Abstract
The study focuses on the WeChat usage and WeChat group activities of a group of Pumi youngsters in order to investigate their self-expression and interaction. This is done by adopting methods of online ethnography and offline fieldwork, which explains how the new medium gets involved in their daily lives and is used to construct multiple narrations. In this article, WeChat is regarded to be a kind of self-processed cultural description and practice. Meanwhile, WeChat builds one’s daily life through double articulation as mentioned by Roger Silverstone. Thus, WeChat connects reality and virtual space, interweaves individual minds with ethnic beliefs and achieves a tighter interaction between the inside and the outside of a village.
In order to have a thorough, expansive understanding of the Internet, it is necessary to look at a diverse group of users, practices, and platforms. In contrast to Internet studies research that focuses on Western and urban populations, this article addresses users who are on the margins on multiple fronts. By analyzing interpersonal communication and self-presentation among users who are typically left out of scholarly accounts, I develop a more robust account of everyday online life.
In 2015, I joined a WeChat group named “Dayang Youth,” which consisted of young Pumi villagers from Dayang village, Hexi Country, Lanping, Nujiang Autonomous Prefecture, and Yunnan Province. As an ethnographer from the city of Kunming, I had been studying this village for 5 years, conducting extensive fieldwork with its residents. It was a reasonable step for me to extend my observations and incorporate online technologies into my investigation by joining their WeChat group.
Participating in the villagers’ WeChat group made me feel like I was back among these villagers again. The Dayang Youth WeChat group and the village are distinguished from each other yet closely connected. In my observations, I often felt like these villagers were changing into different people in this WeChat group. Most of them were shy and inarticulate in face-to-face offline situations but lively, free, and straightforward in the WeChat group, sharing their feelings quite openly.
The contrast made me wonder whether WeChat was changing them or whether they were using WeChat to free themselves, and how WeChat was expanding their range of expressions. As a traditional ethnic Pumi village located in the Southwestern border of China, Dayang village still retains its traditional lifestyle and unique cultural events. In order to know what WeChat means to the ethnic minority youngsters who live there, I tried to enter their life and cultural circumstances to find how they expressed themselves on WeChat.
A village and its WeChat group
Members of this WeChat group all live in Dayang village. This administrative village has a long history of more than 700 years. As one of seven minority ethnic groups in Yunnan Province, 1 Pumi society originated from Qiang and Rong ethnic groups in Western China. Dayang includes 169 households of farmers, with 680 persons in the village as of May 2011. Most of the villagers are Pumi; the rest are Han and Bai. In terms of industry, Dayang is still comparatively underdeveloped. At present, 30% of village income is from the breeding industry, another 25% is from the planting business, and the average annual cash income is only 1000 RMB. At the same time, because of the limited development, this village is able to retain much of the traditional Pumi culture.
There are 36 people in the Dayang Youth WeChat group, all of whom are below 45 years old. 2 Only 2 of these 36 people are women. Posting activity varied within the group: 11 registered members have never posted anything, while the rest have posted at least once. Five members work for the government or for a business company, one works in breeding. The other 30 members work or once worked as a migrant labor away from the village. Some of them came back to the village after a number of years working elsewhere.
Dayang Youth is an online social community, but despite its reliance on new media technologies, the social media networks are still largely based on strong regional, familial, and kinship relations. In their WeChat group, young Pumi individuals narrate their everyday lives, bringing their experiences into the virtual. Their online practices also include connecting the ethnic group together and expressing cultural identification.
Self-writing and double articulation
WeChat has become an important way for individuals to narrate events and express their opinions, just as the television was integrated into everyday life in earlier years (Silverstone, 1994). After reorganizing all of the WeChat contents of the 15 most active members, 3 I found 15 different types of self and cultural expressions. Among them, there are people who have strong identification with their ethnic culture, acting as custodians of folk songs and dances. Some of them are eager to change their present situation so as to seek financial success and their idea of freedom, a characteristic among migrant youth which has been observed by other scholars (Liu, 2015).
The self-descriptions in the WeChat group mainly represent the following two types: expressions of the actual self and of the ideal self. All of the participants are indigenous Pumi villagers, with their identities and interpersonal relationships almost entirely transplanted into the WeChat space. Meanwhile, people continue to describe their ideal self. It is possible to connect, construct, and enhance the identification and an ideal self by adopting the following methods. First, they would describe their ethnic identification, which is rarely discussed directly in offline contexts. Second, they would describe specific life situations in detail. Finally, when it comes to describing their thinking, it is common to try to avoid the present realities of day-to-day life. Instead, they would describe their hopes for a modern life.
By analyzing the self-narratives and Internet communication of WeChat users in everyday life, we could observe the effect of double articulation which Silverstone (1994) observes of television: “ television is doubly articulated into a household because its significance as a technology depends on its appropriation by the household both as an object (the machine itself) and as a medium.” (p. 83). The idea of double articulation has parallels with new media practices; it is also through double articulation that “new media technology has obtained or achieved its social and cultural significance” (Pan, 2014, p. 158). Specifically, the articulation among Dayang youth is presented on several different levels, including on the real and the virtual space, on individuals in the countryside village, as well as within their ethnic group, and also on inside and outside of the village.
First, in terms of everyday interactions in this WeChat group, common practices include giving out red envelopes, exchanging greetings on holidays and local festivals, and sharing selfie photos and self-made videos. Red envelopes are a traditional practice of handing out monetary gifts to friends and family relatives on important occasions. This practice has, however, taken on a new, digital leash of life in the Internet age. As one of the most popular social activities on WeChat, it is just as popular in this Pumi WeChat group. I was personally asked to hand out red envelopes when I first joined their group. “God of Fortune” is in his late 30s, and thus is not among the youngest of this WeChat group. Yet he is the most enthusiastic in sharing selfie photos. Out of the 107 messages he posted in this WeChat group, 39 were his own selfie photos. This is a good example of self-narration on WeChat.
Second, in terms of the articulation between individuals and the lives of villages and ethnic groups, there are three important features. First is the connection between individuals and their ethnic group. The founder of this WeChat group, He Dongyang, is a typical example. He has spent significant time preserving and promoting traditional ethnic culture, and in this WeChat group, he has acted as a spokesperson of local ethnic culture. In addition to this group, He Dongyang had set up five other WeChat groups, all related to Pumi ethnic cultures. He would sometimes cross-post information from those other groups to this particular one. Moreover, the WeChat group also plays a role in encouraging discussions about public affairs in the local communities. A common ethnic identity provides the basis for sharing common concerns. In one case, when members of the group were discussing how to alleviate poverty in the village, “Shan Zhi Yin” said, “Why don’t we all share our own plans. Instead of quietly making money on your own, isn’t it true that we can make it big when we pool our resources together?” Most members of the group pay attention to Pumi culture and related information. Some would broadcast the rituals and ceremonies during Pumi festivals. These discussions helped foster a stronger sense of ethnic identification.
Finally, this Pumi WeChat group connects people who live in the village with those from the outside world. Those who work as migrants in other cities would share their personal stories of living and working away from their village while also using this WeChat group to keep in touch with their home town. When I first joined this group, one of its members kept asking me who I was. After telling him my name, he continued to ask me about my job and where I came from. Later that day, it was already past nine in the evening. He sent me a long message telling me about his own background—his religion, business, and hobbies. He expressed his gratitude to me for taking the time to study their ethnic culture. I was touched by his sincerity and eagerness to communicate with me.
Conclusion
Although this essay tells the story of a single WeChat group in a remote ethnic minority village in China, the story has some broader implications. The analysis about self-narration and self-expression in communication and interaction has shown us that the process of using WeChat contributes to achieving self-identity in cultural practices. On WeChat, even people who normally seem to be quite reserved can express themselves freely and openly. These self-expressions remind us that new media can produce new social and cultural significance among marginalized social and ethnic groups.
In this sense, the study of self-narration and articulation in WeChat encourages us to observe how media and society interact with each other and how different social circumstances create new significance through media user. The analysis and research here are based on the observation of “ordinary, trivial and marginal everyday life phenomenon so as to find ways of using new media technology creatively” (Pan, 2014) in micro narration.
Finally, in mainstream Internet research, the tendency is to concentrate on the use level of digital technology, and moreover of uses among urban audiences with dominant platforms like Twitter and Facebook. As a matter of fact, however, many more platforms and practices are used by groups on the margins. These users have their own practices for and attitudes toward the Internet. It is important to study these practices and attitudes in order to develop an expanded view of the Internet as a social force in everyday life.