The Rhetoric of Cultural Communication in the Works of Chinese Bloggers and Artists

As China is catapulted towards its new status as a global superpower, a new generation of urban citizens communicates fresh visions of what constitutes the ideal society in the twenty-first century. This project investigates the rhetoric of cultural communication in China to find out how artists and writers critique contemporary Chinese society using both traditional and the digital media, in particular Web 2.0. Analysis will focus on two case studies: first, bestselling novelist-cum-blogger Han Han; and second, the lesser-known ‘Utopian Team’ artistic duo He Hai and Deng Dafei. They share a social conscience that drives them to merge their art with social activism, using the new social media as their vehicle of expression. They belong to the new Generation X (xinxin renlei) of children born in the late 1970s and 1980s who have no personal memories of Mao, grew up during Deng Xiaoping’s era of reforms and witnessed the consumer revolution in China. Since Han Han started blogging in 2005 his mix of satire and social critique has made him China’s most widely read blogger. His site has been visited over 551 million times. Han Han’s works thrive on social and political satire targeted at China’s education system, the establishment, authority, corruption, current affairs and media censorship. Through the medium of performance art and blogging, He Hai and Deng Dafei, too, critique local culture, the impact of globalization and the spectacular transformation of urban life in China today. They have tackled social issues such as poverty and the plight of the migrant workers in China’s emerging world cities. The Chinese government reacts with censorship, fearing the cultural scene and web- based forms of communication as potential catalysts for revolution. This study aims to discover how these members of the new generation of writers, artists and intellectuals in China negotiate cultural communication and censorship. It will analyse the rhetoric of cultural communication in the works of these writers, bloggers and artists within the contemporary cultural and socio- political contexts. This research will shed new light on our understanding of cultural communication as a social and political barometer.