Internet as an ideology nationalistic discourses and multiple subject positions of Chinese internet workers

Na, Y. and Pun, N. 2023. Internet as an ideology nationalistic discourses and multiple subject positions of Chinese internet workers. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies. 24 (3), pp. 367-381. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649373.2023.2209423

TitleInternet as an ideology nationalistic discourses and multiple subject positions of Chinese internet workers
TypeJournal article
AuthorsNa, Y. and Pun, N.
Abstract

Ideology works. This article examines how the Internet as a capital actor has become a nationalist ideology in China. Disclosing how nationalism serves to facilitate the expansion of China-based Internet platforms in the age of informational capitalism, we directly confront the Chinese Internet as an ideology apparatus that works to fulfill a dual logic of capital and territorial power. This article contributes to the study of three types of Chinese Internet workers: programmers, white-collar employees (excluding programmers), and assembly-line workers, and focuses on how nationalist discourses are created, which enthrall but at the same time are questioned by different workers who help fabricate nationalism as well as challenge it. We conceptualize topos of threat and referential strategy of collectivization as cultural and media tactics, driven by the nationalistic sentiments that form part of the “common sense” of Chinese users. We further analyze the multiple subject positions of Chinese Internet workers into hegemonic position, negotiated position, and oppositional position to discover the complexity of labor subjectivity which may create discrepancy or sometimes even challenge the Chinese Internet as an ideology. This study sheds light on how subject positions could disrupt a homogenous process of merging nationalism with populist sentiments, a conservative ideology that is prevalent in today’s China.

JournalInter-Asia Cultural Studies
Journal citation24 (3), pp. 367-381
ISSN1464-9373
1469-8447
Year2023
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Publisher's version
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access Level
Open (open metadata and files)
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/14649373.2023.2209423
Publication dates
Published23 Jun 2023

Related outputs

Exploring digital discourse with Chinese characteristics: contradictions and tensions
Na, Y. 2020. Exploring digital discourse with Chinese characteristics: contradictions and tensions. PhD thesis University of Westminster Westminster School of Media and Communication https://doi.org/10.34737/v0w51

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