The Chinese Language Cyberspace: Civic Engagement and National Endeavors in a Cross-Strait Comparison

This workshop will examine the various forms of cyber communities that, in recent decades, have helped to shape the broad societal, political, and cultural transformations taking place in East Asia and, in particular, the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan. Today, more than half of Taiwan’s population and more than one-third of China’s population is online. Cyber-communities transcend national boundaries and exist in the fields of civic engagement and nationalist endeavors; marginalized groups are present as well as users enjoying leisure and entertainment activities. After a general introduction to a) the question what are “Sinophone” cultures and b) the history of Internet development in the regions being researched, the details of the current situation will be discussed, the state of the art with regard to research will be explained and case studies will be employed to show the influence of the cyber-communities on the interaction between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Aims of the course:

At the end of the course students should be able to evaluate the influence of the new media and the Internet in East Asia, in particular in the Chinese speaking regions of the PRC and Taiwan. They should be able to assess the influence of these developments on political and societal developments including the often asked question a. whether a civil society is emerging in the PRC and b. to what degree developments in Taiwan have exerted an influence. Students should understand and explain the observed contradiction in the development and be able to explain these observed contradictions by focusing on various case studies. They should make reasoned decisions on the ways the West should react to Chinese censorship. Students should be able to make deductions based on acquired knowledge on possible future scenarios in particular with regard to cross-strait Relations. In addition, students will be enabled to critically analyze state provided data and data analysis.

Preparation for the course

In order to prepare for each module, students are required to read the two or three compulsory texts that are available online. 

Oral presentation (in small groups)

In addition, each student has to prepare a brief oral presentation (including Power-Point) on one of the five topics. Please decide before the course starts (or at the very latest, on the first day of the course) in which of the topics you are interested and let me know of your decision by email. I will then send you additional texts to help you to prepare the presentation.

We can accommodate about 8 to 10 presentations altogether, approximately 2 per unit. The presentations should not take longer than 20 to 30 minutes and should be prepared by 2 to 3 students together (that is to say, each student will have about 10 minutes, and not more than 15 minutes).

Please mark clearly who is responsible for which part of the presentation, because the oral/PowerPoint presentation will count as an examination. If the oral presentation is not considered satisfactory, a short essay, of about 4000 words, will be required to supplement the presentation.

Specific points to keep in mind:

1) The structure of the presentation: that is, the title, the introduction to the issue/problem, the main text, including argumentation, conclusion/s, further questions (for example, questions for the other students for discussion), references.

2) The clarity of the presentation

3) The texts employed and sources referred to (correct citation)

4) Additional information should be written in the “notes” function” of PowerPoint (“add notes to each slide”), to minimize the amount of text used for the PowerPoint.