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ID: 192210

Are the Rising Anti-China Sentiments Across the Globe Populist? Assessing an Established Case—Hong Kong Localism / Chew, Matthew Ming-tak

Chew, Matthew Ming-tak	Journal Article
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Summary/Abstract

Anti-China sentiments have been sharply rising across the globe in the past decade. Although concepts such as the "Thucydides Trap" and "China threat" are often used to interpret them, "anti-China populism" becomes an increasingly adopted interpretation. Nonetheless, current discussions of anti-China populism are cursory; they have not empirically substantiated that anti-China sentiments are populist. They also pay little attention to formal theoretical definitions of populism. This study helps fill the research gap by evaluating whether populism is an empirically tenable interpretation of anti-China sentiments. This evaluation is operationalized based on current populism theories and studies on "measuring populism." This study's empirical case is one of the earliest instances of anti-China sentiments: Hong Kong localism. The main dataset is composed of multiple rounds of in-depth interviews with 23 main informants. The supplementary dataset contains a variety of documentary sources that reflect the political stance of Hong Kong localists.

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Anti-China Sentiments ; Hong Kong Localism

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ID: 189975

Cybernationalist authoritarianism: Fangirls’ peer production of the virtual celebrity ‘Oppa China’ / Chew, Matthew Ming-tak

Chew, Matthew Ming-tak	Journal Article
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This study has two research objectives. The first is to analyse a case of Chinese ‘cybernationalist authoritarianism’, which I define as the ideological articulation and practical conjoining of cybernationalism and digital authoritarianism. This intriguing case involves the peer production of a virtual celebrity called ‘Oppa China’ (阿中哥哥) by fangirls (饭圈女孩) in China. The empirical analysis contributes to ongoing debates on whether cybernationalists mainly serve or undermine authoritarianism in China. My second objective is to theoretically explore the rising phenomenon of cybernationalist authoritarianism. This exploration contributes to studies on the contemporary transformation of nationalism and authoritarianism. I approach the two objectives by analysing cybernationalist authoritarianism in terms of the interplay between cybernationalism and digital authoritarianism. I find that peer production is the key novel characteristic of cybernationalism and that authoritarian legitimation is the main imperative of digital authoritarianism. My analysis illustrates how the peer production of new and multiple cybernationalisms serves as well as undermines authoritarian legitimation. This study’s data include in-depth interviews, informal interviews, various documentary sources, big data from Weibo, and online participant observation.

Key Words

Cybernationalism ; Authoritarian Legitimation ; Digital Authoritarianism ; Peer Production ; Chinese Social Media ; Virtual Celebrity

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