Writing Chinese: A Journal of Contemporary Sinophone Literature (Dec 2024)
The Modularized Self and The Companionate Mass Personalization in Chinese Online-Diary Writing —— Reconfiguring Subjectivities in A Journey, through Time, with Anthony
Abstract
Despite its widespread popularity, blog writing in China has received limited scholarly attention, particularly regarding its impact on reconceptualizing subjectivity. This article examines the rise of blogging platforms for diary writing in 2000s China, claiming that this nascent writing condition has reshaped how Chinese bloggers articulate their sense of self in the digital era. Analyzing online diaries written by the popular blogger and “healing-style” writer Anthony (安东尼), this paper demonstrates that the graphical user interface(GUI) design of blogging sites reconfigures expressions of subjectivities online as not only modularized but also companionate. First, the paper contextualizes Anthony’s writings within the technological condition of early 2000s Chinese blogging platforms, where GUI designs instruct users to customize personal spaces through modular components. Anthony’s writing style, which uses spaces to replace punctuation marks and demarcate word phrases, resonates with this spatially modularized mode of online self-expression textually. Moreover, this modularized perception of internal space extends to his descriptions of living in different home environments, often portrayed as spheres easily customizable for an individual’s online media activities. These descriptions establish a reproducible “personalized” lifestyle of solitary living. The paper then explores the companionate effect of Anthony’s unpunctuated writing, highlighting that besides manifesting casual chatting common in Chinese-language online communications, the plentiful space and lack of punctuation also reduce affective tensions in narratives. Last, the paper discusses that print collections of Anthony’s writings embody modularization, mass personalization, and companionship in his online works through their serialized designs and physicality.
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