Paper presented at Crossroads 2012, Paris, 2-8 July 2012

1. The ‘geographies’ of YouTube:
Language and cultural identity
negotiations in virtual space
Phil Benson

2. YouTube
‘Founded in February 2005, YouTube allows
billions of people to discover, watch and share
originally-created videos. YouTube provides a
forum for people to connect, inform, and
inspire others across the globe and acts as a
distribution platform for original content
creators and advertisers large and small.’

3. YouTube – global/local
• global in terms of the ‘universal’ structure of
the YouTube page – replicability
• local in terms of specific content of specific
pages
• how is the locality of a YouTube page
produced?
• what part does interculturality play in the
geographies of YouTube?

4. East Asian popular culture
• East and Southeast Asia – geographically widespread
(Japan to Indonesia) – culturally and linguistically
diverse
• Evidence of uneven and sporadic transnational flows
of popular culture (pop music, film, TV drama)
(Iwabuchi, 2002; Chua, 2004)
• Linguistic strategies in popular and problematization
of ethnic and gender identities (Benson, in press;
Jung, 2002)

5. YouTube comments
• Study of YouTube comments on videos of Easy Breezy (Utada
Hikaru) and Sexy, Naughty, Bitchy (Tata Young)
• By (a) singing in English and (b) projecting sexually assertive
identities in their videos, Utada and Young provoke discussion
of language, ethnic and gender identities:
– Do Asian singers have the right to sing in English?
– Are Asian singers who sing in English really ‘Asian’?
– Is it okay for Asian female singers to be so ‘cool with their
sexuality’?
[Benson, in press]

7. YouTube comments on Easy Breezy
• Why is she singing english?
• “You’re easy breezy and I’m Japaneze”???? Oh hel
no. Asian card REVOKED!!!!!!!
• I liked her japanese songs (lyric and melody wise) but
her american album just sucked. Japanesy? wtf. I was
embarassed to play this song in front of people...
She’s half-assedly trying to look sexy here and its not
working... obviously. urgh too much make up. better
luck next time.

8. Comments section as
‘virtual region’
• Comments create a space for negotiation of identity in East Asian
popular music across a virtual region that encompasses East Asia
and its diasporas.
• It is significant that the discussion takes place in English, because it
could not take place on the same scale in, for example, Thai or
Japanese.
• As the videos are viewed on YouTube, virtual representations of
their market emerge, which become actual spaces for negotiation
of identities that match the scale of the market itself.
• The kinds of comments that might be made face-to-face to a friend
in a specific location are opened up for public view and negotiation
on a regional scale.

9. Invoking context
Conversation Analysis
• an interaction is made up of sequenced
utterances and unfolds over time
• the ongoing interaction constitutes the
primary context for each utterance
• the context of the interaction is invoked by
the participants as the interaction proceeds

10. Invoking context
the YouTube page
• The YouTube page is a structured site for multimodal
interaction
• The page defines a limit to a single site of interaction
• The interaction unfolds over time (e.g., owner posts
video, user views alter statistics, comments are
added, themes evolve, etc.)
• A ‘cultural geography’ is invoked – the locality of the
page is produced

11. Jacky Cheung 吻別 / Wen Bie
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW24kXpT1sI
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ec3tb_7rnH4

16. Bus uncle
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSHziqJWYcM
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsYRQkmVifg

21. Interculturality in bus uncle
comments
• problematization of language invokes intercultural
spaces
• categories of comment on bus uncle….
– Defense of HK/Chinese identity
– This the typical “attitude” of Hong Konger (no big deal)
– Ashamed of being a Hong Konger
– Hong Kong culture
– Taiwan and Hong Kong
– Cantonese and Mandarin
– If this happened in…

22. Intercultural geographies?
I think the Bus Uncle is a very symbolic representative
of the older Hong Kong generation. A lot of them are
like that - they think they're being logical and therefore
they're all correct, and don't stop to really consider
things from the other person's perspective. Shoot first,
and don't think about it later. For example, it never
crossed the mind of Bus Uncle that he might really
have been a bit too loud. As a fellow HKer, I am quite
often disturbed by this tendency.

23. Intercultural geographies?
goddammit...this is why i am ashamed to be chinese.
even though i'm halfway around the world in SF,
they're are just more and more of these loud mouthed
bastards that crowd the bus
lol in Singapore will not be so easy for u to shout and
scream... Bus uncle...either u will end up in hospital or
Police station..
This is why I don't take public transportation.
Happens all the time in Seattle. .

24. what a shame... this video pops right up on the
top when you type "hong kong" in youtube

25. Methodogical challenges
• meaning of comments
• locations and identifications
• avoiding cherry-picking
• moving beyond anecdote

26. references
Benson, P. (in press). English and identity in East Asian popular music.
Popular Music
Chu, D. (2009). Collective behavior in YouTube: A case study of ‘Bus
Uncle’ online videos. Asian Journal of Communication, 19(3),
337-353.
Chua, Beng Huat (2004). Conceptualizing an East Asian popular
culture. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 5(2), 200-221.
Iwabuchi. Koichi (2002). Recentering globalization: Popular culture and
Japanese transnationalism. Durham and London: Duke University
Press.
Jung, E-Y (2010). Playing the race and sexuality cards in the
transnational pop game: Korean videos for the US market. Journal
of Popular Music Studies, 22 (2), 219-236.