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http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/11/12/the-5th-chinese-blogger-conference-micro-power-and-a-boarder-world/

The 5th Chinese blogger conference: micro power and a broader world

Thursday, November 12th, 2009 @ 03:27 UTC

by Oiwan Lam

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The 5th Chinese blogger conference took place last weekend in a rural county Lianzhou in northern part of Guangdong province. Despite the inconvenient traffic, there were around 150 participants from China and overseas attended the conference.

The conference slogan this year is “Micro power and a boarder world”, the organizing committee explained:

今年年会的口号是“微动力，广天地”，旨在展望越来越微观的信息分享手段和管道，促进社会进步与协作，并带来直接效应的生活方式。一段媒母，一张照片，或者一枚明信片，都可能带来积极的社会改变，更不用说有千千万万的可能性正在孕育中，带给我们一片广阔的思想天地。

This year the slogan of the annual conference is “Micro power and a broader world”. We want to look into various tools and channels of micro information sharing and its implication towards social progress, cooperation and people’s life. No matter whether it is a meme, a photo or a postcard, they have the potential in changing our society. Not to mention the fact that the space generated by the tools opens up millions of possibilities open up our horizon.

Hu Yong, the keynote speaker of this year’s conference, further elaborated the idea of “micro power” in his talk:

每个人承担责任，不是别的，就是微动力。微，就是每一个普通的中国公民，我在上面称之为“大人物”的人。动力，指的不是别的，而是说，不论言语有千条万条，改变世界的其实还是行动。

Every single person has to bear one’s responsibility and such sense of responsibility is micro power. The meaning of micro refers to every single Chinese citizen, I have called them “big people” in the previous section. The meaning of power refers to action that brings change to the world.

微，也可以指日常化的微观政治。政治可以分为宏观政治和微观政治，宏观政治是结构性的，微观政治是日常化的。匈牙利作家康诺德1982年写过一本书叫做《反政治》，其中包含了许多被后来的人们追踪的议题。哈维尔经常用的概念有“反政治的政治”和“无权者的权力”、“公民的首创精神”等。既然极权的权力是无所不在、无所不能的，它全面扑灭来自生活的任何自发性和自主性，是对于广大丰富的生活领域的全面攻击和扼杀，那么，从生活的任何一个面向、起点、领域开始，都可能造成对于极权制度的抵制和反抗。哈维尔的翻译者崔卫平老师认为，“反政治的政治”不去追逐政治权力，不制定一种纲领反对另外一种纲领，不试图以政治手段（更替领导人乃至改朝换代）解决问题。相反，“反政治”提倡在日常生活的领域中随时随地展开工作。其实，这也说的就是如何从身边的治理做起。所以，在以上我说到的互联网激发的中国民众的公共精神之中，我们必须大力强调“公民的首创精神”，即任何人可以从任何地方开始。这就是我所理解的微动力。

The word micro can also refer to daily micro politics. We have macro and micro politics. Macro is structural while micro is daily politics. Hungarian writer Gyorgy Konrad wrote a book titled as “Antipolitics” in 1982. The book has many ideas that elaborated by others. Ideas such as “politics of anti-politics”, “power of the powerless”, “originality of citizen” are Václav Havel’s favorite terms. When the power of authoritarianism is omnipresent, its termination has to come from the realization of people’s autonomy and initiation in daily life. When the authoritarian system invades people’s living domain, people’s daily act can also resist against such control. Cui Weiping, the Chinese translator of Vaclav Havel’s writings, pointed out that “the politics of antipolitics” is not to struggle for political power, it is not to produce a set of agenda to replace another set of agenda, and it does not attempt to solve the problem via political means (replacing leaders or power bloc). On the other hand, “antipolitics” operates in the level of daily life. In other words, the self-governance of an individual. That’s why, when we address the issue of the development of Internet public sphere, we have to emphasize the “originality of citizen”. Every individual can take initiation where ever they want. This is how I understand micro power.

微动力为什么重要？在过去，少数几个动力十足的人和几乎没有动力的大众一起行动，通常导致令人沮丧的结果。那些激情四射的人不明白为什么大众没有更 多的关心，大众则不明白这些痴迷者为什么不能闭嘴。而今天，有高度积极性的那些人应致力于降低行动的门槛，让那些只介意一点的人能参与一点，而所有的努力 汇总起来则将十分有力。比如，一封小小的明信片，也能汇成强大的呐喊。

Why micro power is so important? In the past, whenever a few action oriented people acted with the passive masses, the results were depressing. The passionate activists could not understand why the masses did not show enough concern and enthusiasm while the masses could not understand why the fanatic activists could not just shut up. Today, activists should facilitate action and allow people who are not deeply involved in campaign and movement to participate. Their acts will be very powerful once they are aggregated together. For example, a piece of postcard can turn into a powerful scream when hundreds and thousands of them are mailed to the same destination.

Blogger Guangyao, reflected upon Hu Yong’s talk and pointed out that the precondition to the practice of micro power is the ability to think independently:

然而微动力之前必需是独立思考，因为在这个社会哺育了畸形的价值观。在这个国家对成功的普遍定义是你是否成为一个能比别人赚更多钱的财主，这个社会不断容 忍对于社会良知和道德的底线，当然最畸形的是太多人对于独立思考的不自知。这个国家无疑比60年前有更大物质自由又更高的学历，然而这个国家在60年前后一样没有独立思考精神。50年或者100年的未来赋予了今天重要的社会及历史的责任，作为每个具体的个体，应当以微动力之势前行。用艾未未的一句话，“每个人承担责任，可能是这个社会将来变化的一个最基本的可能。如果没有这种可能，这个社会不会发生变化。”

It requires independent thinking for realizing micro power. This society has distorted our value. In this country, the definition of being success is to get as much money as possible and become wealthy. As a result, the society has kept lowering its baseline of social conscience and morality. Too many people are unaware of the need to think independently. Of course, our material well being and education are much better when compared to 60 years ago, but our ability to think independently remains more or less the same. Hence, our responsibility to our society and history in the future 50 or 100 years is to act as an individual and create a trend by practicing our micro power. Here I would like to quote Ai Weiwei’s words: “The possibility for this world to change relies on every individual’s commitment to undertake their responsibility, or else the world will never be changed.”

Media studies student from Let’s blog together interviewed Isaac Mao during the Asia blogfest and associated the concept of micro power with “cloud intelligence”:

“微动力，广天地”体现的思想，与毛向辉的“Cloud Intelligence”理论一脉相承。
在网络时代，人们有更多的机会随时随地分享。当人们在不断分享自己、分享自己认同的别人的观点时，慢慢地形成了一种现象，毛向辉称之为“Cloud Intelligence”。

The idea of “Micro power and a boarder world” is similar to Isaac Mao’s theory.
In the Internet era, people have more opportunities to share whenever they want. “Cloud Intelligence” happens when people continuously share their ideas and opinions that they agree with.

一个人分享了一个观点，其他人看到之后又分享了这个观点，更多人看到之后继续分享给其他人。通过这样不断地分享，就可以实现一群人做决定。这跟水滴聚集形成云的过程相似——毛向辉把个体比作水滴，而当个体因为认同某个观点而不断分享时，他们就聚集起来，形成一股力量，一股甚至可以改变国家政策、社会秩序的力量。

When a person shares an idea with others, other people will pick that up and continue to forward that idea to others, so on and so forth. Such kind of continuous sharing would eventually realize the will of these people. The process is like water drops coming together to form cloud. Isaac Mao compares individual to a drop of water and when individual keeps sharing the ideas that they agree with, these people would come together and turn into a power that can change government policy and social order.

今年6月，厦门网友郭宝锋因传播严晓玲案被福州警方扣留，网友发动一人一张明信片的行动，给狱中的郭宝锋寄明信片，写着：“妈妈喊你回家吃饭。”从全国各地蜂拥而至的明信片，最后真的促进了郭的释放。

In June this year, netizen Guo Baofeng was detained by Fuzhou police because he spread information regarding Yan Xiaoling’s unnatural death. Other netizens took action by sending postcards to the detention center where Guo Baofeng was held. Each postcard was marked with a sentence: “mother is calling you home for dinner”. These postcards were sent from all across the country and eventually Guo was released.

小小的明信片能把人从看守所解救出来，体现了“微动力”所创造的“天地”，这就是“Cloud Intelligence”的力量。

A piece of postcard has eventually led to the release of Guo from the detention center. It is an example of “micro-power” creating a new “world”. It also manifests the power of “cloud intelligence”.

Blogger Kissfree spelled out explicitly that “micro power” is to call upon citizen’s awareness:

促进社会改变不一定要刀枪，微动力的力量不可忽视，我觉得微动力的本质就是呼唤公民意识，让人们多了一份责任，不再茫然然过日子。微动力通过汇集众人力量来促进社会进步，虽然公民社会在天朝起步不易，但人心所向，不是一两个人物或是某个集团能阻止的，相反“他们”应当顺应潮流甚至加入我们，微动力——人民的力量！

We don’t need swords and guns to transform our society. We should not under estimate micro power. The essence of micro power is to call upon citizen’s awareness so that they would take up their responsibility and fill up their lives with meaning. Through aggregation of people’s will, micro power can bring progress to the society. Although there is a lot of obstacles for the development of civil society in China, when people’s will is pointing towards the same direction, neither the power bloc nor powerful individuals could stop the momentum. On the contrary, they have to follow the trend and join us. Micro power is people’s power!

http://special.globaltimes.cn/2009-11/487977.html
Bloggers face harsh facts at conference

* Source: Global Times
* [18:12 November 26 2009]

By Zhang Lei

Asked about Twitter and the Great Firewall of China, US President Obama told students at a town hall meeting recently that he was both a big believer in technology and the abolition of censorship.

Conceding “there’s some price that you pay for openness,” President Obama confessed he had never used Twitter, despite it being one of the most popular mediums mentioned at the recent Chinese Blogger Conference in Lianzhou.

Sooner or later attendees to the conference in the city district of northern Guangdong Province knew somebody would mention the tightening Internet restrictions experienced since the Xinjiang riots of four months ago, including the blocking of popular mainstream sites such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

An event that embraces the idea that any individual enabled by technology can bring about positive societal change, the conference offered a rare chance for bloggers to share feelings about the apparently bleak Internet situation. The current Internet environment might be harsh, but in the larger picture, comparatively brief, said Xue Ying, a market strategist who targets the blogosphere.

“The conference truly reflects different stages of China’s Internet development during the last five years, from the technology and business patterns to the emergence of a cyber elite and online public opinion,” she said.

Much debate focused on the rise of social media and so-called “Web 2.0” since 2006 that has transformed web users from content consumers to content providers.

Internet users increasingly prefer microblogging – brief text updates, photos or audio clips sent to a select group via text messaging, instant messaging, e-mail or digital audio – as it is short, fast and easy to update, said Hu Yong, associate professor of the School of Journalism and Communication at Peking University.

“The future of Twitter in China largely depends on whether more people join up,” Hu said. “Despite the temporary obstacles, it can hardly be abolished.”

Hu also quoted a recent survey by blog search engine company Technorati that “among over 130 million blogs indexed, just 7.4 million have added an item in the last 120 days,” which means about 95 percent of blogs are basically empty or idle.

Microblogs are different, he said. Even if they don’t earn the author much recognition, at least they offer an opportunity for free expression and fast feedback.

“It’s much easier to take down your mood or upload pictures in SNS (Social Networking Services) than writing insightful blogs to exchange ideas or get to know new friends.”

Social media would establish thick, delicate and multi-layered connections within society, believed Isaac Mao, a fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

“The social neuron, the basic unit of social media, can spark a blizzard from a tiny bit of gravel, through endless retweets,” he said.

An amateur Twitter user surnamed Xu said the service is not that attractive, as it enabled rightists to disseminate propaganda, benefiting from instant circulation to create a buzz.

“As there are 1,000 ways to get away with the Great Firewall, it is actually invisible,” he said.

Small actions online caused bigger impacts, according to Teng Biao, a lawyer.

“The trend of Internet is irreversible. We can expect deeper changes from the growth of civil society and separation of powers,” he said.

http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/2009/11/chinese-bloggercon-2009-micro-power.html
RConversation
Rebecca MacKinnon’s ongoing conversation with the World Wide Web since 2004.
November 14, 2009
Chinese BloggerCon 2009: Micro Power from the mouth of a cave

Twitter is blocked in China. Even so, a large and growing community of Chinese people are using it every day to trade news, ideas, and increasingly first-hand information about things that people are experiencing or witnessing. Several people have reported their detentions or “chats” with police live on Twitter. Others recently used Twitter to mobilize postcard-writing campaigns to get friends released from jail. If you want to keep abreast of the most interesting liberal-leaning social and political commentary on the Chinese Internet, Twitter is the most effective way. Since all of the Chinese domestically hosted social networking and blog-hosting services are heavily censored, China’s liberal digerati have had to move outside the “great firewall” in order to have an un-censored real-time conversation with one another.
For this reason it was not surprising that the official theme of the 5th Chinese Blogger Conference – held at the mouth of a cave in Lianzhou, Guangdong province – was “Micro Power, Broader World.” The sessions ranged from the inspirational and theoretical to the very practical. Some veteran activists spoke overtly about using the Internet to push for civil rights and even political reform. Others focused on the personal – one popular travel blogger described how he shows Chinese readers how to travel to as many countries as possible on as little money as possible. His motto is: “The world will be different because I have lived.” Several college students described how they use the Internet to run charitable efforts to help poor rural and migrant children. Zhou Shuguang (a.k.a. Zola) gave a tutorial on dozens of different ways to access Twitter. Another speaker gave a tutorial on how to be a citizen journalist. Tips included: Understand the basics of Internet and data security. Get a blackberry so that you can post live to Twitter. Be prepared in advance in the event you get in trouble. Know your legal rights and be confident when threatened that you’re acting within your legal and constitutional rights. Make sure you have contact information of a few civil rights lawyers.
As Isaac Mao declared at the first Chinese Blogger Conference in Shanghai in 2005, “everybody is somebody.” The idea that the individual has value, rights, and responsibilities has been a strong theme at every conference over the past five years. Each and every person is responsible for the state of their home, their profession, their community, and their country. Here’s how blogger-journalist-academic Hu Yong put it in his opening keynote (exceprted and translated by Oiwan at Global Voices Online):
Every single person has to bear one’s responsibility and such sense of responsibility is micro power. The meaning of micro refers to every single Chinese citizen … The meaning of power refers to action that brings change to the world.
..Every individual can take initiation where ever they want. This is how I understand micro power.
Read Oiwan’s whole post for more people’s perspectives on “micro power” on the Chinese Internet.
One participant who sat next to me on the bus back to Guangzhou told me he comes to these conferences every year to remind himself he’s not alone. His co-workers and family don’t have much interest in or sympathy for the CNBloggercon rhetoric. In fact they find it dangerous and subversive, despite the fact that nothing said or done at any of the CNBloggercon conferences I’ve attended has violated any Chinese laws in any way.
But in China, simply making a point of exercising your constitutional rights can be a major feat. For the last four years the Chinese Blogger Cons were held in major cities. This year has been so politically sensitive – thanks to the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic, among other things – that organizers only announced the conference a few weeks in advance. The meeting itself was held in a tourist hiking area at the mouth of a cave in a place called Lianzhou – four hours north of Guangzhou – which many residents of Guangzhou have never even heard of.
As blogger and citizen journalist Zhang Shihe (a.k.a. “Tiger Temple”) put it, the CNBloggerCon community is engaged in an effort to “boil the frog in the reverse direction” – get the regime slowly used to functioning in an environment in which independent liberal voices are present and heard, without needing to freak out or fall apart. As Ran Yunfei (pictured at the top of this post) put it: “As we use the Internet every day, it changes us – It has made me more tolerant and taught me to play by a set of rules… As we train ourselves we are also training the government.. hopefully one day they will understand that they don’t need to be afraid of us, that we can all legally and rationally coexist.”
Posted at 02:04 AM | Permalink

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2009/11/13/ahead-of-obama-trip-briefing-for-chinas-bloggers/
The Wall Street Journal

中国实时报

China Realtime Report

November 13, 2009, 4:15 AM ET

China’s bloggers are a focus of organizers of the Obama visit, echoing similar efforts by the administration to use social media tools to communicate with Americans.
On Thursday, U.S. state department officials held simultaneous press briefings for a select group of predominantly Chinese bloggers in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, giving a run-down of the U.S. president’s China schedule and took questions from the bloggers.
The attendee list included many influential bloggers, such as journalist Michael Anti, who blogs about freedom of the press, and Rao Jin, whose Anti-CNN Web site scrutinizes China coverage by CNN and other foreign media. Jeremy Goldkorn, of Danwei.org, represented the English-language China blogosphere. The group also included a couple of big names from China’s Internet world beyond blogs, such as Gary Wang, CEO and co-founder of online video sharing site tudou.com, and Peking University journalism professor and author Hu Yong.
In true social media fashion, several of the bloggers twittered the briefing, which was on the record. They also spoke openly about issues of concern to them: China’s Internet restrictions. One blogger asked if Obama would be able to use Twitter and Facebook while in China. (Both are accessible only by proxy in China). Another suggested that Obama visit a local Internet café so that he could understand the difficulties faced by ordinary people in accessing information.
To be sure, the bloggers’ concerns reflect a small corner of Chinese life and one participant said that most people in China are more concerned with their freedom to do business and their freedom to travel to America than with their freedom of speech. An embassy official replied that the composition of the group was intentional, a chance to hear Chinese voices from outside the mainstream.
Still in doubt, though, is whether the Obama administration will get its stated wish to hear more of these voices during the president’s planned “town hall” meeting with young people in Shanghai. Officials in the Chinese and American governments are still negotiating the terms of the meeting, scheduled for Monday afternoon, leading to some speculation that the event may be cancelled.
–Sky Canaves