The Ironic Performances of Internet Counter-Narratives Resisting Regime Censorship in China

Abstract

There is a dominant narrative promoted by the People's Republic China (PRC) that advocates “Harmony.” This project examines the nature of this “harmony narrative” as the case background, and then explores and compares examples of the fragments of the counter-narrative to the institutional narrative of harmony promoted by the Chinese government, drawing on examples on the internet. The goal of this study is illuminate how a counter story gets developed with three particular narrative fragments, namely River Crab, Grass Mud Horse and Green Dam Girl, to challenge the legitimacy of the institutionalized narrative of “harmonious society.” This research helps us to understand more broadly how counter-narratives can be developed on the Internet when direct oppositional arguments to the governmental discourse are inhibited in traditional forms of communications under the current political context in China.