Reflections on my late arrival to China
Preface prepared for the Global journal of media studies at Tsinghua University, Beijing, 11-15-21
This season of global pandemic has made international travel difficult, but like other academics I can still do most of the things I once did. I just have to do them mostly from the narrow boundaries of my own home. Although I miss that travel and the wealth of experiences it made possible, especially in China, this time has given me a chance to reflect on how they have shaped my intellectual directions. I value these international connections, exchanges, and collaborations, especially as new nationalisms around the world threaten to restrict them and turn us inward. Perhaps this journal’s readers may be curious about how, as a Westerner, my own China journey came about. This will be a personal reflection, but even global structures are based on countless individuals and their relationships.
I grew up in the Cold War era, when we were taught to fear the threat from world communism. China, or “Red China” as we referred to it, was far away from my home in East Tennessee, and certainly no one I knew had ever been there. We read news reports of Chairman Mao, his Little Red Book and the frightening social upheaval of the Cultural Revolution, and when I grew older I wondered if I would be drafted to go to war in Vietnam on China’s border, as it was explained to us, to “defend democracy.” It seemed like a hopeful step when President Nixon went to China to open diplomatic relations. Many years later, even after completing graduate school and becoming a professor, China still seemed just as distant. I recall a colleague went to Fudan University in Shanghai to teach in the mid 1980s, and when he returned couldn’t stop talking about his experiences and how important China was becoming. We were not so sure, nor was I clear how that fit my own intellectual interests, which then were squarely in U.S. political communication. I began to meet Chinese students as they came to Texas for graduate school, and like other American scholars I appreciated the respect they showed for their teachers. I got cards from some of them on the birthday of Confucius, Teachers Day. My own opportunity to visit China finally came when I arranged a visit to Hong Kong in 1998, where I was taken on a tour across the border to Shenzhen. The billboard image of Deng Xiaoping watched over the dynamic commercialization of the city below, which didn’t look anything at all like my childhood images of China.
Some colleagues have asked me why I took up an academic interest in China, and I think it started with my desire in the early 2000s to better understand globalization. The Olympics were scheduled for Beijing in 2008, and that seemed like an intriguing case study of some kind of global journalism, as the world’s media came to China, with different norms and routines requiring some mutual adaptation. I wasn’t sure what kind of actual research would be possible, but I began to look for opportunities. About that time, I met Jia Dai in my introductory graduate seminar (later becoming her adviser), which allowed me to talk with her about China and these questions of mine surrounding the Olympics. Later, a paper collaboration took us to the Harmonious Society Conference in 2007 in Beijing, and the next year I enlisted her help on a book chapter, which began to lay out some of my thoughts (Reese & Dai, 2009). I determined to find some way to carry out actual field research in China, to find those emerging mediated “spaces” where something of the global could be discerned, recognizing that limitations of language, time, and energy would pose a major problem.
Nevertheless, I tried to find a point of entry, where a Westerner could pose some questions and contribute original insights, accepting that I didn’t have the luxury of time to carry out extended field work, and that it was too late in life to learn Chinese! Selecting one global issue as a focus, I identified the largest environmental NGOs with offices in China, imagining them to be specific manifestation of a global network, and I began to make contacts in preparation for my next visit to Beijing, which coincided with the 2010 Chinese Internet Research Conference, held appropriately at the “Global Village” apartments and conference center. That is when I first visited the nearby Tsinghua campus and also began scheduling visits to NGO offices in Beijing. Little by little, over the course of several other visits, I completed my interviews and published my insights (Reese, 2015), perhaps my most demanding and labor- intensive project, but well worth it.
Of course, none of that would have been possible without the help and guidance of my many Chinese colleagues, both in China and the U.S. I am almost embarrassed to recall how I tried out some of my naive ideas on them before they were well developed. Other projects followed, including with my former doctoral student, Nan Zheng, and an article based on her network analysis research about Chinese bridge blogs (Zheng & Reese, 2016). Texas colleague Wenhong Chen and I collaborated on an edited volume of research, Networked China: Global Dynamics of Digital Media and Civic Engagement (Chen & Reese, 2015), and we are planning a special journal issue to revisit these issues, with our colleague Zhongdang Pan. My most recent project was carried out with the help of a doctoral student and Tsinghua graduate, Bin Chen (who I call my academic “grandson,” because he was Jia Dai’s student, and she was mine). We used a network analysis to identify key contributors to Open-Source Intelligence investigation regarding the riot at the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021 (Reese & Chen, 2022). This interest in open-source research reminds me of (and perhaps partly inspired by) the phenomenon of the Chinese “human flesh search engine,” which intrigued me with how Chinese netizens scrutinized the internet for evidence of claims (I recalled how a low-level government official was seen online wearing an expensive watch, unaffordable with his salary).
Given the complexity of the Chinese social and media system, I have been drawn to a conceptual approach that relies heavily on the ideas of networks and spaces, rather than traditional linkages of cause and effect. That has been as much a conceptual challenge to my sociological imagination than a question of how to use specific research methods, as I tried to reconcile my previous levels-of-analysis approach with a more spatial conceptualization (Reese, 2016; Reese & Shoemaker, 2016). So, as I reflect on my own China journey, both literal and conceptual, and the many guides along the way, I don’t presume to have even scratched the surface of this vast and challenging subject. But I am grateful for some lessons learned. I am reminded of the importance of being a “professional learner,” to keep challenging myself even after becoming a more senior scholar, and to not be afraid to risk “losing face” in tackling a big subject where I don’t yet have all the answers.
Former President Trump’s labeling of the “Chinese” or “Wuhan” virus was a negative framing that helped promote a climate of fear and anti-Chinese opinions among some Americans, although I hope they remain in the small minority. They are certainly not part of university communities like mine, and have taken attention away from the many productive academic relationships that we have established over the years, and which have made my own modest research in this area possible. That is why I hope this particular network of international connections will continue to endure, as a positive face of globalization, in spite of the difficulties caused by public health crises, political challenges, and other pressures.
References
Chen, W., & Reese, S. D. (2015). Networked China: Global dynamics of digital networks and civic engagement. Routledge.
Reese, S. D. (2015). Globalization of Mediated Spaces : The Case of Transnational Environmentalism in China. International Journal of Communication, 9(1), 2263–2281. http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/3849/1428
Reese, S. D. (2016). The new geography of journalism research: Levels and spaces. Digital Journalism, 4(7), 816–826. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2016.1152903
Reese S. D. & Chen, B. (2022). Journalistic innovation for the hybrid institution: Open-source investigation of the January 6 U.S. Capitol Riot. Paper prepared for an International Communication Association preconference, Post-Truth and Affective Publics’ Challenges to Social Ties: Disinformation, Populism, Data-Driven Propaganda (Metz, France).
Reese, S. D., & Dai, J. (2009). Citizen journalism in the global news arena: China’s new media critics. In S. Allan & E. Thorsen (Eds.), Citizen journalism: Global perspectives (pp. 221– 231). Peter Lang.
Reese, S. D., & Shoemaker, P. J. (2016). A Media Sociology for the Networked Public Sphere: The Hierarchy of Influences Model. Mass Communication and Society, 19(4). https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2016.1174268
Zheng, N., & Reese, S. D. (2016). Emerging networks in the global news arena: Theorizing the structural role of Chinese bridge blogs. Journalism, 18(7), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884916643681
关于我迟来中国的思考 斯蒂芬·里斯
Chinese translation
新冠肺炎疫情的全球蔓延使国际旅行变得困难，但是就像其他学者一样，我仍然可以从事 曾经做过的大多数事情，只是不得不在家中的狭小范围里完成而已。尽管我怀念那些旅行 ，尤其是在中国的旅行和它所带来的宝贵经历，但这段时间使我有机会反思它们是如何塑 造我的知识方向的。我珍视这些国际联系、交流和合作，尤其是在世界各地新的民族主义 威胁要限制这些联系与合作，并且迫使我们转而面向国内的背景之下。也许本刊的读者会 好奇，作为一个西方人，我自己的中国之旅是如何产生的。这将会是一个个人反思，但即 便是全球性的社会结构，也是在无数的个人和他们所形成的关系之中形成的。
我在冷战时期长大，当时我们被这样教导:来自世界共产主义的威胁是可怕的。中国，或 者我们所说的“红色中国”，离我在田纳西州东部的家很远，当然我认识的人也都没有去过 那里。我们读了关于毛主席的新闻报道，还有关于他的“小红书”，以及“文化大革命”中令 人恐惧的社会动荡。长大后，我也想过自己是否会被征召到位于中国边境的越南参战，我 们的政府解释这样做是为了“捍卫民主”。尼克松总统到中国建交似乎是充满希望的一步。 许多年后，即使在完成研究生学业并成为一名教授后，中国对我而言似乎仍然遥不可及。 我记得一位同事在20世纪80年代中期去上海的复旦大学任教，回来后他不停地谈论着这段 经历，以及中国正在变得多么重要。我们那时并不确定，也不清楚这与我自己的知识和兴 趣有什么关系，当时我的研究兴趣完全在美国的政治传播方面。我是在中国学生来到德克 萨斯读研究生之后才开始认识他们的。和其他美国学者一样，我很欣赏他们对老师的尊重 。在孔子的生日，也就是每年的教师节，我会收到一些中国学生的卡片。1998年，由于一 次访问香港的活动安排，我造访中国的机会终于来了。在那次访问中，我还去了一趟深圳 。邓小平的形象出现在广告牌上，注视着这个充满活力的城市。而这样的城市和我小时候 对中国的印象完全不一样。
一些同事问我为什么会对中国产生学术兴趣，我想这源于我在21世纪初想要更好地理解全 球化的愿望。当时，将于2008年在北京举办的奥运会，似乎提供了有关全球新闻的一个有 趣的案例研究。因为世界各国的媒体带着不同的职业规范和惯例来到中国，这就需要与中 国本土的新闻操作相互适应。我那时并不确定是否有可能进行一些实际的研究工作，但我 开始寻找机会。大约在那时，我在研究生入门研讨会上遇到了戴佳(后来成为了她的博士 生导师)，由此我可以与她谈论中国和关于奥运会的问题。后来，我们合作发表了一篇论 文，参加了2007年在北京举办的一次关于“和谐社会”的会议。第二年我又请她帮忙写了一
本书的部分章节，开始阐述我的一些想法(Reese & Dai，2009)。我决心以某种方式在中国进行实际的田野调查，找到那些可以从中识别具有 全球性特征的某些事物的新兴媒介化的“空间”。我也认识到语言、时间和精力的限制会是 主要的挑战。
即便如此，我仍试图找到一个切入点，让一个西方人能够提出一些问题并贡献出原创性的 见解。我承认自己并没有奢侈的时间来进行长期的田野工作，而且那时再开始学习中文已 经太晚了!我选择了一个全球性问题作为重点，确定研究在中国设有办事处的那些规模最 大的(国际)环境非政府组织，将它们想象成一个全球网络的具体表现。当我开始联系并为 下一次访问北京做准备的时候，正值2010年中国互联网研究大会(CIRC)在北京大学中关新 园的“地球村”公寓和会议中心举行。那时我第一次参观了附近的清华大学校园，也开始安 排访问在京的非政府组织。渐渐地，在其他几次访问的过程中，我完成了采访并发表了自 己的见解(Reese，2015)，这或许是我做过的挑战最大、劳动最密集的研究项目，但非常 值得。
当然，如果没有我在中国和美国的许多中国同事的帮助和指导，这一切都不可能实现。回 想起我是如何尝试着向他们提出一些天真的并未发展成熟的关于中国的想法时，我几乎感 到尴尬。此后，其他研究项目接踵而至，包括与我的前博士生郑楠的合作，以及她对中国 桥梁博客进行网络分析研究的文章(Zheng & Reese，2016)。德克萨斯大学的同事陈文红和我合作编辑了一部《网络化中国:数字媒体 和公民参与的全球动态》研究汇编(Chen & Reese，2015)。最近，我们正计划与同事潘忠党一起出版一期学术特刊来重新审视这些问 题。我最近的项目是在一位博士生，清华大学毕业生陈斌的帮助下进行的(我称他为学术“ 孙辈”，因为他是戴佳的学生，而戴佳是我的学生)。我们用网络分析方法来确定关于2021 年1月6日美国国会大厦骚乱的开源情报调查的关键贡献者。这种对开源研究的兴趣让我想 起(也许会从中部分受到启发)中国“人肉搜索引擎”的现象，它让我对中国网民如何审视互 联网上声称的证据感到好奇(我记得有一个案例关于:网民是如何“人肉”一个戴着昂贵手 表的地方政府官员的，以他的工资难以负担那么昂贵的手表)。
鉴于中国社会和媒介系统的复杂性，我被一种概念性的方法所吸引，这种方法在很大程度 上依赖于网络和空间的概念，而不是传统的因果联系。当我在试图将之前(媒介社会学)的 分层分析方法(Reese，2016;Reese & Shoemaker，2016)与更为空间化的概念进行调合的时候发现，这对我的社会学想象力是一 个概念上的挑战，而并不仅仅是具体研究方法应用的挑战。因此，当我反思自己的中国之 旅，从实际旅行到理论意义，以及我一路得到的诸多指点，我甚至并不认为自己已经触及 了这个庞大而富有挑战性的主题的表面。但我感谢这些经历。这提醒我作为一个“专业学 习者”的重要性，即使在成为一个更资深的学者之后，也要持续挑战自己。在处理一个我 尚未掌握所有答案的重要问题时，不要害怕“丢脸”。
美国前总统特朗普给病毒贴上“中国”或“武汉”的标签是一个负面的叙事框架，这种框架助 长了一些美国人的恐惧和反华态度，尽管我希望他们只是少数人。他们当然不是像我这样 的大学社区的一分子。他们把注意力从我们多年来建立的许多富有成效的学术关系上移开 ，而这些关系使我在这个领域的浅陋研究成为可能。这就是为什么我希望，即使在公共卫 生危机、政治挑战和其他压力造成的困难下，(我与中国和中国同事们之间的)这个体现全 球化的积极一面的特殊国际联系网络依然能继续发挥作用。
(翻译:靳菁)
