Abstract
With the rapid growth of the number of netizens in China, the Internet has become one of the most important parts in the lives of people who not only can get more information on the Internet, but can also express their own views. In other words, the Internet has also become a part of real-world events. Drawing on a case study about ‘The Boycott of Carrefour’ in China during the spring of 2008, the paper first discusses the role and functions of new media during the incident. Through analyses of a story about the culture of labeling others and a conflict between burning a wrong flag in this case, the paper then explores the capriciousness of Chinese cyberspace. The author proposes an explanation on how the illusion of truth is generated on the Internet and then influences the events in the real world. The paper concludes that the Internet is not just a simple technological tool, but it is intertwined with the sociocultural contexts in which it is rooted.
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Notes
The numbers are obtained through ChaoShi which means literally “Supermarket,” a retail sale online business platform, by typing “Carrefour” in its search engine. Accessed May 30th, 2008, from http://www.chaoshi168.com/hydt/shownews.asp?NewsID=11499, titled “Carrefour is going to invest a double”.
The Tianya community is one of the most popular online forums in China. “Tianya” comes from a famous Chinese verse “Feeling of neighborhood, though staying at the end of the skyline”. Accessed May 15th, 2008, from http://cache.tianya.cn/publicforum/content/sport/1/103520.shtml.
The data was obtained from Sina, a famous Chinese entertainment website and search engine. Accessed April 25th, 2008, from http://finance.sina.com.cn/g/20080416/23314759196.shtml titled “420 thousand of netizens agreed on boycotting Carrefour and other French brands”.
Sohu is a Chinese web-news-collecting website which transfers news from several Chinese newspapers. Accessed 25th April, 2008, from http://news.sohu.com/20080416/n256319335.shtml.
The news is from Supesite, titled “The torch replay bearer, Jinjing, was blamed as “Tracitor” because of her disagreement on boycotting Carrefour”. Accessed April 25th, 2008, from http://www.astronomy.com.cn/x/html/99/t-89999.html.
Douban is a Chinese online study group. Accessed April 25th, 2008, from http://www.douban.com/group/topic/3021714/.
163 is another Chinese web-news collecting website. Accessed April 25th, 2008, from http://news.163.com/08/0416/14/49LIQSV60001124J.html.
80end is an online forum opened for Chinese netizens who were born after 1980s only. Accessed 25th April, 2008, from http://bbs.80end.com/viewthread.php?tid=33202.
Another example is Baiyansong, a famous CCTV anchor, who tried to share his views on the accessibility and influence of the boycott and wrote a blog titled “Don’t pick other’s faults to punish ourselves.” He said that he would not go to Carrefour on 1st May only because he needed to prepare an interview for the torch relay in Sanya. He also believed that a number of customers would visit Carrefour on that day since it was an individual choice. Besides, he claimed that nearly all employees in Carrefour were Chinese. It would be like “in-fighting” if Chinese boycotted it. After his article spread on the Chinese cyberspace, Bai was labeled as a “traitor” and seriously harassed.
Originally, the story of the blind men and the elephant is about a group of blind men touching an elephant to learn what it is like. Each person touches a different but only one part of the elephant such as the nose or the tusk. They compare what they feel and then learn that they are in disagreement. The story aims at telling us that reality may be viewed differently depending on one’s own perspective and what seems an absolute truth may be relative because of the deceptive nature of half-truths.
People.com is a Chinese official website. Accessed 28th April, 2008, from http://media.people.com.cn/GB/40628/7168393.html
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Cheng, C.T. New Media and Event: A Case Study on the Power of the Internet. Know Techn Pol 22, 145–153 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12130-009-9078-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12130-009-9078-8