Itâs been 40 years since the birth of the Internet, many believed it opened the door to a new era in which person to person communication can have a new public space: difference of opinion and viewpoints could coexist, interact and through dialogue, gradually achieve a consensus. Nevertheless the reality today is discouraging: replies and messages left in blogs or forums are seldom emanating from thorough reading âand understanding- of the original texts. By comparison, it is much easier to publish on new media than in traditional media; also, people have an urge to vent their frustrations, creating an environment in which everybody is hustling to express their views disregarding the opinions of others. Like writer Leung Man-to once wrote in a critique titled âEverybody is a Writer, Nobody is a Readerâ: âIf in a ten-thousand-word text there is once sentence that one is dissatisfied with, one can completely disregard the rest of it and write a twenty-thousand-word rebuttal. Why should one patiently read the entire text? Why should one understand and even sympathise with the true meaning behind? It only is an excuse for one to express its own views.â
Can the Internet really serve as a public space for rational debate? The fifth edition of the CoChina forum will simultaneously take place in Hong Kong and Lianzhou, Guangdong Province, where respective bloggercons will take place. Speakers Song Yilang and Zhu Dake will be in Hong Kong while Hu Yong and Yang Hengjun will be in Lianzhou to share their views and interact with the audience.
Not only will there be bilingual English and Chinese live twitterfeed but also live video feed from both locations. The audience can interact with both sites through Twitter by simply adding the â#CoChinaâ tag to their tweets; all tagged tweets will simultaneously be seen by the audience present in both sites.
The speakers:
Hu Yong: one of the pioneers of Internet development in China, he is teaches in Peking University. Through the translation to Chinese of Nicholas Negroponteâs book âBeing Digitalâ Hu began exploring the changes to human lives brought by new media, and recently analysed personal expression and public debate in a networked era in his work âThe Rising Cacophonyâ. Hu has maintained through his work an optimistic ideal on the development of a networked Chinese society.
Roland Soon: former interpreter in the FBIâs courts in the United States and founder of the site EastSouthWestNorth in 2003, where English translations of selected Chinese blogs and news reports can be found. EastSouthWestNorth is influential as a portal for non-Chinese readers to the Chinese Internet sphere.
Yang Hengjun: famous blogger and novelist, Yang explores the logic and persuasiveness of transnational cultures in the creation of democratic societies and hopes to infuse optimism among younger generations as well as government cadres.
Zhu Dake: cultural studies intellectual, teaches in Jinan University. He published several works on the power of words. Zhu believes that anonymity on Internet forums encourages free speech and at the same time exacerbates the misuse of this basic right, often resulting in moral chaos; Zhu is pessimistic about the future of public dialogue amidst this environment.
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