Course:ASIA319/2022/

This is only a suggested structure. It is very likely that you will need to modify this structure to fit your topic:

Introduction

Add your introduction here. An inquiry into an area of general meanings and connections of meaning. Why an inquiry into this keyword is important? Why should people care about your project?

The genesis of the keyword

The genesis of the keyword: How does it emerge in Chinese popular culture? How does it become popular in Chinese popular culture?

Glossary of its explicit dictionary meanings

A brief glossary of its explicit dictionary meanings: its general and variable usages, philological and etymological roots, and dictionary histories of definitions of the word (historical usages and evolvement), paying attention to the continuity and discontinuity in its historical usages (be brief, no need to copy and paste entries from dictionary)

圈 in Contemporary Chinese popular culture

圈 always refers to the circle formed by gangs or groups that have anything in common. Different 圈 have different circle cultures. Its formation also has many kinds of classifications. 圈 can be formed either in real life by having the same industry, friends, hobbies, or on the social media that provides an online platform for people to meet up with those who share the same beliefs, opinions, or concerns. Also, 圈 can happen in a small scale like a group of several people, or a big scale that attracts public attention from the whole society. In modern China, 圈 implicitly reflects how Chinese people interact with each other and understand social occasions (人情世故). Favor (人情) plays a significant role in Chinese society. It is more convenient for people to dealing with issues with those who are in the same 圈 than strangers, so building up friendly relationship with own 圈 is not only for making friends, but also for selves to be better treated and helped when meeting trouble.

An elaboration of its actual usages

Friend圈

Friend圈 (Friend Circle, 朋友圈） is one of the most well-known and complex form of 圈, almost involving everyone in society. It means that people who have the same friends can form a Friend圈. When the internet was not as developed as today, people’s Friend圈 was mostly facing-to-facing offline. The scale of it was limited because of physical distance and time cost. While as cyber communication has connected the whole world, and people can contacting each other very fast, the scale of Friend圈 become much bigger and diverse. Wechat, the most common communication app in China today, has built up the online system of Moments (朋友圈), which is a platform for users to share their life with their own 圈. One special function of Moments is that the users can only see the likes and comments of their conjunct friends with the authors, but cannot see the expressions from those who are not in their Wechat contacts lists under the author’s posts. This function reflects the properties of linkage, diversity, and excludability of Friend圈.

Entertainment圈

Entertainment圈 (Entertainment Circle，娱乐圈) is a social scale of 圈 which is popular topic of public. In China, it is also called 演艺圈 where includes the artists and actors. Entertainment圈 is typically classified by industry and having big social influence. Entertainment industry basically preforms the culture and art. Nowadays it is always concerned by society because it can affect the social fashion trends and provide fun to public. The commercial value of celebrities in Entertainment圈 is not only decided by their own performing work, but also depending on their influence on brands, audience’s reflection, and social contributions, so Entertainment圈 is not purely cultural performance, but a complex market with business power and capital manipulation. The participation of a large amount of capital makes the Entertainment圈 more feculent because the lure from more fame and wealth lead some celebrities to touch the boundaries of the law. The hidden rules (潜规则), tax evation and tax avoidance are representative law problems happened in Entertainment圈, while it is a gray zone of Entertainment圈 culture.

Fans圈

When it comes to Entertainment圈， Fans圈 (Fans Circle, 饭圈 in Chinese), which is derived from the entertainment industry has to be mentioned. It is formed by the young generations （mostly girls） who extremely adore superstars and spend a lot of time and money supporting their idols. Fans圈 was initially aimed to Korean idol groups, but as Kpop culture became welcomed by Chinese young groups, Fans圈 has also been expanded on Chinese social media. In recent years, the culture of Fans圈 (饭圈文化) is abnormal and nearly crazy in China because it encourages the phenomenon that too many youth dream to be famous idols because the fans would spend love and money on them even though they have the poor ability. Fans圈 misleads an ideology to young generation that being a celebrity is more worth than getting an education, studying professional knowledge, and improving own ability. As a derivative product of Entertainment圈, Fans圈 make the entertainment market more unhealthy. To earn more profit from fans, the directors and film production companies are more likely to choose the actors with more net popularity and less professional acting experience instead of those who have better acting skills but less fans. More and more terrible dramas or films (烂片) have been produced these years. Fans圈 culture has also worsen the online environment as fans from different idols argue and abuse with each other. Chinese government has been aware of the issue that the conduct of Fans圈challenge the political and social fairness, so it implements Clear Action (清朗行动) to manage the order of net communication, crack down those who spread false information, and promote the healthy development of the website platform. Entertainment圈 and Fans圈 display the correlation between big scale 圈 as well as 圈 culture’s influence on society.

Social, cultural, and political problems

Compared with Westerners, the Chinese have their own unique “circle” culture, and they are more inclined and keener to engage in various small circles. Whether in the past or now, this kind of circle culture is loved and respected by people because it can meet the social; political and entertainment need of people and is beneficial to personal development. However, the misleading development of the “circle” could lead to serious social and political issue.

The social significance of “circle” culture is conducive to the satisfaction of the members’ emotional needs such as belonging, care, and warmth. However, egoism and self-isolation of the “circle” may influence the formation of good social morals. For example, “Fan circle”(饭圈) refers to the group of fans of certain celebrities, whereas each fan group may verbally attack each other on the internet if there is a fraction occur between their idol. The friendship, ethics, and care it emphasizes are all set in a small circle, with a sense of the relationship between inside and outside. This kind of awareness makes people generally biased and favor their own people. If a social individual in the “circle” is justice or critical thinking, it will be considered unrighteous, unscrupulous, and unreasonable, and they will be condemned by public opinion and judged morally. This has formed a bad social moral value orientation. At the same time, this kind of “biased” ethics will form a double moral standard. When dealing with insiders and outsiders, they will use very different moral standards to treat them differently. The circle culture also leads to the weakening of public awareness and public morality. The egoistic circle culture has only the concept of a small circle and lacks public awareness and social justice. It drives individuals in public places to show distrust, disrespect, and lack of due care and help when facing strangers or outsider of the circle. Because the individual in the “circle” may lack acquaintances and empathy between them and strangers. Thus, the circle culture would deconstruct social moral development.

The circle culture in China may generate political corruption and demolish the authoritativeness of law and regulation. The circle culture is conducive to circle members having more opportunities to obtain social capital, and realize economic cooperation and mutual assistance. The moral obligation of the circle culture of emphasizing mutual goal and the common good which requires members of the circle to care and take care of each other. The circle culture is a culture of human relationsa , which lead to “cut corner” and corruption when people encounter difficulties. When there is a legal or processive problem the first thing that comes to mind is to find trust relationships and eager for short cut. For example, “find connection” (托关系，找人) and “protection umbrella”(保护伞) are two common feature in the circle culture that individual seeking for short cut or shield through interests exchange of power, money, convenience and even sex. It is this kind of feature that seriously inhibits or stifles the formation of indivdual’s legal consciousness and legal thinking. When people generally realize that as long as they have a relationship, they can get special treatment. Especially when the closer and deeper the connection, the more help and care they can get. Therefore, the corrupt political atmosphere will generated in the Chinese circle culture.

Studies related to the keyword

With the development of new media technology, the interaction mode of the Internet “circle” is constantly evolving, from online interpersonal communication separated from traditional face-to-face communication. Online circles and offline circles emerge and influence each other. Although the Internet has broken the limitations of time and space, it also relies on the existence of both. Furthermore, global and local temporal relationships become both joint and conflict. Traditional distinctions between the public and private spheres are disappearing and re-emerging in new ways. From the perspective of the depth of interpersonal communication, the Internet circle transcends the limitations of geography and blood relationship, breaks the class-structured of traditional society, and continuously expands the scope of interpersonal communication. The reconstruction of traditional interpersonal relationships is mainly reflected in two aspects: reconstruction of relationships and new media virtual friend zone.

The reconstruction of the relationship mainly refers to the defamiliarization of the relative relationship and the familiarization of the strange relationship. Individuals build different circles of acquaintances based on blood, region, occupation, and hobbies, and have in-depth interpersonal contacts. However, when their interpersonal communication shifted to online, on the one hand, offline communication with each other met the communication needs of both parties, and the topics that can be discussed in depth have also been exchanged. Online communication between offline familiar people is not as good as offline communication And in-depth; on the other hand, when people are used to online communication, they also send WeChat when they are face-to-face (especially relatives), resulting in a lack of real communication and even "group loneliness". Familiarization with unfamiliar relationships means that people who do not know each other offline gather in the same "circle" because of the same needs, concerns or hobbies. The anonymity of the network avoids the risk of exposure to the real identity of members of the group. Therefore, members of the group are in a relatively equal state of mind when interacting with each other. It is easier to be honest when communicating, and it is easier to establish loose interpersonal relationships. Therefore, unfamiliar interpersonal relationships offline are online. can be restructured into familiar human relationships.

The new media virtual friend zone refers to the virtualization of offline circles and the realization of the online circle. When offline interpersonal relationships are settled in social media "circles" such as QQ groups and WeChat groups, the virtualization of each other's identities enables them to break through various restrictions in real society, and topics that are difficult to touch on and in-depth in offline interpersonal communication can be discussed online. mentioned. However, topics that can be discussed in depth in offline interpersonal communication are often not repeatedly discussed online. Therefore, in the "circle" of the Internet, offline interpersonal relationships will be virtualized to a certain extent, and online virtual interpersonal relationships are also often realized. When people reach a certain level of intimacy with others in the online virtual space, they will transform online communication into offline interpersonal communication, and it is possible to realize the connection and reconstruction of online and offline interpersonal communication. When people's communication expands from the real space to the virtual space, real and virtual interpersonal relationships overlap, acquaintances and strangers, intertwine, and the real social circle deepens communication in the interactive response virtual space, the "time and space" of people's communication is redefined, becoming a new type of interpersonal relationship.

Conclusion

In conclusion, there is multi-level communication inside the "circle". The flow of information inside and outside the various "circles" is also multi-level. The flow of information between outer and inner circles not only reflects the interpersonal relationship between individuals but also reflects the change of psychological distance after people interact. Through communication and participation, a community and sense of identity is obtained. With the development of new media uprising and globalization, the "circle society" has risen. The "circle" of the Internet Re-establishing a new interpersonal communication model has triggered psychological and emotional resonance. Chinese individuals circles have become an "imagined community" in the virtual space through the internet, shouting for the construction of national public services. The study found that the empathy communication of the Internet "circle" in crisis events shows periodic changes, and it shows differentiated characteristics among people of different ages and different knowledge structures.

References

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