Discussant: Jack Qiu, Assistant Professor at City University of Hong Kong Qiu sees this very much as a “Chinese” Internet Research Conference, not a “China” one, as Liao’s paper distinguishes the two. He sees the group of papers as using three disciplinary approaches to examine the cultural, linguistic and psychological development of the Internet. 1st [...]

The Situational Characteristics of Language on the Internet Chen Yenling examines the spread of “netspeak”, or as it is sometimes known “Martian” (火星文), [online Martian translator here] and the differences between netspeak on the Mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong. While much of it is dismissed as a sort of nonsensical speech for youth, it seems [...]

Virtual Jingpo: A Jingpo/Kachin Techno-community? The Jingpo/Kachin, a trans-national ethnic group, whose traditional homeland has been cut through by international boundaries thus scattering the group on the margins of three nation-states – Burma, China and India – still share many common cultural characteristics. Recently, stark economic differences between China and Burma, as well as different [...]

Chinese written Internet: Diversity and Segregation This essay suggests that the China’s Internet (i.e. Internet filtered by the Great Firewall) is increasingly segregated from the rest of Chinese Internet (i.e. all Internet content written in Chinese). First it begins with a description of the vibrant diversity (regional, linguistic, and political) in Chinese-written Internet. It contextualizes [...]