Master's Thesis

I've begun setting aside large blocks of my time to finally begin putting a dent into my Master's Thesis writing.  I am aiming to complete this project by the end of this spring semester so let's hope that I continue to stay on track and get some solid writing down as often as I can.

The topic for my Master's thesis is building upon my undergraduate work, again focusing on the growth of the Chinese Internet and how netizens are working to reshape the memory of the Cultural Revolution. 

Below is a short abstract for my work in progress:

Reshaping the Social Memory of the Cultural Revolution in the Digital Age

The growth of the internet in China has granted Chinese citizens a new outlet for having their voices heard, allowing Chinese to log onto the web and speak out against corruption, build movements, and rally against social injustices. Netizens, or internet users, are able to take advantage of internet anonymity to raise issues that could never been raised offline, such as environmental concerns, issues of local-level corruption, and anger at the rigorously competitive college entrance exam. With over 500 million users accessing the Chinese internet, it has become a place of political participation where social memory is discussed and transformed. This has become evident in online discussions of the Cultural Revolution, a social and political movement which took place in China between 1966 and 1976.

After four decades, memory of the Cultural Revolution is used on the Chinese internet to describe violent behaviors being shared online as a context for highlighting China’s social instability. Netizens are making comparisons between current violent acts of protest and extreme Red Guard behaviors, which evoke heavy emotions from the Cultural Revolution generation. This research argues that these tensions and reprisals among netizen groups arose from the disconnect between current uses of Cultural Revolution revivalism on the Chinese internet and the impact this has for individuals of the Cultural Revolution generation.
Specifically, this research engages with the implications and purposes of invoking memories of the Cultural Revolution on the Chinese Internet. 

Analyzing recent trends of how the internet is changing communication, this study proves that the post-1980s generation, in drawing from the Cultural Revolution, is not aware of the implications that making such connections on the internet has. Lack of education and public historiography of this decade of Chinese history is due to the government’s efforts to sweep it into the dustbin of history, having labeled the Cultural Revolution a “dark chapter” in Chinese modern history. Netizens making these comparisons are merely calling out current events as being the same as the Cultural Revolution without delving into the larger context of what that period of history means for the generations who lived through it. As such, this Cultural Revolution revivalism and re-characterization of its social memory as seen through Chinese social media has complex meanings for how China’s post-1980’s generation defines that decade of events.

Scholarworks Update

Posting a huge thank-you to all the readers who have helped make my undergraduate thesis a well-read paper on the Scholarworks database! This past month had 39 new downloads, for a total of 318 since the paper was uploaded to the system late last spring. Last month, my paper was one of the top Asian Studies-related papers on the database.

Knowing that my research is attracting readers is helping me to chug along through my graduate thesis, which I'm currently in the process of writing.

Thanks everyone!

HFS in Taiwanese Context

Here is a review of another piece of literature I came across.

In the article "Analysis of Human Flesh Search in the Taiwanese Context," authors Tao and Chen seek to explain the significance of the human flesh search in Taiwan. Upon reading this article, I was intrigued because I have not previously done much exploration of HFS outside of mainland China, although I've read of instances occurring in Taiwan, South Korea, and other areas of Asia. To provide a frame of reference, the authors posted a table of primary HFS incidents in Taiwan and the authors who have documented the cases (left).

The authors do a great job at concisely describing both the positive and negative aspects that are depicted in instances of HFS:
The benefits include truth revelation, solicitation of public assistance, promotion of the internet as a leading media, fight against illegal behavior, and determent of unethical yet lawful behavior. Meanwhile, the drawbacks include privacy invasion, violence, exploitation for unintended purposes, low information quality, and restraint in the adoption of internet as a media. (187)

To conclude, the authors make a call for an increase in research on all fronts of HFS incidents, to both quantify cases and research that builds upon HFS theory (189-90).

Participation and collaboration by users play a vital role in the HFS process. On one hand, HFS practices, which are considered a manifestation of citizen empowerment and civil participation, are supported and applauded by other countries.On the other, majority of high-profile HFS cases in China have become aggressive and vicious, arousing research interest on the involved legal, privacy, and social issues. (187)

This is clearly evident in the way that HFS cases are examined and written by both eastern and western media. On the one hand, Chinese media applaud netizens who help track down corruption, while the western media views that and puts a spin that Chinese corruption is out of control and needs to be curbed. Another apparent case which I discussed in my paper is the case of Grace Wang - where the Chinese media named her "the most ugly exchange students" and where the New York Times ran an article citing her bravery and strength of character.

Tao, Yu-Hui and Chian-Hsueng Chao. Analysis of Human Flesh Search in the Taiwanese Context. (IEEE Computer Society, 2011): 187-190.

HFS Review of Literature

Recent scholarly work out of China and Taiwan has emerged pertaining to human flesh searching and research revolving around it. Thankfully, the subscriptions through my university's library allow me to access and read these articles, thus allowing me to keep up to date with some of the findings and journal articles.

One such article, "Reconceptualizing the Mechanism of Internet Human Flesh Search: A Review of the Literature" by Chian-Hsueng Chao, categorizes the published literature pertaining to HFS into various categories based on the extent and nature of the research conducted. For example, the HFS has been examined using very different lens throughout scholarly work, such as legal issues, privacy concerns, social issues, etc.

What is great is the inter-connectivity of research that is being written concerning privacy and the internet shadowing over HFS and its cases. For example, this article points out that the IT industry has a great deal of work to protect one's identity on networks as well as bringing justice against people who misuse network services to commit acts of privacy invasion, as seen through HFS.

Overall this article did a great job at summing up some of the major research themes pertaining to HFS. While all of the themes are unique, they are all inter-connected and delve into the heart of HFS. However, I was disappointed to find a lack of publication concerned with trying to place a historical context around the HFS. Instead, it appears that most of the literature focuses on the psychological aspects of crowd-sourcing and the legal implications of network servicing and privacy of information sharing. In this article Chao summarizes the bulk of psychological research into HFS into four main categories: deindividuation, bandwagon effect, opinion leaders, and collective behavior.

Regardless, the article did have some strong elements and rather than try to re-summarize some of the strong points of this article, I've pasted excerpts below.

A fantastic excerpt relating to the broad definition of HFS:
HSF and HSF engines are two sides of one coin. The human flesh search engine is an information search tool, such as Mop community and Yahoo! Answer. Whereas the term "human flesh" does not literally mean human flesh, but refers to human resources the search mechanism is based on. The HFS in broad definition refers to the collecting and dissimilating of information. HFS is a collaborative online behavior conducted by Internet users through responding to an open inquiry. Users’ participation and collaboration play a vital role in such a searching process. (651)

Great summary of the timeline of a human flesh search:
The typical process of HFS may be described below:First, someone publishes an open question or part of a question with some information or clue, such as pictures or videos on the online forums, social network, or Blog. The questions may be of interest or controversy depending on the readers. The netizens then respond while browsing the contents and clues attached. Some volunteers may transmit it to other social network sites (e.g. http://mop.com) and issue anopen call to dig out the truth, which in turn pulls more respondents. In HFS, many participants joint the discussion of the topic, and quite often during the HFS process, the unwanted publicity of personal information sometimes lead to public harass both online and in real life to the targeted HFS object. (652)

What this passage evoke in myself was the question of what stories get picked up by an HFS? I'm sure there are other content posted to the Chinese internet with hopes of sparking interest and HFS-like mentality that never take off. It would be interesting to research more deeply what elements of the stories that receive the most attention are the factors which attract netizens to respond.

Personal information in the west vs. the east:
In Western countries, personal information and privacy are considered more important than freedom of expression. In Taiwan, the information of the HFS targets are considered publicly available. With the newly amended of Personal Data Protection Act, people who disclose other persons’ personal information in the Internet are illegal. If the netizens releases wrong material during the HFS process, the victim parties can bring civil claims against netizens. (652)

A very important aspect to HFS, as the legal implications surrounding the sharing of private information is still very much a gray-area on the mainland. Can it be argued that the reason that HFS isn't as prevalent in western countries is due to their long-embedded notions of privacy of personal information? Or is it because of the large web population present in Asian nations?

Chao, Chian-Hsueng, Reconceptualizing the Mechanism of Internet Human Flesh Search: A Review of the Literature, (IEEE Computer Society, 2011): 650-655