dan mcquillan's List: social media campaigning IS71055A - lecture 1 - social media as a platform

• In these fast-changing times, traditional and unilateral international communications cannot facilitate the building of soft power. Therefore, China should pay more attention to unofficial channels to improve its global communication network to promote . 

   

  Moreover, social networks are becoming a new form of unofficial communication. Since there are no boundaries on the Internet, people can easily become active communicators and create more original cultural products that would be welcomed by the rest of the world. Perhaps cultural officials should tap this area. 

• Its satire made it a viral phenomenon with three hundred million views on YouTube, surpassing and mocking the earnest K-pop products, and thus proving, as Seabrook says, that “cultural technology can only get you so far.”
• And I think somehow people all over the world feel invited to join in, despite a huge cultural difference, when someone from a foreign place is making a bit of fun of themselves.
• That’s inviting. But China, especially acting in its official, soft-power capacity, is only comfortable exporting things that show off the greatness of its ancient civilization or economic development. That’s not terribly inviting.”
• In Chinese cultural circles there is a name for this: the “ ‘Kung Fu Panda’ problem,” named for the 2008 DreamWorks movie. It refers to the fact that the most successful film about two of China’s national symbols—Kung Fu and pandas—could only be made by a foreigner because Chinese filmmakers would never try to play with such solemn subjects.
• The director Lu Chuan, for example, once agreed to produce an animated film for the Beijing Olympics, but after he embarked on the project, he discovered he was not supposed to let his mind run wild. “I kept receiving directions and orders from related parties on how the movie should be like. An important part of the instructions was that the animation should promote Chinese culture,” he wrote later. “We were given very specific rules on how to promote it. And some were not flexible about ‘promoting the Olympic spirit,’ ‘promoting Chinese culture’ or ‘rich in Chinese elements.’ ” He went on, “Under such pressure, my co-workers and I really felt stifled. The fun and joy from doing something interesting left us, together with our imagination and creativity. The planned animation was never produced.”
• In a comic strip highlighted by China Digital Times, the cartoonist known as Peaceful House Pearl Shimao envisioned a Chinese-style Gangnam phenomenon he called “Shanghai Style.” Instead of being celebrated for his madness, the dancer ends up being sent to a mental institution for “involvement in multiple activities,” “running crazily all over the place,” and being a pig.

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• "AN IMPORTANT FACT ABOUT THE AFFORDANCES OF THE ENVIRONMENT IS THAT   THEY ARE IN A SENSE OBJECTIVE, REAL, AND PHYSICAL, UNLIKE VALUES AND   MEANINGS, WHICH ARE OFTEN SUPPOSED TO BE SUBJECTIVE, PHENOMENAL AND  MENTAL. BUT ACTUALLY, AN AFFORDANCE IS NEITHER AN OBJECTIVE PROPERTY   NOR A SUBJECTIVE PROPERTY; OR IT IS BOTH, IF YOU LIKE. AN AFFORDANCE   CUTS ACROSS THE DICHOTOMY OF SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE AND HELPS US TO   UNDERSTAND ITS INADEQUACY. IT IS EQUALLY A FACT OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND   A FACT OF BEHAVIOR. IT IS BOTH PHYSICAL AND PSYCHICAL, YET NEITHER. AN   AFFORDANCE POINTS BOTH WAYS, TO THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE OBSERVER."    (GIBSON, 1979)

• 1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems  and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer  to learn only the minimum necessary. RFC1392, the Internet  Users' Glossary, usefully amplifies this as: A person who  delights in having an intimate understanding of the internal workings of a  system, computers and computer networks in particular.
• 7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively  overcoming or circumventing limitations.