Vulgarity As Resistance Online In China

In his work Domination and the Arts of Resistance, famed political scientist James Scott (1990) claims it is useful to draw discursive similarities across oppressed groups even those from different countries and cultures. He argues that in all instances where there are oppressors and oppressed there exists a public transcript and a hidden transcript. The characteristics of the hidden transcript are numerous, and for this study I will focus on the linguistic aspect. Such as it is a counter-narrative; the form of expression in the hidden discourse can said to be frequently outside linguistic norms and regulations. Some might even refer to it as coarse, vulgar, or common. While Scott's claim may be applicable to groups of a certain socio-economic status (i.e. slaves, peasants, indentured servants, untouchables), how applicable is it to online discourse where participants are from numerous socio-economic backgrounds? For example, in Iran and China, the central governments regulate official discourse (mainstream media) leaving the unofficial discourse (namely less-regulated online discourse such as blogs) as potential breeding ground for the hidden transcript. Both countries have attempted to regulate the Internet, with varying degrees of success, but the game between government regulators and netizens is one that has been likened to a game of cat and mouse (Endeshaw 2004).This paper will use Alireza Doostdar's (2004) ethnographic study on vulgarity in the Persian blogosphere as a point of departure, and apply his findings to the Internet slang found on two China bridge blogs':chinaSMACK and China Digital Times. Doostdar argues that blogs, as an emerging speech genre (See Bakhtin 1984) are a unique forum for a wide range of language usage. Using an ethnographic approach, he reveals that some Persian bloggers are bending linguistic rules and norms, sparking criticism from other bloggers who argue for a preservation of such norms. He ultimately identifies distinct genres of blogs and ultimately links the issue of linguistic and cultural hegemony to cultural capital.This exploration, though resting on the assumption that studying blogs and blog discourse from a perspective other than democratization is important, does conclude in the argument that even an exploration of vulgar discourse is not entirely removed from political discussions. In fact, a strong motivating factor behind much Internet slang is a complaint about a political or social issue.1 ultimately suggest that the attempt to regulate so-called vulgar discourse online perhaps resulted in an increase of terms, instead of a reduction.