2021年5月12日（三） 14:00-17:00

牆的另一邊The Other Side of the Wall: Communicating the Uncommunicable in everyday Chinese life

講者Speaker：羅琇如Hsiu-ju Stacy Lo (文化研究國際中心博士後研究員 Post-doc Fellow in International Centre for Cultural Studies, NYCU)

對談人（視訊）Commentator (via Zoom)：Ian Buchanan (Professor of Cultural Studies at University of Wollongong, Australia)

主持人Moderator: 陳奕麟教授Prof. Allen Chun

英文演講 Lecture in English

演講介紹Lecture Introduction

「老大哥正看著你」。喬治·歐威爾（George Orwell）的「一九八四」出版72年後，這句話比以往更顯得貼切。曾經被認為是中國民主化力量的數位科技，現在被用來實施審查，進行監控並宣傳民族主義的工具。此外，最近的Covid-19大流行，導致多國政府仿效中國監視其平民百姓。隨著這些發展，人們對數位威權的擔憂越來越普遍。今日，大部分討論停留在政治學的學科範圍之內，但日常生活中，需要繞道、甚至突破監控及審查制度等司空見慣的生活細節卻相對少受到關注。這種因為監控和審查制度而提煉出模棱兩可、迂迴且神祕的措辭，間接的口語表達和寫作能力是一種當代漢語的特殊文化：一種對數位監控敏感而衍生出的聆聽和閱讀能力。在中國特殊的語境下，首先以「和諧社會」之名義，漸漸醞釀出一種因應「人工智慧」和大數據的網民智慧。

“Big Brother is watching.” 72 years after the publication of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, the phrase is more relevant than ever. Digital technology that was once thought to be a democratizing force in China has now been employed to impose censorship, carry out surveillance and propagate nationalism. Moreover, the recent Covid-19 pandemic has led many governments to follow the lead of the PRC in monitoring their civilian populations. As these developments take place, concerns around digital authoritarianism have become more commonplace. While much of the discussion remains within the disciplinary boundaries of political science, the quotidian details of bypassing, and even breaking through regimes of surveillance and censorship have received relatively scant attention. Ambiguous and devious euphemisms and indirect expression in speaking and writing have trained large sections of the Chinese-speaking population to listen and read between the lines. The peculiar Chinese “con-text” provides rich material for the quotidian practices of resistance under the guise of “harmonization”.

講者簡介Speaker Bio

羅琇如畢業於哥倫比亞大學人類學。廣泛的田野工作催生了一篇關於當代中國「江湖」文化和玩世現實主義的博士論文。近來，她對人工智能的關注醞釀出幾篇關於香港似水運動中各種極具創意的「江湖」策略以及新媒體藝術的出版文章。在這之前，她與 Michael Dutton 合著Beijing Time (Harvard University Press, 2008).

Hsiu-ju Stacy Lo graduated with a PhD in socio-cultural anthropology from Columbia University in the city of New York. Her extensive fieldwork resulted in a dissertation on the so-called “jianghu” culture and cynicism in contemporary China. Her recent preoccupations with artificial intelligence have resulted in several publications on the creative use of technologies and various “jianghu” tactics in Hong Kong’s “Be Water” movement as well as on new media art. Prior to these ventures, she co-authored Beijing Time (Harvard University Press, 2008) with Michael Dutton.