Event category: Politics & Economics

Wednesday
11:00 am – 12:45 pm
Room 3

• Organised by Jens Damm
• Jens Damm, “The Impact of Digital Media on Overseas Chinese and Taiwanese ‘Friendship Associations’”
• Julia Marinaccio, “Electoral Behaviour of Overseas Taiwanese in Austria: Combining Digital Ethnography and Traditional Field Research”
• Beatrice Zani, “Surfing on Digital Waves, Navigating Global Seas: Chinese Migrants’ Creative E-Commerce in Taiwan”

The first paper by Jens Damm (Tübingen) paper maps how migrants from Taiwan and Mainland China in Berlin are involved in networks with their place of origin. Based on qualitative interviews, it contrasts how Taiwan fosters a narrative of being a ‘norm taker’ (democracy/human rights), in contrast to Mainland China’s becoming a ‘norm setter.’ The second paper by Isabelle Cheng (Portsmouth) explores the use of smartphones by Southeast Asian immigrant women in Taiwan for facilitating political participation (Line group observation). This paper argues that this semi-open cyberspace creates a forum where immigrant women solicit support for political campaigns. The third paper by Julia Marinaccio (Berlin) deals with Taiwan’s presidential/legislative elections of 2020. In particular, she analyses the electoral behaviour of the Taiwanese Overseas, highlighting# the role of social media in voter participation. This paper presents the results of a mixed-method study of electoral behaviour of Taiwanese Overseas in Austria. The fourth paper by Beatrice Zani (Lyon) then explores the emotional ties and solidarity networks of Chinese women within WeChat groups in Taiwan. The research is based on data collected both in Taiwan and in Mainland China. All papers thus offer insights into very recent phenomena of social media employed by different groups of migrants: Mainland Chinese and Southeast Asian migrants living in Taiwan on the one hand, Taiwanese migrants residing in Europe on the other hand. Both groups stay in contact with their places of origin employing different types of social media and increasingly adapt to their new life situations.

Jens Damm, “The Impact of Digital Media on Overseas Chinese and Taiwanese ‘Friendship Associations’“

This paper will map how migrants from Taiwan and Mainland China in Berlin are both involved in various networks with their place of origin. This paper will ask, in particular, how the Taiwanese authorities are actively involved in keeping contact with various types of migrants (defined broadly) in Germany, and what kind of role the ubiquitous social media apps, such as Line and Facebook, play in strengthening this relationship. This paper is based on the observations of the activities undertaken by Taiwanese and Chinese communities in Germany in the form of ‘friendship association’. All ‘friendship associations’ established by Taiwanese and Chinese communities include a large number of transnational actors, including newly arrived migrants, artists, language teachers and those who temporarily live abroad. Notable examples are the German-Chinese Association – Friends of Taiwan (DCG), the German-Chinese Friendship Association (GDCF) and the Confucius Institute at the Free University Berlin. Educational associations, such as FlAKE, and cultural groups, such as the Chinese Umbrella Organisation in Germany (Chinesischer Dachverband in Deutschland UCCVD) can be also included in this category. These organisations vary in their goals, but in general, they contribute to cultural diplomacy promoted by Taiwan and China. This paper will critically analyse how Taiwan (an ethnic Chinese region) fosters a narrative of being a ‘norm taker’ that emphasises the island’s democracy and commitment to human rights protection, in contrast to China·s claim to become a ‘norm setter’.

Julia Marinaccio, “Electoral Behaviour of Overseas Taiwanese in Austria: Combining Digital Ethnography and Traditional Field Research“

Against the backdrop of mounting pressures from the PRC under the leadership of Xi Jinping and the long-lasting protests in Hong Kong, Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections 2020 have become a significant political event that has also garnered considerable international attention. The issue of electoral behaviour dominated media coverage before and after the elections within Taiwan. But while electoral behaviour of Taiwanese living in Taiwan is a well-researched topic, we still know little about how Taiwanese who reside abroad cast their votes. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study addresses the following questions: How many Taiwanese who live abroad turn back to Taiwan to make use of their right to vote? Whom do they vote for? Do they organise themselves individually or in groups? What role do social media play in the organisation of vote-related homeward journeys? In this study, the author firstly conducts a large-n survey among Taiwanese Overseas residing in Austria. To increase the turnout rate, the questionnaires are distributed online via the various Facebook pages of Taiwanese Overseas associations and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Austria and by door-to-door visits in Taiwanese households and enterprises. Secondly, to gain a better understanding of how homeward journeys were organised, digital ethnographic methods are used to explore the diverse virtual networks and face-to-face semi-structured interviews are conducted with the principal functionaries of the Taiwanese Overseas population in Austria, diplomats, and the CEO’s of the two Taiwanese airlines China Airline and Eva Air.

Beatrice Zani, “Surfing on Digital Waves, Navigating Global Seas: Chinese Migrants’ Creative E-Commerce in Taiwan”

This paper is based on data collection in Taiwan and in Mainland China. Through ‘multi-sited ethnography’ and ‘virtual ethnography’, 171 ‘life stories’ were collected describing the economic practices, emotional ties and solidarity networks of women within WeChat groups. how and to what extent navigating through global capitalism and local consumption, Chinese migrant women’s physical and virtual transnational economic activities transgresses and transcend, or redraw, spaces, temporalities, and boundaries? To what extent does the production of digital markets contribute to upward social and economic mobility processes? In particular, taking account the rigidly monitored physical and moral borders between China and Taiwan, As a result, it will be shown that by exploiting new technologies—more precisely the application of WeChat on ‘contested markets’—Chinese women generate translocal and transgressive entrepreneurial practices. Women’s transnational social networks built on the production of transnational multipolar economies connect the different spaces of women such as Chinese rural villages of origin, Chinese cities where they worked temporarily worked and the new environment in Taiwan.

Stories, Narratives, and Ideology
Tuesday
4:00 pm – 5:45 pm
Room 3

• Organised by Martin Lavička
• Martin Lavička, “Narrating Xinjiang through the Lens of Governmental Whitepapers”
• Vanessa Frangville, “’Xinjiang is Safe and Stable Now’”
• Rune Steenberg Reyhe, “The Tip of the Iceberg: Connecting Traces to Ideology in XUAR”

The Chinese re-education camps in XUAR have gathered increased media attention within the last year. Stories of abuse from “escaped camp survivors” contrast sharply with those of dancing Uyghur youths in “vocational training centres.” In the Chinese narrative, the centres supposedly save them from Islamic radicalism, while Uyghur diaspora groups see them as part of a “cultural genocide”. Behind each story, there is a meta-story (narratives in our terminology) that connects it to a larger world view and ideology. This panel traces the narratives—between story and ideology—on China’s minority policies across different genres and sides. The interconnections span from government white papers across official newspapers, scholarly writing to advocacy work, novels and TV shows in both Chinese, English, Uyghur, Kazakh and other languages. We identify common themes, motives and, strategies in these texts and contextualise them within the broader eco-political frame.

Martin Lavicka, “Narrating Xinjiang through the Lens of Governmental Whitepapers”

Since 2003, when the first governmental whitepaper baipishu on Xinjiang appeared, another nine have been published by now. Since 2014, every year, there is a whitepaper concerning Xinjiang, signifying increased importance for the central government to address and reflect on various issues related to the region. However, the year 2019 has already brought three whitepapers on Xinjiang, showing the enormous attention Beijing gives to the coverage of the ‘Xinjiang problem’ as an answer to the recent international coverage and criticisms of its policies. Analysis of governmental whitepapers and their narrative can serve as a valuable source of information regarding the official ideology behind the worsening situation in the region. Moreover, it can provide some insight into the ideological backing of Beijing policies towards the region. The main focus of this presentation will be on the most recent whitepapers: The Fight Against Terrorism and Extremism and Human Rights Protection in Xinjiang published in March, Historical Matters Concerning Xinjiang from July, and Vocational Education and Training in Xinjiang published in August 2019.

Vanessa Frangville, “’Xinjiang is Safe and Stable Now’”

“Xinjiang is safe and stable now”—these words are those of a young Uyghur based in Beijing, in a series of short films released by CGTN (China Global Television Network) to promote young Uyghurs living in Mainland China who want to “change stereotypes about Uyghurs” because “things are much better now”. This paper focuses primarily on videos and images in relation to texts in articles about the Uyghurs published on CGTN’s website since 2017, in English, in French and in Chinese. The objective is to understand how, through this multimodal discourse, the Uyghurs and their region are represented in a mainstream media whose ambition is to “tell China’s story well”, in the context of a “media warfare” against “fake foreign journalism.”

Rune Steenberg Reyhe, “The Tip of the Iceberg: Connecting Traces to Ideology in XUAR”

“There is a problem with your thinking,” is the reasoning presented to many when they are sent to the so-called re-education camps in XUAR in northwest China. Something they have done or said, to the government, betrays the fact that their thinking is not in line with the party ideology. It is “infected” by “radicalist thought”, like separatism or religious extremism. From this, they must be healed in camps. The crucial issue is not just about the display of loyalty, but about surveilling and controlling ideology. This becomes especially obvious in the campaign to clamp down on “two-faced cadre”. As in Max Black’s interaction theory of metaphors, here, a given action or expression is seen as a “tip of an iceberg” indicating a deeper “sunken model”—the problematic ideology. The ideology and indicators are connected by an often implicit story—a narrative. This paper discusses this connection between ideology and expression through narratives. Narratives are employed by the Chinese government to see prayer or fasting as symptoms of radicalism in order to legitimize the camps in official videos. Activist groups and US government officials similarly take the camps to signify the inhumanity of Chinese people or of communists generally in order to push back against the BRI or Chinese tech-firms taking market shares. I explore the connections drawn by various actors between indicators, ideologies and policies concerning the network of camps and the extensive surveillance apparatus in Xinjiang.

Neighbours
Tuesday
2:00 pm – 3:45 pm
Room 3

• Chaired by Franziska Plümmer
• Franziska Plümmer, “Lost in Transition: Liminal Citizenship of Border Residents in the Sino-Myanmar Border Zone”
• Siyuan Li, “China’s Soft Power in Africa: A Case Study of China’s Language and Culture Promotion Organisations in Africa”
• Jelena Gledić, “We Go Back a Long Way: Interpreting the Sino-Serbian ‘Iron Friendship’ through Reus-Smit’s Theory on Cultural Diversity”

Franziska Plümmer, “Lost in Transition: Liminal Citizenship of Border Residents in the Sino-Myanmar Border Zone”

The existing literature on border residents largely analyses how territorial articulation of the nation-state coincides with the de facto realities of local residents, or in other words, how the authority of states is subverted, ignored or challenged at the border. This paper takes an alternative view, arguing that the concept of liminal citizenship explains how the notion of sovereignty is not challenged but becomes in fact invigorated at the border. Taking the Sino-Myanmar border as a case study, this article explores local practices of citizenship in the border area, asking how the category of border residents is constructed within the larger Chinese concept of citizenship. To do so, this article investigates the rationalities informing the inherently graduated citizenship regime and the legal and social implications of border residents. The article finds that in Chinese border prefectures, local authorities apply spatial strategies to selectively integrate Myanmar workers into the local economy producing a form of liminal citizenship. This strategy builds on local authorities establishing exceptional immigration rules to allow limited access for this specific group of foreigners. As part of this local legalization, the authorities issue border passes that allow their holders’ unlimited border crossing and qualifies them to obtain working permits. This way, the border zone has become a distinct administrative zone that is subject to exceptional regulation – a border disposition.

Siyuan Li, “China’s Soft Power in Africa: A Case Study of China’s Language and Culture Promotion Organisations in Africa”

Language, culture and other intangible resources are important elements of a country’s power resources. The People’s Republic of China has realised the importance of language and culture promotion overseas and its language and culture promotion organisation (LCPO) – the Confucius Institute – has been attracting the world’s attention since its establishment in 2004. Together with its extraordinary development, there exists a plethora of discussions, debates and research on it, among which the most commonly used term to describe the practical function of the initiative is Soft Power. Although more than 30 countries in the world sponsor a LCPO overseas and China even sponsors another LCPO – the China Cultural Centre (CCC), the focus seems to be on the CI. This article aims to examine the different stages and features of China’s language and culture promotion overseas in the past 70 years, compare the differences between the China’s two LCPOs – the CI and the CCC in Africa, and discuss their roles in promoting China’s national interest overseas in a broader sense of power in international relations.

Jelena Gledić, “We Go Back a Long Way: Interpreting the Sino-Serbian ‘Iron Friendship’ through Reus-Smit’s Theory on Cultural Diversity”

This paper focuses on the changes in discourse on the cultural ties between Serbia and China after the intensification of economic cooperation under the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. Empirical data is interpreted through Christian Reus-Smit’s theory on cultural diversity, showing that the examined case is an example of top-down governance of culture in order to facilitate economic and political cooperation, which is likely characteristic of Chinese foreign policy in the given domain.
In the past decade, Serbia has been standing out as the leading partner of China in Central and Eastern Europe in the context of implemented or announced Belt and Road projects. The two countries’ governments state that cooperation is rooted in a close and long-standing Sino-Serbian friendship. However, this research shows that the said narrative emerged or at least significantly intensified only after the start of closer economic cooperation. Being mostly present in the official discourse on the two countries’ cooperation, the notion of the so-called “Iron friendship” between Serbia and China is less a deeply-rooted historical reality and more an example of consciously forging a narrative. The idea of a deep friendship between the two countries has been actively managed and engineered since the start of the Belt and Road Initiative, emphasizing a long history and specific shared experiences, all in line with the presently projected respective national images. The results of this analysis provide lessons for interpreting Chinese foreign policy, international relations and new paradigms of development and order building.