Conference, Denver, Colorado, USA, 13–17 April 2010. https://www.museumsandtheweb.com/biblio/can_twitter_ save_bletchley_park.html
S. Black and S. Colgan (2015) Saving Bletchley Park. London: Unbound.
A. Borda and J. P. Bowen (2021) The Rise of Digital Citizenship and the Participatory Museum. In Weinelet al. (2021), this volume.
J. P. Bowen and B. J. Copeland (2017) Turing’s legacy. In Copelandet al. (2017), chapter 42, pp. 463–474.
J. P. Bowen and T. Giannini (2014) Digitalism: The new realism? In K. Ng, J. P. Bowen, and S. McDaid (eds.), EVA London 2014: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts. BCS, eWiC, pp. 324–331. [Cross Ref]
J. P. Bowen and T. Giannini (2021) Digitality: A reality check. In Weinelet al. (2021), this volume.
J. Cascio (2005) The Rise of the Participatory Panopticon. WC Archive, Open the Future, 7 May 2005. http://www.openthefuture.com/wcarchive/2005/05/the_rise_of_the_participatory.html
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T. Giannini and J. P. Bowen (2019a) Art and activism at museums in a post-digital world. In Weinelet al. (2019), pp. 27–35. [Cross Ref]
T. Giannini and J. P. Bowen (2019b) Digital Culture. In Giannini & Bowen (2019c), chapter 1, pp. 3–26. [Cross Ref]
T. Giannini and J. P. Bowen (eds.) (2019c) Museums and Digital Culture: New perspectives and research. Springer, Series on Cultural Computing. [Cross Ref]
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V. Ni (2020) China #MeToo: Court to hear landmark case of intern versus TV star. BBC World Service, BBC, 2 December 2020. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-55140026
F. Schneider (2018) China’s Digital Nationalism. Oxford University Press.
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S. Vaidhyanathan (2018) Anti-Social Media: How Facebook disconnects us and undermines democracy. Oxford University Press.
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J. Weinel, J. P. Bowen, G. Diprose, and N. Lambert (eds.) (2019) EVA London 2019: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts. BCS, Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC). ScienceOpen. [Cross Ref]
M. Wu (2018) Weiguan and Meizhi: Modes of Civic Participation in Contemporary China. In Chinese New Media Cultures in Transition: Weibo and the Carnivalesque, chapter 4. Peter Lang. [Cross Ref]
J. Xu (2015) Online Weiguan in Web 2.0 China: Historical origins, characteristics, platforms and consequences. In G. Yang (ed.), China’s Contested Internet, pp. 257–282. NIAS Press of the University of Copenhagen. [Cross Ref]
J. Xu (2016) Media Events in Web 2.0 China: Interventions of Online Activism. Sussex Academic Press.
J. Xu (2018) The politics of Weiguan in China’s internet events. China Media Report, 1(65), pp. 23–28. [Cross Ref]
Y. Yan (2010) The Chinese path to individualization. The British Journal of Sociology, 61(3), pp. 489–512, September. [Cross Ref]

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] D. Bandurski (2011) The Surrounding Gaze 围观. China Media Project (CMP), 4 January 2011. https://chinamediaproject.org/2011/01/04/the-surrounding-gaze-围观/

[2] S. Black, J. P. Bowen, and K. Griffin (2010) Can Twitter Save Bletchley Park? MW 2010: Museums and the Web Conference, Denver, Colorado, USA, 13–17 April 2010. https://www.museumsandtheweb.com/biblio/can_twitter_ save_bletchley_park.html

[3] S. Black and S. Colgan (2015) Saving Bletchley Park. London: Unbound.

[4] A. Borda and J. P. Bowen (2021) The Rise of Digital Citizenship and the Participatory Museum. In Weinelet al. (2021), this volume.

[5] J. P. Bowen and B. J. Copeland (2017) Turing’s legacy. In Copelandet al. (2017), chapter 42, pp. 463–474.

[6] J. P. Bowen and T. Giannini (2014) Digitalism: The new realism? In K. Ng, J. P. Bowen, and S. McDaid (eds.), EVA London 2014: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts. BCS, eWiC, pp. 324–331. [Cross Ref]

[7] J. P. Bowen and T. Giannini (2021) Digitality: A reality check. In Weinelet al. (2021), this volume.

[8] J. Cascio (2005) The Rise of the Participatory Panopticon. WC Archive, Open the Future, 7 May 2005. http://www.openthefuture.com/wcarchive/2005/05/the_rise_of_the_participatory.html

[9] H. S. Christensen (2011) Political activities on the Internet: Slacktivism or political participation by other means? First Monday, 16(2). https://firstmonday.org/article/view/3336/2767

[10] B. J. Copeland, J. P. Bowen, M. Sprevak, R. J. Wilson, et al. (2017) The Turing Guide. Oxford University Press.

[11] J. M. Darley and B. Latané (1968) Bystander intervention in emergencies: Diffusion of responsibility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 8(4, part 1), pp. 377–383. [Cross Ref]

[12] X. Fei (1947) From the Soil. Translated into English by G. G. Hamilton and W. Zheng, University of California Press, 1992.

[13] K. T. Fox-Glassman and E. U. Weber (2016) What makes risk acceptable? Revisiting the 1978 psychological dimensions of perceptions of technological risks. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 75, pp. 157– 169. [Cross Ref]

[14] T. Giannini (2019) Contested Space: Activism and Protest. In Giannini & Bowen (2019c), chapter 5, pp. 91–111. [Cross Ref]

[15] T. Giannini and J. P. Bowen (2019a) Art and activism at museums in a post-digital world. In Weinelet al. (2019), pp. 27–35. [Cross Ref]

[16] T. Giannini and J. P. Bowen (2019b) Digital Culture. In Giannini & Bowen (2019c), chapter 1, pp. 3–26. [Cross Ref]

[17] T. Giannini and J. P. Bowen (eds.) (2019c) Museums and Digital Culture: New perspectives and research. Springer, Series on Cultural Computing. [Cross Ref]

[18] S. Greenish, J. P. Bowen, and B. J. Copeland (2017) Turing’s monument. In Copelandet al. (2017), chapter 19, pp. 189–196.

[19] J. Haidt (2003) The moral emotions. In R. J. Davidson, K.R. Scherer, & H.H. Goldsmith (eds.), Handbook of Affective Sciences, pp. 852–870. Oxford University Press.

[20] B. Han (2018). 枷锁与馈赠|认识真实的图灵，一位如谜的解谜者. Tencent QQ, People’s Republic of China, 3 April. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/JcdromoslivadmFmEf8SVQ

[21] B. Han (2019) ‘Rice Bunnies’ – #MeToo in China: A hashtag movement and women’s empowerment through social media. In Weinelet al. (2019), pp. 68–70. [Cross Ref]

[22] B Han (2021) A Cultural Analysis of Online Citizen Activism in China. PhD thesis. Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London, UK. To appear.

[23] M. Hedges and S. Dunn (2017) Academic Crowdsourcing in the Humanities: Crowds, Communities and Co-production. Chandos Publishing.

[24] X. Lu (1919) Medicine. Republished in Selected Stories of Lu Hsun, Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1960.

[25] T. Mathiesen (1997) The Viewer Society: Michel Foucault’s ‘Panopticon’ Revisited. Theoretical Criminology, 1(2), pp. 215–234. [Cross Ref]

[26] D. McCafferty (2011) Activism vs. slacktivism. Communications of the ACM, 54(12), pp. 17–19. [Cross Ref]

[27] M. E. McCombs, D. L. Shaw, and H. Weaver (2014) New Directions in Agenda-Setting Theory and Research. Mass Communication and Society, 17(6), pp. 781–802. [Cross Ref]

[28] NPC (2017) General Provisions of the Civil Law of the People’s Republic of China. Order of the President of the People’s Republic of China, No. 66. The National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China, Chapter VIII. http://www.npc.gov.cn/englishnpc/lawsoftheprc/202001/c983fc8d3782438fa775a9d67d6e82d8.shtml

[29] V. Ni (2020) China #MeToo: Court to hear landmark case of intern versus TV star. BBC World Service, BBC, 2 December 2020. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-55140026

[30] F. Schneider (2018) China’s Digital Nationalism. Oxford University Press.

[31] K. Schoenmakers and C. Liu (2021) China’s Telling Twitter Story. China Media Project, 18 January 2021. https://chinamediaproject.org/2021/01/18/chinas-telling-twitter-story/

[32] S. Vaidhyanathan (2018) Anti-Social Media: How Facebook disconnects us and undermines democracy. Oxford University Press.

[33] J. Weinel, J. P. Bowen, A. Borda, and G. Diprose (eds.) (2021) EVA London 2021: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts. BCS, Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC). ScienceOpen. [Cross Ref]

[34] J. Weinel, J. P. Bowen, G. Diprose, and N. Lambert (eds.) (2019) EVA London 2019: Electronic Visualisation and the Arts. BCS, Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC). ScienceOpen. [Cross Ref]

[35] M. Wu (2018) Weiguan and Meizhi: Modes of Civic Participation in Contemporary China. In Chinese New Media Cultures in Transition: Weibo and the Carnivalesque, chapter 4. Peter Lang. [Cross Ref]

[36] J. Xu (2015) Online Weiguan in Web 2.0 China: Historical origins, characteristics, platforms and consequences. In G. Yang (ed.), China’s Contested Internet, pp. 257–282. NIAS Press of the University of Copenhagen. [Cross Ref]

[37] J. Xu (2016) Media Events in Web 2.0 China: Interventions of Online Activism. Sussex Academic Press.

[38] J. Xu (2018) The politics of Weiguan in China’s internet events. China Media Report, 1(65), pp. 23–28. [Cross Ref]

[39] Y. Yan (2010) The Chinese path to individualization. The British Journal of Sociology, 61(3), pp. 489–512, September. [Cross Ref]

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