Title: Digital Diasporas: Chinese Women’s Resilience on Online Forums and Digital Governance on Social Media Platforms in Post-COVID Time
Stream: Critical and Cultural Studies, Gender and Communication
Presentation Type: Live-Stream Presentation
Authors:
Lesley Luo, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Abstract:
This article addresses the surge in the usage of private online forums among Chinese female netizens after Shanghai’s Covid outbreak since April 2022. The government’s isolation policy and actions stimulate discussions and criticism on Chinese social media. The open-access of social media platforms and the interactive features gradually threaten Chinese female netizens' privacy and safe space online while the state censorship becomes increasingly harsh on free speech in digital space. Chinese female netizens move to private online forums to avoid the posts deletion and account pause due to censorship and digital governance from the governmental agencies, and cyberbullying from other users on social media. From social media to forums, this reverse trend suggests a paradox between social connectivity and female subjectivity in digital space. This article introduces the term “digital diasporas” to describe those Chinese female netizens who are censored and lost their safe space due to feminist and political discussions online. The case study on the Chinese private online forum Women Overseas and semi-structured interviews between 13 female users explore the shift of paradigm from social media to the online forum, articulating Chinese women’s resilience online and transnational connectivity. It combines the content and thematic analysis to investigate the interface of online forums, and how its exclusion creates an elastic digital space for Chinese female netizens to participate in political life collectively in post-pandemic time.
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