Skip to content
1981
Volume 11, Issue 2-3
  • ISSN: 2051-7041
  • E-ISSN: 2051-705X

Abstract

Ever since the first COVID-19 case was reported in Wuhan in 2019, Chinese cities have gone through different stages of quarantine till the end of 2022. Due to a surge of Omicron variant cases in 2022, travel restrictions were introduced in February and Shanghai entered lockdowns from 28 March 2022, allegedly to protect the elderly, the young and the vulnerable. Nevertheless, it was gradually revealed that many elderly people suffered or even died from the strict lockdown measures at home or in the quarantine hospitals. This article studies the trending visualities and black humour about the lockdown experience of Shanghai elderly on social media platforms Weibo and Weixin, examining how social media was used as a tool to provide counter narratives, build surrealist solidarity and construct collective memories. Data used for this article is sourced from . The keyword (‘Shanghai elderly’) was used to identify relevant posts between 1 March and 1 June 2022. A total of 39 posts containing visual or audio-visual components about Shanghai elderly’s lockdown experience was selected as samples. A multimodal analysis of data reveals that Shanghai elderly’s COVID experience was both represented and mediatized on social media platforms. Surrealism artistic creation from internet users exposes the ineptitude of government officials and the absurdity of reality. The use of black humour in surrealistic online content on the one hand shows individuals as helpless victims while on the other hand builds surrealist solidarity among people and exhibits resistance towards the authoritarian control.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jcca_00111_1
2024-12-20
2025-02-07
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Anderson, S. (2001), ‘History and popular memory’, in G. R. Edgerton and P. C. Rollins (eds), Television Histories: Shaping Collective Memory in the Media Age, Lexington, KY: Kentucky University Press, pp. 1936.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Assmann, J. and Czaplicka, J. (1995), ‘Collective memory and cultural identity’, New German Critique, 65, pp. 12532.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. BBC (2022), ‘Covid: End of legal need to self-isolate in England’, 24 February, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60500287. Accessed 13 October 2024.
  4. Birkner, T. and Donk, A. (2020), ‘Collective memory and social media: Fostering a new historical consciousness in the digital age?’, Memory Studies, 13:4, pp. 36783.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. boyd, d. (2010), ‘Social network sits as networked publics: Affordances, dynamics, and implications’, in Z. Papacharissi (ed.), A Networked Self: Identity, Community and Culture on Social Network Sites, New York: Routledge, pp. 3958.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Breton, A. ([1940] 2020), ‘Anthology of black humour’, Anarchist Library, https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/andre-breton-anthology-of-black-humour.pdf. Accessed 21 July 2024.
  7. Breton, A. (1969), Manifestoes of Surrealism, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Breton, A. (1992), ‘From the second manifesto of surrealism 1929’, in C. Harrison and P. Wood (eds), Art in Theory 1900–1990: An Anthology of Changing Ideas, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 44649.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Brown, S. D. and Hoskins, A. (2010), ‘Terrorism in the new memory ecology: Mediating and remembering the 2005 London Bombings’, Behavioral Sciences of Terrorismand Political Aggression, 2:2, pp. 87107.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Chen, S. and Tian, X. (2023), ‘What’s “positive” during Shanghai’s COVID-19 lockdown? Ideology, collectivism, and constructive journalism in China’, Journalism Studies, 25:7, pp. 70322.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. China Digital Times (n.d.), ‘About China Digital Times’, https://chinadigitaltimes.net/about/. Accessed 23 November 2023.
  12. Chinese Communist Party Shanghai Municipal Government Elderly Cadres’ Bureau (2020), ‘Help you to understand statistics of Shanghai elderly’, 26 May, https://www.shlgbj.gov.cn/view/5974#:~:text=%E2%97%8660%E5%B2%81%E5%8F%8A%E4%BB%A5%E4%B8%8A%E8%80%81%E5%B9%B4%E4%BA%BA%E5%8F%A3%E5%A2%9E%E5%8A%A0%E4%BA%8614.84%E4%B8%87%E4%BA%BA%EF%BC%8C%E5%A2%9E%E9%95%BF2.9%EF%BC%85%EF%BC%9B%E5%8D%A0%E6%80%BB%E4%BA%BA%E5. Accessed 27 January 2024.
  13. Ebbrecht, T. (2007), ‘History, public memory and media event: Codes and conventions of historical event-television in Germany’, Media History, 13:2–3, pp. 22134.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Fenton, J. (2004), ‘“A world where action is the sister of dream”: Surrealism and anti-capitalism in contemporary Paris’, Antipode, 36:5, pp. 94262.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Ferguson, K. (2017), ‘Digital surrealism: Visualizing Walt Disney animation studios’, DHQ: Digital Humanities Quarterly, 11:1, https://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/11/1/000276/000276.html. Accessed 25 March 2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Fydrych, W. ([1980] 2013), Socialist Surrealism Manifesto, 15 April, https://archive.ph/CX3Z6/a12eca999ed7a9dfe0aa2dc9b00ce2a7c6ac5bf1.jpg. Accessed 20 July 2024.
  17. Gensburger, S. (2016), ‘Halbwachs’ studies in collective memory: A founding text for contemporary “memory studies”?’, Journal of Classical Sociology, 16:4, pp. 396413.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Gong, H. and Yang, X. (2010), ‘Digitalized parody: The politics of egao in contemporary China’, China Information, 24:1, pp. 326.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Gündüz, E. N. and Özener, O. Ö. (2024), ‘Digital surrealism: Video game space’, Journal of Computational Design, 5:1, pp. 13962.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Guo, M. (2018), ‘Playfuness, parody, and carnival: Catchphrases and mood on the Chinese internet from 2003 to 2015’, Communication and the Public, 3:2, pp. 13450.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Hajek, A., Lohmeier, C. and Pentzold, C. (eds) (2015), Memory in a Mediated World: Remembrance and Reconstruction, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Haynes, D. (2006), ‘The persistence of irony: Interfering with surrealist black humour’, Textual Practice, 20:1, pp. 2547.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Hennefeld, M. (2016), ‘Laughter in the age of Trump’, Flow Journal, 18 December, http://www.flowjournal.org/2016/12/laughter-in-the-age-of-trump/. Accessed 22 May 2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Hoskins, A. (2009), ‘The mediatization of memory’, in J. Garde-Hansen, A. Hoskins and A. Reading (eds), Save As … Digital Memories, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 2743.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Hoskins, A. (2011), ‘7/7 and connective memory: Interactional trajectories of remembering in post-scarcity culture’, Memory Studies, 4:3, pp. 26980.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Huang, Q. (2006), ‘Parody can help people ease work pressure’, China Daily, 22 July, p. 4.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Hung, J. (2023), ‘Smart elderly care services in China: Challenges, profess, and policy development’, Sustainability, 15:1, p. 178, https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010178.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Hunt, T. (2006), ‘Reality, identity and empathy: The changing face of social history television’, Journal of Social History, 39:3, pp. 84358.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Kaelein, T. and Köhler, C. (2018), ‘Around a table, around the world: Facebook spaces, hybrid image space and virtual surrealism’, in L. Feiersinger, K. Friderich and M. Queisner (eds), Image – Action – Space: Situating the Screen in Visual Practice, Berlin: De Gruyter, pp. 17790.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Kaes, A. (1992), ‘History and film: Public memory in the age of electronic dissemination’, in B. A. Murray and C. J. Wickham (eds), Framing the Past: The Historiography of German Cinema and Television, Carbondale, IL and Edwardsville, IL: South Illinois University Press, pp. 30823.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Kartashov, A. (2018), ‘Strategies of digital surrealism in contemporary western cinema’, University of Kansas ScholarWorks, 27 April, https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/27923/Kartashov_ku_0099M_15871_DATA_1.pdf. Accessed 21 July 2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Kirkpatrick, D. D. and Sanger, D. E. (2011), ‘A Tunisian-Egyptian link that shook Arab history’, New York Times, 13 February, p. A1.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Laineste, L. and Voolaid, P. (2017), ‘Laughing across borders: Intertextuality of internet memes’, The European Journal of Humour Research, 4:4, pp. 2649.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Ledin, P. and Machin, D. (2017), ‘Multi-modal critical discourse analysis’, in J. Flowerdew and J. E. Richardson (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Studies, London: Routledge, pp. 6076.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Löwy, M. (2022), ‘Surrealism and revolutionary romanticism in May’, in E. H. King and A. Susik (eds), Racial Dreams: Surrealism, Counterculture, Resistance, University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, pp. 4047.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Lu, Y., Pan, J. and Xu, Y. (2021), ‘Public sentiment on Chinese social media during the emergence of COVID-19’, UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy, 15 March, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3757135. Accessed 22 May 2024.
  37. Machin, D. (2013), ‘What is multimodal critical discourse studies?’, Critical Discourse Studies, 10:4, pp. 34755.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Neiger, M., Meyers, O. and Zandberg, E. (2011), On Media Memory: Collective Memory in a New Media Age, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
    [Google Scholar]
  39. Nilsen, D. L. (1990), ‘The social functions of political humour’, The Journal of Popular Culture, 24:3, pp. 3547.
    [Google Scholar]
  40. Nora, P. (1996), ‘General introduction: Between memory and history’, in P. Nora and L. D. Kritzman (eds), Realms of Memory: The Construction of the French Past, Vol. 1 Conflicts and Divisions (trans. A. Goldhammer), New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 120.
    [Google Scholar]
  41. Pomian, K. (1996), ‘Franks and Gauls’, in P. Nora (ed.), Realms of Memory: The Construction of the French Past, Vol. 1 Conflicts and Divisions, New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 2728.
    [Google Scholar]
  42. Reading, A. (2002), ‘Digital interactivity in public memory institutions: The uses of new technologies in Holocaust museums’, Media Culture and Society, 25:1, pp. 6785.
    [Google Scholar]
  43. Romanienko, L. A. (2007), ‘Antagonism, absurdity, and the avant-garde: Dismentaling soviet oppression through the use of theatrical devices by Polan’s “Orange” solidarity movement’, Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschidenis, 52:S15, pp. 13351.
    [Google Scholar]
  44. Tan, Y. (2020), ‘Li Wenliang: “Wailing Wall” for China’s virus whistleblowing doctor’, BBC News, 23 June, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-53077072. Accessed 21 June 2024.
    [Google Scholar]
  45. Torku, A., Chan, A. P. C. and Yung, E. H. K. (2021), ‘Implementation of age-friendly initiatives in smart cities: Probing the barriers through a systematic review’, Built Environment Project and Asset Management, 11:3, pp. 41226.
    [Google Scholar]
  46. van Dijck, J. (2007), Mediated Memories in the Digital Age, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  47. van Dijk, T. (1993), ‘Principles of critical discourse analysis’, Discourse and Society, 4:2, pp. 24983.
    [Google Scholar]
  48. Wang, X. (2023), Ageing with Smartphone in Digital China: From the Cultural to the Digital Revolution in Shanghai, London: UCL Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  49. World Health Organization (n.d.), ‘WHO COVID-19 dashboard’, https://data.who.int/dashboards/Covid19/deaths?m49=156&n=o. Accessed 14 April 2024.
  50. Wu, Y. (2007), ‘Blurring boundaries in a “Cyber-Greater China”: Are internet bulletin boards constructing the public sphere in China?’, in R. Butsch (ed.), Media and Public Spheres, London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 21022.
    [Google Scholar]
  51. Wu, Y. and Wall, M. (2019), ‘Prosumers in a digital multiverse: An investigation of how Weixin is affecting Chinese citizen journalism’, Global Media and China, 4:1, pp. 3651.
    [Google Scholar]
  52. Xu, Y. (2007), ‘Death and dying in the Chinese culture: Implications for health care practice’, OME Health Care Management & Practice, 19:5, pp. 41214.
    [Google Scholar]
  53. Yang, G. (2003), ‘Weaving a green web: The internet and environment activism in China’, China Environment Series, 6, pp. 8993.
    [Google Scholar]
  54. Yang, G. (2007), ‘A portrait of Martyr Jiang Qing: The Chinese cultural revolution on the internet’, in C. K. Lee (ed.), Re-Envisioning the Chinese Revolution: The Politics and Poetics of Collective Memories in Reform China, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 287316.
    [Google Scholar]
  55. Yang, G. (2013), ‘Power and transgression in the global media age: The strange case of Twitter in China’, in M. M. Kraidy (ed.), Communication and Power in the Global Era, London: Routledge, pp. 16783.
    [Google Scholar]
  56. Yang, G. and Jiang, M (2015), ‘The networked practice of online political satire in China: Between ritual and resistance’, International Communication Gazette, 77:3, pp. 21531.
    [Google Scholar]
  57. Yang, L. (2010), ‘Memory and revisionism: The cultural revolution on the internet’, in I. Cornils and S. Waters (eds), Memories of 1968: International Perspectives, Oxford: Peter Lang, pp. 24979.
    [Google Scholar]
  58. Zalman, S. (2022), ‘Down with art, up with revolution’, in S. Zalman (ed.), Racial Dreams: Surrealism, Counterculture, Resistance, University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, pp. 4966.
    [Google Scholar]
  59. Zappavigna, M. (2012), Discourse of Twitter and Social Media: How We Use Language to Create Affiliation on the Web, London: Bloomsbury.
    [Google Scholar]
  60. Zhang, J. (2012), ‘China’s social memory in a digitalized world: Assessing the country’s narratives in blogs’, Journal of Historical Sociology, 25:2, pp. 27597.
    [Google Scholar]
  61. Zhao, H. and Liu, J. (2015), ‘Social media and collective remembrance: The debate over China’s great famine on Weibo’, China Perspectives, 2015:1, pp. 4148.
    [Google Scholar]
  62. Zhou, Y. (2008), ‘Egao: Visual carnival and iconoclasm in Chinese cyberspace’, Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, Atlanta, GA, 3–6 April, https://abstracts.rtr.com/2008abst/China/C-179.htm. Accessed 14 October 2024.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/jcca_00111_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/jcca_00111_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test