Incivility on Diaoyu Island sovereignty in Tianya Club

Online discussion boards are an increasingly popular mode of public engagement with political and social issues. This case study examines data drawn from online debates on a discussion board regarding a historical dispute between China and Japan since 1895. 1 This research explores how incivility, a concept developed by western scholars and applied to western communication patterns, can be applied to a Chinese cultural context while also considering the characteristics of emotional responses to the specific issue in the forum. Prior research has demonstrated that, due to the absence of a gatekeeper on such forums who would filter or edit content for public consumption, discussion of prominent issues can get heated without a gatekeeper. A textual analysis of incivility found that fear and disgust were not typical emotional responses to incivility among the members of the forum. On the contrary, 'support' was the most identified emotional response in this particular case. In conclusion, cultural context, characteristics of an issue, and characteristics of a particular topic are all important factors that affect 'incivility' and 'emotional response' in online comments on Diaoyu Island Sovereignty on Tianya Club