Abstract
This study addresses the surge in the usage of private online forums among Chinese female netizens after Shanghai’s Covid outbreak in late March 2022. The Chinese government’s isolation policy, the “chained woman” and sexual slavery, the gender gap and the third child policy, all stimulate the 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, misogyny and cyberbullying from other users on social media. From interactive social media back to forums, this reverse trend suggests a paradox between social connectivity and female subjectivity in digital space. This paper 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 uses a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods to analyse 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.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
DIGITAL DIASPORAS, ONLINE FORUM, WOMEN'S MEDIA, FEMALE SUBJECTIVITY
