Smartphone as ritual fan. Poaching in Weixin-mediated (Cyber)space with Nuosu-Yi ritualists of Liangshan, Southwest China

0581088 - OÚ 2024 RIV SE eng J - Článek v odborném periodiku
Karlach, Jan
Smartphone as ritual fan. Poaching in Weixin-mediated (Cyber)space with Nuosu-Yi ritualists of Liangshan, Southwest China.
Journal of Digital Social Research. Roč. 5, č. 4 (2023), s. 144-168. E-ISSN 2003-1998
Grant ostatní: AV ČR(CZ) LQ300211901
Program: Prémie Lumina quaeruntur
Institucionální podpora: RVO:68378009
Klíčová slova: Nuosu-Yi * Liangshan * Weixin * everyday life * nethnography
Obor OECD: Sociology
Způsob publikování: Open access

This article explores the engagement of the bimo – the Liangshan ethnic Nuosu-Yi literati-ritualists of Sichuan Province, China – with Weixin (WeChat), a ubiquitous Chinese all-in-one app. Utilizing a nethnographic approach – an ethnography of
culturally conditioned simultaneous online and offline practices – I argue that by using the smartphones in ways unforeseen by their developers, the bimo are poaching the property of those who designed the app primarily for the Chinese-speaking majority. The usage of technology stipulated by the modernization push of the Chinese authoritarian state then transforms both the bimo and technology. The resultant techno-culture not only builds upon, reinvents, develops and reinforces the allegedly diminishing Nuosu-Yi folkways – especially inter-clan competition – but also feeds the state-approved Yi folklore. The dialogic reconciliation of the top-down computerization of society and the bottom-up socialization of technology reveals itself as intrinsically connected to the culturally conditioned use of technology in our everyday lives.
Trvalý link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0349643