scholarly journals Face-work on Social Media: The Presentation of Self on Renren and Facebook

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoli Tian

This paper examines how the characteristics of interactional venues of social media and the Chinese “face” culture influence self-presentation on different types of social media. In-depth interviews have been conducted with 45 mainland Chinese students who are studying in Hong Kong and online observations are carried out. The findings reveal that while the students use both Renren and Facebook, they are much more frequently and intensely engaged with the former. Although Renren and Facebook are similar in terms of technical settings, the students present themselves in very different ways. The strategies of self-presentation are based on the careful determination of perceived relative status, both that of themselves and the other parties involved. Many have found that the best way to claim face on Renren is to maintain a low profile and align their emotions and actions with those of Hong Kong and mainland China students, while on Facebook, they maintain a relatively high profile to compete with international students. This study contributes to the literature by showing that self-presentation on social media is shaped by both the technical affordance and local culture of interpersonal relations (in this case, the Chinese “face” culture).

2017 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 510-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew K Pine ◽  
Ding Wang ◽  
Lindsay Porter ◽  
Kexiong Wang

Abstract Given the common physical overlapping between coastal developments and important marine mammal habitats, there is a need to identify potentially important foraging grounds for dolphins when informing marine spatial planning and management of underwater noise. Hydrophones were deployed at four locations either side of the mainland China–Hong Kong Special Administrative Region border to monitor the presence of soniferous fishes; a key prey item for Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins. Five distinct chorus-types were identified; each showing spatiotemporal variability. Each chorus-type was assumed to represent a separate species. Chorus-type diversity also differed between sites, with SP4 and SP5 types only being detected within Hong Kong waters where bottom trawling is illegal. Chorus-type SP1 was only detected at the recording sites in mainland Chinese waters. Call rates and chorus duration were highest during the spring and summer months. Given these dolphins show a predator-prey relationship, these data provide new information on the local fish communities at a much finer-scale than fish landing records and a baseline of fish activity in an environment that is challenging to explore. Overlaid with acoustic detections of foraging dolphins, these data form a basis for identifying potentially important foraging habitats that should be afforded the highest priority for protection.


2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-233
Author(s):  
Ray C. H. Leung

Abstract This study of media discourse focuses on how the sociopolitical culture in Hong Kong and Mainland China is conceptualized by the English-speaking press. To this end, the present research studies newspaper articles on the Hong Kong Occupy Central Movement published in Britain, the United States, and Australia. Cultural Linguistics, combined with corpus analytical techniques, is used to examine the construals of hong kong and mainland china. A 303,455-word corpus which contains 402 articles was compiled for data analysis. It is found that the disagreement between the Hong Kong civilians and the Mainland Chinese government is often reported with metonymical conceptualizations (place for inhabitants versus place for the institution). In general, the sociopolitical culture in Hong Kong and Mainland China is imbued with negative emotions, disharmony, and power differences, as is evident from the body, illness, disease, container, and possession conceptualizations. At the end of this paper, issues about researching conceptualizations in newspaper texts, such as the journalistic input, are discussed.


Significance The strike is a major escalation of the months-long anti-government protest movement, causing serious economic disruption for the first time and setting a precedent. The government’s suspension of a controversial bill allowing extradition to mainland China has failed to satisfy activists and a significant section of the public. Police today continue to clash with protesters in several locations around the city, resulting in arrests, serious injuries and destruction of public property. Impacts Use of mainland Chinese military riot police is now realistic. The longer protests continue, the more opportunities there are for miscalculation or radical tactics on both sides that deepen animosities. Limited mainland intervention as a last resort still seems more likely than a risky attempt to intimidate using overwhelming force.


Author(s):  
Giovanna Mascheroni ◽  
Jane Vincent ◽  
Estefanía Jimenez

This paper examines how children aged 11-16 in three European countries (Italy, UK and Spain) develop and present their online identities, and their interactions with peers. It focuses on young people’s engagement with the construction of an online identity on social media through pictures, and explores how peer-mediated conventions of self-presentation are appropriated, legitimated, or resisted in pre-teens’ and teenagers’ discourses. In doing so, we draw on Goffman’s (1959) work on the presentation of self and “impression management” to frame our analysis. Mobile communication and social network sites serve an important role in the process of self-presentation and emancipation, providing “full-time” access to peers and peer culture. Our findings suggest that there are gender differences and the presence of sexual double standards in peer normative discourses. Girls are positioned as being more subjected to peer mediation and pressure. Boys blame girls for posing sexy in photos, and negatively sanction this behaviour as being aimed at increasing one’s popularity online or as an indicator of “a certain type of girl.” However, girls who post provocative photos chose to conform to a sexualised stereotype as a means of being socially accepted by peers. Moreover, they identify with the pressure to always look “perfect” in their online pictures. While cross-national variations do exist, this sexual double standard is observed in all three countries. These insights into current behaviours could be further developed to determine policy guidance for supporting young people as they learn to manage image laden social media.


2005 ◽  
Vol 182 ◽  
pp. 454-456
Author(s):  
Chris Berry

Jerome Silbergeld introduced an art history approach into Chinese film studies with China into Film: Frames of Reference in Contemporary Chinese Cinema in 2000. Hitchcock with a Chinese Face goes further. Like an art historian selecting three seemingly disparate paintings and demonstrating their links, Silbergeld chooses a film each from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China, but argues that they pursue similar aesthetic and political directions. The result is a virtuoso display of intense textual and inter-textual exegesis, informed by an in-depth knowledge of the pre-modern Chinese arts, contemporary Chinese political culture, and globally circulated Western culture (including Hitchcock). It is also a challenge to the discipline of film studies itself.The three films Silbergeld selects for analysis are Lou Ye's 2000 film from mainland China, Suzhou River (Suzhou he); Yim Ho's 1994 Hong Kong film, The Day the Sun Turned Cold (Tianguo nizi); and the final part of Hou Hsiao Hsien's 1995 Taiwan trilogy, Good Men, Good Women (Hao nan, hao nü,). He acknowledges that the project began as a personal indulgence allowing him to explore further some of his favourite films. However, his engagement with the films leads him to argue that each one, in its own way, deconstructs the commonly circulated idea of a unified Chinese culture, engages powerfully with morality, is narratively complex and anti-commercial, mobilizes a cosmopolitan knowledge of world cinema, and displays an unusual degree of interest in individual psychology and oedipality. The latter elements help to ground the comparisons to Hitchcock (as well as to Hamlet, Dostoevsky, Faulkner and others).


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-215
Author(s):  
Minchao Hua

This paper lays out the perceptions of three different regions to describe Chinese perspectives on the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum. Mainstream newspapers, cyber-opinions, and scholarly writings are three vectors to assess Mainland Chinese perception. Considering the limited number of academic reports about the referendum in Taiwan and Hong Kong, compared to that on the mainland, our conclusion about their perceptions is primarily based on mainstream newspapers. The article identifies two ideologically opposed perspectives. On the one hand, the dominant view in Mainland China (and in mainstream newspapers in Hong Kong and Taiwan) framed the referendum in negative terms, presenting it as a ‘threat’ and a ‘problem’. On the other hand, the dominant view in Hong Kong and Taiwan praised the Scottish referendum as a model of participatory democracy. These contrasting perspectives are deeply rooted in distinctive ideologies and historical experiences.


English Today ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 22-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Danielewicz-Betz ◽  
David Graddol

The border between mainland China and Hong Kong has become one of the world's most fascinating linguistic divides. On one side lies the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen, stretching the entire length of the border – an extraordinary urban development which in many ways epitomises the recent urbanisation of modern China. On the other side lies the Special Administrative Region (SAR) of Hong Kong (see Figure 1). It is not possible to cross from Hong Kong to mainland China by land without passing through one of the Shenzhen checkpoints.


2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Chan

Two survey experiments examined how linguistic intergroup bias (LIB) varies according to ethnic identification within a homogenous ethnic group (Hong Kong citizens). Study 1 showed that Hong Kong citizens who identified as “Hongkonger” used more abstract expressions to describe prosocial behaviors of the in-group (Hong Kong citizen) and antisocial behaviors of the out-group (Mainland Chinese); those who identified as “Chinese” exhibited less LIB. Study 2 found similar results for a context based on location of behaviour (in Hong Kong vs. in China) rather than the nationality of the protagonist. The combined evidence suggests that LIB can have an important intragroup as well as intergroup dimension.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelvin Hiu Fai KWOK

AbstractThis article argues that effective co-operation between the antitrust authorities of Mainland China and Hong Kong in antitrust enforcement and the removal of anti-competitive state restraints is essential to the promotion of market competition in, as well as free trade and economic integration between, the two regions. This entails the careful design and conclusion of a bilateral co-operation agreement embracing not only comity co-peration in antitrust enforcement, but also the adoption of a diplomatic solution of mutual self-restraint for the removal of anti-competitive state restraints at the Mainland China-Hong Kong interface. This would also require the co-operation of Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong government authorities. Only with such bilateral cooperation can anti-competitive business practices and state restraints obstructing free trade and economic integration between the two regions be eliminated.


2021 ◽  
pp. 174804852110290
Author(s):  
Minwei Ai ◽  
Nan Zhang

This study examined the relationships between social media use, strong-tie discussion, and political participation in three Chinese societies, mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Our findings showed that strong-tie discussion is positively related to collective action participation across the three societies. More importantly, strong-tie discussion mediates the effect of political use of social media on political participation in mainland China and Taiwan, but not in Hong Kong. Furthermore, we explored the moderation role of political trust, finding that it narrows down the participation gap between those who use social media more and those who use less in Hong Kong and Taiwan, while enlarges the participation gap in mainland China. This study contributes to the theory of deliberative and participatory democracy by examining the role of strong tie in Chinese contexts and suggests that strong-tie discussion may exert a more important effect on political participation in a more collectivistic society.


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