[Air-L] China: networked individualism and Internet work-arounds

[Weixu Lu/陆巍戌]

I noticed that Charles mentioned Yunxiang Yan's work on individualism in
China. I have worked with Yan for some years (not directly related to his
works on individualism, unfortunately) and I quite agree with his analysis
of individualism in China. To my understanding, Yan always emphasizes on
two things: 1. individuals freed from previous Mao-ist suppression; and
2.the "unbridled individualism" of Chinese post-reform generations. Many
scholars have noted the former, but Yan believes that  "individualism" in
contemporary China is different from that found in the western societies,
because Chinese people failed to receive the "core messages" of western
individualism (such as human rights, privacy, liberty, etc). He believes
that the Chinese way of individualization created what he calls the
"inconsiderate (or immoral?) individuals" (I don't know the exact term in
English, but the term in Chinese is "无公德个人". I need to look it up). Here is
a 3 min video that would help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv1OyEJrAM8

Starting from his analysis, I would conclude that 1. we need to be careful
when using the term "individualism" in the Chinese context, especially when
comparing with the North American cases; 2. it means that it would be very
helpful if we look at the personal network of Chinese individuals, their
relationship with "others" in their surroundings. It would be even more
interesting to compare the findings with Fei's classic "Concentric circle"
theory (Fei, X. (1992). *From the soil: The foundations of Chinese society*.
Univ of California Press. It's a must-read for Chinese sociology students.
I don't know how China studies scholars in North America view it).
"Networked individualism" is probably a good way to look at the issue,
although we need to first understand what kind of "individualism" are we
looking at.

On the other hand, many major social media being blocked (or censored) in
China actually creates a good opportunity for us to look at a "parallel
universe" of Internet. You simply cannot find another country with 1
billion people who have no idea what Facebook or Twitter is, or sometimes,
Google.

I'm very interested in this topic and would love to see what scholars are
doing with it.

All the best,
Weixu
----------
Weixu Lu
Doctoral Student, Teaching Assistant
School of Communication and Information,
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
192 College Ave., Rm. 102
New Brunswick, NJ 08901

On Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 12:00 AM, Charles Ess <charles.ess at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Barry and AoIRists,
>
> As a wrinkle on your comment - my colleagues here working on this topic /
> project argue that the Cultural Revolution actually inaugurated the
> movement
> towards individualism in the P.R.C.  By removing very large numbers of
> people from their traditional family and social structures - the structures
> that define and reinforce more relational forms of selfhood / identity -
> the
> Cultural Revolution thereby forced people to turn more to their own /
> individual resources for identity, meaning, etc.
>
> I mention this primarily as a way of inviting others on this list who study
> China far more intensively than I do to comment.
>
> Thanks again, and all best,
> - c.
>
>
> On 05.08.13 14:53, "Barry Wellman" <wellman at chass.utoronto.ca> wrote:
>
> > I echo Charles Ess in noting the rise of individualism in China. (Or to
> > put it another way, the ending of the short-term Cultural Rev suppression
> > of individualism.)
>
>
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