(Week 7)Presentation--Hong Kong Cyberculture: A case study

The article can also be found online from the website: http://www.hku.hk/hkcsp/ccex/ehkcss01/issue3_ar_amy_lai.htm

The article gave the basic sense of conflict between freedom and privacy in cyberspace from the introduction, but Lai’s was not going to argue about the freedom vs. privacy, instead, she was using the online forum, “ICERED”, as the example to explore Hong Kong cyberculture and drew onto discussion about “cyberdemocracy”.

(Also, there are some details about the “E-Silkroad Holdings” and how the privacy of Iceredders became explored legally in this website below, particular in the section of “Legal News From Around the World”:
http://www.hk-lawyer.com/2001-7/July01-news.htm#Legal News )

Lai’s first argument was about the domination in cyberspace, and she suggested that there was a boundary between people who had college education and who had not for the access on the internet. In the case of “ICERED”, at the beginning, it was obviously dominated by those top universities in the U.S., like Oxford University. There was also a rating for all posted articles, according to the English level based on the degrees of, such as, grammatical and expressional concerns, and comment, like “Your English sucks” was very common. This was seen as a discrimination issue, and as the disaffection from people associated with other universities, like Hong Kong University, increased, the website opened wider for more scholars.
I suppose the domination in cyberspace was not good, as it had marginal on people from other groups which might probably be the majority as well. I am glad to know it became more openedly for more people, so that more different comments could be shared.

Also, Lai pointed out that the Internet was a “racialized” space, emphasized the existence of “whiteness”. Whenever there was a topic related to racial identity, the Iceredders would use the ideal physical feature of the particular race, like skin color, to classify other racial groups as well as their own, in both assailing and defending situations. As the connection between racial identity and the physical body was so strong, and even the Iceredders were all invisible, race did not disappear online.
This is so true, and it gave me some more ideas about the relationship between our bodies and online.

Then, Lai led to the cyber related sexuality and gender concerns. She believed that within this dis-embodied space, the gender identity was being re-embodied with greater homogeneity rather than a new form of identity. Therefore, men and women both were stereotyped, for example, the idea of men being as the “sex-hunters" and they paid and used women for sex. She also mentioned about the dating relationship from the online chatting. The issues of sexual harassment and abuse were also considered. Moreover, the gay and lesbian was a controversial topic, for moral concern was involved, though the internet gave a way for people to discuss about it. However, many differences existed between the West and most Asia countries, so the national (or more accurately, the regional) boundaries for the culture were quite clear. Also, Lyotard suggested that the technologies could reinforce traditional hierarchical structures and sometimes it could even subvert it.
I really agree with Lai's argument on the cyber related sexuality and gender issues. Especially for the topic of gay and lesbian, personally I don't have a problem with it, even though I am not one. But as an Asian, I understand why it is controvisal, as it againsts the traditional cultural structure in most Asian countries, i.e., the patrilineage system. It then becomes sensitive and many people in Asia think that the internet can actually "advertise" it to teenagers, I do think this is a problem. When I was younger I knew less and I used to feel lost and unsure about things arounded me. However, again, the internet is part of the media and so ethic and morality issues included in it will be on-going subjects to discuss.

Lai, then, talked about Multi-user Object Oriented (MOO) identity, which related to people’s lives online and spending less time in their “real” life with families and friends. Many people were trying to hold on to their online identities and refused to believe what they did not want to see offline. In some extreme case, it caused to the loss of contact with the real world.
This is a real problem in Hong Kong, and couple years before there was actually a teenage boy killed himself because of the loss of weapons from an online computer game. By this case, we can see how "addicted" online can affect people and make them become confused in the virtual cyberspace. However, I think getting online is certainly having some benefits on our lives, for instant, it is convinent for passing and receiving information, it is just that we have to be careful when getting information from it.

In the conclusion, Lai did a comparison on the “ICERED” from Singapore section to Hong Kong.