Nationalism for Sale? Transnational Capital, Gender Politics, and Policing the Patriots in Digital Platform

Authors

  • Sara Liao Department of Film Production and Media Studies Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications Pennsylvania State University 118 Carnegie Building, State College, PA16802
  • Lin Sun Department of Communication Studies Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication California State University, Northridge 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA 91330

Keywords:

digital nationalism, nation for sale, gender politics, political economy of platforms, attention economy, China

Abstract

This study investigates the intersection of digital nationalism, platform economy, geopolitics, and gender dynamics, particularly sexist and misogynistic cultures online, in contemporary China. We focus on the mediated nationalism writ largely on the digital platform Weibo, where the Internet public actively contests the meaning of patriotism in connection with transnational capital in a gendered, sexist, and racialized way. By analyzing an Internet dispute between six self-branded patriotic influencers and other users on Weibo, we demonstrate how the political economy of digital platforms complicates the understanding of nationalism and the construction of “true” patriotic subjects. In unpacking this controversy, we argue that gender politics are deeply embedded in the construction of the ideal subject of the nation, where misogynistic discourses are part and parcel of the patriarchal structure of nationalism. In addition, the Internet public is actively appropriating the technological and discursive affordances of the digital platform to use nationalism for sale and to fight for the discursive authority of being a patriot.

Author Biographies

Sara Liao, Department of Film Production and Media Studies Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications Pennsylvania State University 118 Carnegie Building, State College, PA16802

Sara Liao is a media scholar and feminist, studying and teaching the intersection of gender politics, media cultures, digital platforms, the state-market complex, and the political and cultural implications thereof. Her work dedicates to promoting gender equality and social justice, and she collaborates with academics, activists, and students across different disciplines and geographical locations to achieve these goals. She is currently working on theorizing and writing about misogynistic culture and digital feminist activism.

Lin Sun, Department of Communication Studies Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication California State University, Northridge 18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA 91330

Lin Sun is a communication technology scholar whose research investigates critical roles of digital technology in forming online communities and organizing collective action. Her current research explores cyber-nationalism in contemporary China and ways in which online actors perform grassroots connective actions that creatively negotiate state agendas and reinforce nationalism as an overriding moral standard.

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Published

2024-04-14

Issue

Vol. 18 (2024)

Section

Articles

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