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Digital Asia and Activism

Introduction

From the 2007 Saffron Revolution Generation in Myanmar to the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong in 2014, digital and online platforms have proved to be useful and provocative tools for revolution and social transformation. The digital has provided us with means for becoming active social citizens with hashtag awareness, crowdfunded campaigns for financing social movements, and other forms of online activism. This Scalar book interrogates questions about what constitutes the digital and how the digital defines “Asia” not only as a geographical place but also as a political concept. Looking at cases of digitally produced media, including literature, cinema, and news from China, Myanmar, India and other locations in Asia, the authors on this Scalar piece explore the intersection of media with issues of democracy, censorship, political activism, and cultural negotiation.

This book closely engages with seminal works on activism in various digital forms in Asia. By viewing texts, such as Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower (2017), and the work of Marshall McLuhan and Kuan-Hsing Chen, the authors each articulate their own meaningful and critical definitions of Asia, the digital, and activism in our contemporary period. This Scalar publication also serves to archive the authors' work and disseminate it on a public platform.

This Scalar book is structured according to geographical nation, but such an organization does not reinforce discrete boundaries. In fact, each post under these geographically based separations critiques the arbitrariness of manmade boundaries. While using the language of the national, the authors begin to deconstruct these notions and productively examine the interconnectedness of the region.

This book emerged from a one month summer tutorial titled, "Digital Asia and Activism," taught by PhD Candidate Melissa Mei-Lin Chan at the University of Southern California and funded by the USC Mellon Digital Humanities Program. The course participants and authors are as follows: Krystal Gallegos, Jonathan Kim, Amanda Liaw, Michelle Lee, and Sandria Tran. Each author is responsible for and has ownership over their own work.

A full list of the text we covered are as follows:

-Marshall Mcluhan, “The Medium is the Message,” in Understanding Media: The
Extensions of Man, pp. 1-21. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994.
-Al Jazeera English, “Marshall Mcluhan- Digital Prophecies: The Medium is the
Message.” (2017)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09ML9n5f1fE
-BBC Radio 4, “The Medium is the Message.” (2015) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko6J9v1C9zE
-Jerome McGann “The Rational of Hypertext”
http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/public/jjm2f/rationale.html
-Kuan-Hsing Chen, “Asia as Method: Overcoming the Present Conditions of Knowledge Production” in Asia as Method: Toward Deimperialization, pp. 211-255. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010.

China & Hong Kong
-Li, Luzhou Nina. “Rethinking the Chinese Internet: Social History, Cultural Forms, and Industrial Formation.” Television & New Media, vol. 18, no. 5, 2017, pp. 393–409.
-Stan Hok-Wui Wong, “Elephant Versus Termites: Lessons from Hong Kong” in Electoral Politics in Post-1997 Hong Kong, pp.149-162. Springer eBooks. (2015).
-TED, “Michael Anti: Behind the Great Firewall of China.” (2012)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrcaHGqTqHk
-Joe Piscatella, Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower. (2017) (available on Netflix).
- China Digital Times' Grass Mud Horse Lexicon

Japan
-Rio Katayama, “Idols, Celebrities, and Fans During the Time of Disaster” on Henry Jenkins’ Confessions of an Aca-fan
http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2017/8/26/japanese-idols-celebrities-and-fans-during-the-time-of-disaster-part-one
http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2017/8/26/japanese-idols-celebrities-and-fans-during-the-time-of-disaster-part-two
-Tokyo Idols (2017). (Available on Netflix)

India
-Rachel Jolley, “India Calling” in Digital Activism Asia: The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted, Nishat Shah, Puthiya Purail Sneha, and Sumandro Chattapadhyay eds., pp. 106-111. Luneberg: Meson Press, 2015.
-Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla (dir.), An Insignificant Man, 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inR_O_2Apm0

Myanmar
-“We Come from an Activist Background: An Interview with Htaike Htaike Aung, MIDO” in Digital Activism Asia: The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted, Nishat Shah, Puthiya Purail Sneha, and Sumandro Chattapadhyay eds., pp. 55-62. Luneberg: Meson Press, 2015.
-Burma VJ (2009)

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1. Introduction From the 2007 Saffron Revolution Generation in Myanmar to the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong in 2014, digital and online platforms have proved to be useful and provocative tools for revolution and social transformation. The digital has provided us with means for becoming active social citizens with hashtag awareness, crowdfunded campaigns for financing social movements, and other forms of online activism. This Scalar book interrogates questions about what constitutes the digital and how the digital defines “Asia” not only as a geographical place but also as a political concept. Looking at cases of digitally produced media, including literature, cinema, and news from China, Myanmar, India and other locations in Asia, the authors on this Scalar piece explore the intersection of media with issues of democracy, censorship, political activism, and cultural negotiation.
  
  This book closely engages with seminal works on activism in various digital forms in Asia. By viewing texts, such as Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower (2017), and the work of Marshall McLuhan and Kuan-Hsing Chen, the authors each articulate their own meaningful and critical definitions of Asia, the digital, and activism in our contemporary period. This Scalar publication also serves to archive the authors' work and disseminate it on a public platform.
  
  This Scalar book is structured according to geographical nation, but such an organization does not reinforce discrete boundaries. In fact, each post under these geographically based separations critiques the arbitrariness of manmade boundaries. While using the language of the national, the authors begin to deconstruct these notions and productively examine the interconnectedness of the region.
  
  This book emerged from a one month summer tutorial titled, "Digital Asia and Activism," taught by PhD Candidate Melissa Mei-Lin Chan at the University of Southern California and funded by the USC Mellon Digital Humanities Program. The course participants and authors are as follows: Krystal Gallegos, Jonathan Kim, Amanda Liaw, Michelle Lee, and Sandria Tran. Each author is responsible for and has ownership over their own work.
  
  A full list of the text we covered are as follows:
  -Marshall Mcluhan, “The Medium is the Message,” in Understanding Media: The
  Extensions of Man, pp. 1-21. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994.
  -Al Jazeera English, “Marshall Mcluhan- Digital Prophecies: The Medium is the
  Message.” (2017)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09ML9n5f1fE
  -BBC Radio 4, “The Medium is the Message.” (2015) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko6J9v1C9zE
  -Jerome McGann “The Rational of Hypertext”
  http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/public/jjm2f/rationale.html
  -Kuan-Hsing Chen, “Asia as Method: Overcoming the Present Conditions of Knowledge Production” in Asia as Method: Toward Deimperialization, pp. 211-255. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010.
  
  China & Hong Kong
  -Li, Luzhou Nina. “Rethinking the Chinese Internet: Social History, Cultural Forms, and Industrial Formation.” Television & New Media, vol. 18, no. 5, 2017, pp. 393–409.
  -Stan Hok-Wui Wong, “Elephant Versus Termites: Lessons from Hong Kong” in Electoral Politics in Post-1997 Hong Kong, pp.149-162. Springer eBooks. (2015).
  -TED, “Michael Anti: Behind the Great Firewall of China.” (2012)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrcaHGqTqHk
  -Joe Piscatella, Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower. (2017) (available on Netflix).
  - China Digital Times' Grass Mud Horse Lexicon
  
  Japan
  -Rio Katayama, “Idols, Celebrities, and Fans During the Time of Disaster” on Henry Jenkins’ Confessions of an Aca-fan
  http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2017/8/26/japanese-idols-celebrities-and-fans-during-the-time-of-disaster-part-one
  http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2017/8/26/japanese-idols-celebrities-and-fans-during-the-time-of-disaster-part-two
  -Tokyo Idols (2017). (Available on Netflix)
  
  India
  -Rachel Jolley, “India Calling” in Digital Activism Asia: The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted, Nishat Shah, Puthiya Purail Sneha, and Sumandro Chattapadhyay eds., pp. 106-111. Luneberg: Meson Press, 2015.
  -Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla (dir.), An Insignificant Man, 2017.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inR_O_2Apm0
  
  Myanmar
  -“We Come from an Activist Background: An Interview with Htaike Htaike Aung, MIDO” in Digital Activism Asia: The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted, Nishat Shah, Puthiya Purail Sneha, and Sumandro Chattapadhyay eds., pp. 55-62. Luneberg: Meson Press, 2015.
  -Burma VJ (2009)