“#IAmGay# What About You?”: Storytelling, Discursive Politics, and the Affective Dimension of Social Media Activism against Censorship in China

Authors

  • Sara Liao Chinese University of Hong Kong

Keywords:

LGBTQ movement, hashtag activism, discursive politics, censorship, China

Abstract

This article investigates the hashtag activism through which Chinese social media users have countered censorship of homosexual content. Based on a close examination of 798 original posts on Weibo tagged #IAmGay#, I found that the personalized stories circulated with the posts served as the building blocks for discursive politics. Being linked through digital media, these isolated individual posts generated connective actions that together formed an alternative discourse about LGBTQ rights and free speech and challenged the government’s hegemonic censorship. I argue here for a critical and reflexive recognition of the affective dimension of communication that problematizes the ways in which users make their voices heard through hashtag activism.

Author Biography

Sara Liao, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Sara Liao is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her research interests intersect feminist studies, digital activism, gendered labor, globalization, consumerism, and East Asian popular culture.Tel: +852-39437660Email: saraliao@cuhk.edu.hk

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Published

2019-05-14

Issue

Vol. 13 (2019)

Section

Articles

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