Discursive activism in the age of BBS: revisiting overseas Chinese protests during the 2008 Beijing Olympics torch relay

Abstract The escalation in geopolitical tensions between China and the United States raises the critical issue of revisiting cyber nationalism in various contexts. A topic of critical inquiry, recent scholarship addresses the changing face of Chinese cyber nationalism since the 2010s, focussing on its connection with fan communities, cosmopolitan visions and the interplay of multifarious stakeholders. However, the ways in which emerging forms of cyber nationalism connect with its predecessors remain to be studied. To explore the historical connections of cyber nationalism across media platforms, this article investigates the role that MIT BBS, one of the most influential forums among overseas Chinese communities, played in organising pro-China protests during the 2008 Beijing Olympics torch relay. An examination of online political expressions not only unravels the multifaceted dimensions of nationalism, but it also deepens scholarly understanding of discursive activism, which emerged from text-based platforms prior to the dominance of mobile communication applications.