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The Diffusion of Contention in Contemporary China: An investigation of the 2014–15 wave of teacher strikes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2018

SHENGPING CHANG  and
STEVE HESS
SHENGPING CHANG
Affiliation:
Independent Scholar, Taipei, Republic of China Email: shengpingchang1991@gmail.com
STEVE HESS
Affiliation:
Transylvania University, Lexington, KY, United States of America Email: shess@transy.edu
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Abstract

The article examines a wave of teachers’ strikes that spread across China during the autumn, winter, and spring of 2014–15. Looking at event data and social media coverage of the wave, it discusses how social media enabled protesters to carry out media-savvy campaigns that involved both online and offline tactics, draw inspiration from claimants in faraway protest sites, and emulate tactics, slogans, and symbols from other locations. The episode indicates that claimants in contemporary China are utilizing social media to break the geographic bounds of localized protests and, while falling short of nationally coordinated protest movements, are able to generate widespread, cross-regional protest waves that place greater pressure on subnational authorities to give in to protester demands. These cross-regional protest waves present a third category of ‘widespread’ protests in China that are distinct from parochial/localized protests and national protest movements.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , July 2018 , pp. 1172 - 1193
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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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