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http ://cmp.hku.hk/2012/01/16/18013/ Three trends on China's internet in 2011 Posted on 2012 -01-16 Looking back at China's internet in 2011, there were three broad trends that deserve greater attention.The first trend was a general shift from emotionally-driven nationalist chatter as the defining tone of China's internet toward a more basic attention to issues of public welfare.The second was the rise of what we can call the"social power of the internet"( network social force ). And the third trend was a more pronounced deficit in understanding on the government's part about the role it should play in a networked society.While it became readily apparent, that is, that we now have a networked civil society in China, it became clearer at the same time that we lack government administrators who are internet literate ( network governance by ). The Turn from Online Nationalism Nationalism has been a defining issue on China's internet since the very beginning.For example, People's University of China professor Peng Lan ( Peng Lan ) has argued that one landmark event in the emergence of online public opinion in China [as a social force] was internet-based opposition by the international Chinese community (including mainland Chinese) against attacks on ethnic Chinese during the Indonesian riots in May 1998 . In"The Glory and Promise of Online Public Opinion"( online media glory and the dream ), written by Lin Chufang ( Lin Chu-Fang ) and Zhao Ling ( Zhao Ling ) and published in Southern Weekly on June 5, 2003, the authors argued that,"The turning-point date when domestic [Chinese] web platforms were used to voice public opinion was May 9, 1999, when People's Daily Online opened up a forum to rally opposition to the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade by NATO forces. This was the first current affairs news-related forum to be opened up by the website of a traditional media outlet." Nationalist sentiment has long persisted as a perennial hot topic on China's internet.Issues like Sino-American relations, Sino-Japanese relations and the question of Taiwan have always invited fierce activity on the internet in China, even sometimes setting off mass rallies offline.This trend has been noted frequently by observers outside China.The Economist magazine even at one time devoted a sub-headed section to China's"online nationalism" in a report on the digital era nationalism called"Cyber-nationalism: The Brave New World of E-Hatred". The nationalist trend online peaked in 2008 following March riots in Tibet that year, and in the midst of the international torch relay for the Beijing Olympics.That time marked an unfortunate setback in the relations of China and the West, ushering in a deeper sense of isolation in China that threatened to push China into a more protective and less open posture.This is an ongoing issue, and if the West continues to take an antagonistic attitude toward China's rise, it is conceivable that China could be pushed back further, even onto its old path of isolation and decline. The successful hosting of the Beijing Olympics in 2008 was a symbolic moment for China's rise, and a moment of deep pride for Chinese.But just as the curtain closed on the Olympics, the revelation of widespread melamine contamination throughout China's dairy industry, a scandal directly impacting millions of Chinese families, came a jarring reminder that external glory cannot disguise internal decay.The impact on Chinese society and on the country's manufacturing sector was profound.The widespread sense of debilitating setback was conveyed by Chinese internet users in a vivid couplet: We labor half a year to
turn a new page, hard six months, Ever since that time, the confident tone of a China rising has flattened , The, in, of, China, on, and, The, that, Internet, To
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