Pub Date : 2023-06-07DOI: 10.1163/22142312-bja10042
Kai Shmushko
This article explores the state of the field of research on digital Buddhism, contextualizing the field within a broader scope. It discusses the present and future digital ethnographic study of Buddhism in the Chinese-speaking community by presenting the methodological approaches taken so far to study this phenomenon, the kinds of case studies explored, and the epistemological problems that are facing the scholars in this new field. Because of the particular historical, social, and political factors that comprise the Buddhist community in Chinese society (both in the PRC and ROC), Buddhist cyberspace should not be reviewed as an isolated phenomenon. Instead, Buddhist cyberspace should be considered part of three intersecting domains: religion, technology, and the market economy. These three domains have become increasingly central in Chinese society, as they rapidly change, evolve, and influence both the Chinese-speaking community and the ways in which scholars study it.
{"title":"Digital Footprints of Buddhism in Chinese-Speaking Cyberspace: Ethnography, Developments, and Challenges","authors":"Kai Shmushko","doi":"10.1163/22142312-bja10042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22142312-bja10042","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article explores the state of the field of research on digital Buddhism, contextualizing the field within a broader scope. It discusses the present and future digital ethnographic study of Buddhism in the Chinese-speaking community by presenting the methodological approaches taken so far to study this phenomenon, the kinds of case studies explored, and the epistemological problems that are facing the scholars in this new field. Because of the particular historical, social, and political factors that comprise the Buddhist community in Chinese society (both in the PRC and ROC), Buddhist cyberspace should not be reviewed as an isolated phenomenon. Instead, Buddhist cyberspace should be considered part of three intersecting domains: religion, technology, and the market economy. These three domains have become increasingly central in Chinese society, as they rapidly change, evolve, and influence both the Chinese-speaking community and the ways in which scholars study it.","PeriodicalId":52237,"journal":{"name":"Asiascape: Digital Asia","volume":"19 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81723340","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-07DOI: 10.1163/22142312-bja10039
F. Schneider
This article reviews a decade of research, published in the journal Asiascape: Digital Asia (DIAS), that explored the question of how digital technologies and their usage have shaped – and have been shaped by – societies, politics, and economies across the Asian region. It discusses the kind of scholarship that DIAS has published, and on which topics, before giving an overview of the contributions that form this anniversary issue. The article concludes by offering thoughts on the future of digital Asia research.
{"title":"The Shape of the Asiascape: Ten Years of Digital Asia Research","authors":"F. Schneider","doi":"10.1163/22142312-bja10039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22142312-bja10039","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article reviews a decade of research, published in the journal Asiascape: Digital Asia (DIAS), that explored the question of how digital technologies and their usage have shaped – and have been shaped by – societies, politics, and economies across the Asian region. It discusses the kind of scholarship that DIAS has published, and on which topics, before giving an overview of the contributions that form this anniversary issue. The article concludes by offering thoughts on the future of digital Asia research.","PeriodicalId":52237,"journal":{"name":"Asiascape: Digital Asia","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78767486","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-07DOI: 10.1163/22142312-bja10038
M. Roth
{"title":"Reviewing the Reviews Section","authors":"M. Roth","doi":"10.1163/22142312-bja10038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22142312-bja10038","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":52237,"journal":{"name":"Asiascape: Digital Asia","volume":"119 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77944368","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-07DOI: 10.1163/22142312-bja10043
Shuxi Wu
This article describes comparative internet studies as a useful paradigm through which to study Asian internet(s). It defines comparative internet studies as the systemic comparison of how material and immaterial internet infrastructure developed historically in different countries. This approach has the explicit aim of theoretical intervention and is located at the intersection of three strands of literature: internet studies, infrastructure studies, and regionality. This article brings together these three bodies of literature to illuminate areas of complementarity and cross-semination and to demonstrate how they contribute to a comparative internet studies project that is useful for grappling with Asian internet(s). Then, to illustrate how a comparative internet studies project can be realized, it draws on the author’s prior work on two internet service provider (ISP) projects: i-mode in Japan and Monternet in China.
{"title":"Towards Comparative Internet Studies: Internet Service Providers in Japan and China","authors":"Shuxi Wu","doi":"10.1163/22142312-bja10043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22142312-bja10043","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article describes comparative internet studies as a useful paradigm through which to study Asian internet(s). It defines comparative internet studies as the systemic comparison of how material and immaterial internet infrastructure developed historically in different countries. This approach has the explicit aim of theoretical intervention and is located at the intersection of three strands of literature: internet studies, infrastructure studies, and regionality. This article brings together these three bodies of literature to illuminate areas of complementarity and cross-semination and to demonstrate how they contribute to a comparative internet studies project that is useful for grappling with Asian internet(s). Then, to illustrate how a comparative internet studies project can be realized, it draws on the author’s prior work on two internet service provider (ISP) projects: i-mode in Japan and Monternet in China.","PeriodicalId":52237,"journal":{"name":"Asiascape: Digital Asia","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90979006","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-06-07DOI: 10.1163/22142312-bja10050
Stevie Poppe, Linda Havenstein, Fabian Schäfer
The initial lack of scientific consensus regarding COVID-19 and public controversies concerning implemented countermeasures have created fertile soil for the circulation of disinformation and conspiracy narratives. Applying a mixed-methods discourse analysis, we examine the use of typical rhetorical strategies and metaphors of conspiracy narratives and disinformation, and we study overlaps with discursive strategies of the New Right in Japan. Our discourse analysis uses a qualitative and a quantitative approach. The former ranges from bestselling publications by the contribution of historical revisionist manga author Kobayashi Yoshinori to the propagation of COVID-19 – related conspiracy narratives and disinformation. The latter analyzes data collected from Amazon’s review section, through which we explore narrative reach and reader reception.
{"title":"The Far Right and the Dissemination of COVID-19-Related Disinformation and Conspiracy Narratives in Japan: the Metapolitics of Kobayashi Yoshinori","authors":"Stevie Poppe, Linda Havenstein, Fabian Schäfer","doi":"10.1163/22142312-bja10050","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22142312-bja10050","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The initial lack of scientific consensus regarding COVID-19 and public controversies concerning implemented countermeasures have created fertile soil for the circulation of disinformation and conspiracy narratives. Applying a mixed-methods discourse analysis, we examine the use of typical rhetorical strategies and metaphors of conspiracy narratives and disinformation, and we study overlaps with discursive strategies of the New Right in Japan. Our discourse analysis uses a qualitative and a quantitative approach. The former ranges from bestselling publications by the contribution of historical revisionist manga author Kobayashi Yoshinori to the propagation of COVID-19 – related conspiracy narratives and disinformation. The latter analyzes data collected from Amazon’s review section, through which we explore narrative reach and reader reception.","PeriodicalId":52237,"journal":{"name":"Asiascape: Digital Asia","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-06-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82882398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-23DOI: 10.1163/22142312-bja10036
Prasakti Ramadhana Fahadi
In most parts of the world, men are the dominant gender in power relations. Benefiting from this situation, many are hesitant to support feminism. However, men’s role in the realization of gender equality is crucial. Using interpretive analysis, this research examines how Indonesia’s New Men Alliance/Aliansi Laki-laki Baru (ALB), an activist group that highlights the importance of men’s support for women’s rights, uses social media to advocate gender equality and the strategies they use to effectively communicate their ideas through the frameworks of political solidarity of social change and men’s role in gender equality. The results show that the contents of their Instagram and Facebook page emphasize the urgency of becoming a ‘new man’, while ensuring that the content is relevant both locally and globally. Lastly, ALB strives to exercise its role as an advocate and ally by stepping in without overstepping.
{"title":"Social Media Advocacy for Gender Equality by Indonesian Men: The Case of Aliansi Laki-laki Baru (New Men’s Alliance)","authors":"Prasakti Ramadhana Fahadi","doi":"10.1163/22142312-bja10036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22142312-bja10036","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000In most parts of the world, men are the dominant gender in power relations. Benefiting from this situation, many are hesitant to support feminism. However, men’s role in the realization of gender equality is crucial. Using interpretive analysis, this research examines how Indonesia’s New Men Alliance/Aliansi Laki-laki Baru (ALB), an activist group that highlights the importance of men’s support for women’s rights, uses social media to advocate gender equality and the strategies they use to effectively communicate their ideas through the frameworks of political solidarity of social change and men’s role in gender equality. The results show that the contents of their Instagram and Facebook page emphasize the urgency of becoming a ‘new man’, while ensuring that the content is relevant both locally and globally. Lastly, ALB strives to exercise its role as an advocate and ally by stepping in without overstepping.","PeriodicalId":52237,"journal":{"name":"Asiascape: Digital Asia","volume":"36 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91157996","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-23DOI: 10.1163/22142312-bja10037
Jiarui Wu
{"title":"Digital Transactions in Asia: Economic, Informational, and Social Exchanges, written by Adrian Athique and Emma Baulch","authors":"Jiarui Wu","doi":"10.1163/22142312-bja10037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22142312-bja10037","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":52237,"journal":{"name":"Asiascape: Digital Asia","volume":"436 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83635204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-23DOI: 10.1163/22142312-bja10034
Ayaka Löschke
This article presents a case study of user engagement against incivility online in Japan, considering three determinants of such engagement identified in a German case study. Japanese users launched the #Internet Rightists Ban Festival in 2018 and are continuing their engagement. As a result, more than 10,500 Twitter accounts have been permanently banned. What drove the participants to initiate and continue their engagement? What type of users attended the festival and led it? This article asks these questions, conducting an inductive qualitative analysis of 3,821 tweets and distinguishing 1,038 participants. It argues that Japanese user engagement has been driven in particular by the perception of personal abilities, such as gaming and comment-writing skills, and the perception of personal benefits, especially from gamification and irony. This article also identifies participants’ left-wing political orientation as an important factor in their continuing sense of responsibility and leadership.
{"title":"User Engagement against Online Far-Right Actions in Japan: Driven by High Perceptions of Personal Abilities and Benefits","authors":"Ayaka Löschke","doi":"10.1163/22142312-bja10034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22142312-bja10034","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article presents a case study of user engagement against incivility online in Japan, considering three determinants of such engagement identified in a German case study. Japanese users launched the #Internet Rightists Ban Festival in 2018 and are continuing their engagement. As a result, more than 10,500 Twitter accounts have been permanently banned. What drove the participants to initiate and continue their engagement? What type of users attended the festival and led it? This article asks these questions, conducting an inductive qualitative analysis of 3,821 tweets and distinguishing 1,038 participants. It argues that Japanese user engagement has been driven in particular by the perception of personal abilities, such as gaming and comment-writing skills, and the perception of personal benefits, especially from gamification and irony. This article also identifies participants’ left-wing political orientation as an important factor in their continuing sense of responsibility and leadership.","PeriodicalId":52237,"journal":{"name":"Asiascape: Digital Asia","volume":"72 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73910781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-23DOI: 10.1163/22142312-bja10035
Jiaxi Hou
Among Chinese fans of ‘traffic celebrities’ (liuliang mingxing 流量明星), generating excessive data either on digital platforms or various sales charts to inflate a specific entertainer’s popularity has become a normalized ritual to demonstrate their fan identity. The so-called fandom economy effectively mobilizes fans from diverse socio-economic backgrounds to consume and participate, thus generating tremendous revenue. Although some fans can easily satisfy their consumerist desire for being economically powerful and socially successful, many others – who are seduced by the communitas of fan activism and agency as consumers – cannot or are not yet fully able to afford this lifestyle. Based on data from an eighteen-month ethnography, this study unpacks how these fans are seduced and, to some extent, included but still exploited in the transitional Chinese consumer society as what Bauman calls the ‘new poor’, for whom digital platforms have become a new structuring nexus and transform the existing power dynamics.
{"title":"To Exaggerate Data at All Costs: Data-Driven Fan Culture, Platforms, and the Remaking of the New Poor in China","authors":"Jiaxi Hou","doi":"10.1163/22142312-bja10035","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22142312-bja10035","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Among Chinese fans of ‘traffic celebrities’ (liuliang mingxing 流量明星), generating excessive data either on digital platforms or various sales charts to inflate a specific entertainer’s popularity has become a normalized ritual to demonstrate their fan identity. The so-called fandom economy effectively mobilizes fans from diverse socio-economic backgrounds to consume and participate, thus generating tremendous revenue. Although some fans can easily satisfy their consumerist desire for being economically powerful and socially successful, many others – who are seduced by the communitas of fan activism and agency as consumers – cannot or are not yet fully able to afford this lifestyle. Based on data from an eighteen-month ethnography, this study unpacks how these fans are seduced and, to some extent, included but still exploited in the transitional Chinese consumer society as what Bauman calls the ‘new poor’, for whom digital platforms have become a new structuring nexus and transform the existing power dynamics.","PeriodicalId":52237,"journal":{"name":"Asiascape: Digital Asia","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79371474","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-23DOI: 10.1163/22142312-bja10033
Vincent Brussee
This article analyzes how the governance of digital architecture, such user interfaces, algorithms, and digital features, shapes political interaction and information control in China. It discusses that, to date, studies on social media in China have mostly ignored questions of governance and digital architecture in favour of the dichotomy between censorship of content and civil activism. Instead, this article uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to highlight how information control goes far beyond content management. It demonstrates that as a result of the commercial interests of the platform and regulation by the state, official party and state media accounts wield a disproportionate amount of power on the platform, as interaction among individuals is marginalized. To illustrate the real-world impact, it concludes with a preliminary analysis of Weibo’s coverage of China’s COVID-19 response.
{"title":"Authoritarian Design: How the Digital Architecture on China’s Sina Weibo Facilitate Information Control","authors":"Vincent Brussee","doi":"10.1163/22142312-bja10033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/22142312-bja10033","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article analyzes how the governance of digital architecture, such user interfaces, algorithms, and digital features, shapes political interaction and information control in China. It discusses that, to date, studies on social media in China have mostly ignored questions of governance and digital architecture in favour of the dichotomy between censorship of content and civil activism. Instead, this article uses a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to highlight how information control goes far beyond content management. It demonstrates that as a result of the commercial interests of the platform and regulation by the state, official party and state media accounts wield a disproportionate amount of power on the platform, as interaction among individuals is marginalized. To illustrate the real-world impact, it concludes with a preliminary analysis of Weibo’s coverage of China’s COVID-19 response.","PeriodicalId":52237,"journal":{"name":"Asiascape: Digital Asia","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86847309","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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