Globalization and Agency: Designing and Redesigning the Literacies of Cyberspace
Author(s): Gail E. Hawisher, Cynthia L. Selfe, Yi-Huey Guo, Lu Liu
Source: College English, Vol. 68, No. 6, Cross-Language Relations in Composition (Jul., 2006),
pp. 619-636
Published by: National Council of Teachers of English
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25472179 .
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619
and Agency: Designing
Globalization
and Redesigning
the Literacies of
Cyberspace
Gail
Guanxi,
literally
in part,
describes,
another
to
The
[...].
E. Hawisher
with
Yi-Huey
translated
a
perform
term is
personal
a
favor
generally
and
Cynthia
and
Guo
Lu
L. Selfe
Liu
as
has been a central concept in Chinese
"relationship,"
society and
one is able to
connection
between two people in which
upon
prevail
or service
not used
The
[...].
to describe
two
people
relationships
need not
within
a
be of equal
family,
[..
social
status
.
is also
and]
not generally used to describe relationships thatfall within otherwell-defined norms (e.g. boss/
officeworker, teacher/student,friend).
?Wikipedia
During
the past twenty-five years, we have come to recognize with others (for
example, Pippa Norris andManuel Castells) that computer networks increas
ingly serve as sites within which people from around the world design and
redesign their lives through literacy practices. In both global and local con
texts the relationships
among digital technologies,
language, literacy, and an array of
are
of ex
complexly structured and articulated within a constellation
isting social, cultural, economic, historical, and ideological factors that constitute a
cultural ecology of literacy. These ecological systems continually shape, and are shaped
opportunities
a variety of levels and in a range of ways?as
by, people (Giddens)?at
they live out
their daily lives in technological
and cultural settings (Selfe and Hawisher).
In this
between
essay, we attempt to explore these interdependent
relationships
learning
and learning digital literacies in such contexts aswell as to highlight
the
English(es)
Gail
E. Hawisher
Champaign,
where
isUniversity
Distinguished
she also directs the Center
at the Ohio
Professor
Distinguished
she has coedited with Gail Hawisher
at the
of Illinois at Urbana
University
L. Selfe
is Humanities
Cynthia
and cofounder
of Computers and Composition, which
Teacher/Scholar
forWriting
State University
since 1988. Their
Studies.
most recent book on digital literacies
is Literate
com
in the Information Age: Narratives
Guo recently
the United States. Yi-Huey
of Literacy from
of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign
and is currently an English
instructor
pleted her PhD at the University
at Chang-Jung
L u L iu is assistant professor of
at
inTaiwan.
University
English
Peking University,
Beijing,
China.
Lives
College English, Volume
68, Number
6, July 2006
620
College English
crucial role that the practice
literacies.
oi guanxi has played
in advancing
two women's
digital
guanxi as related to Pierre Bourdieu's notion of social and cul
tural capital, that is, as something akin to a complex set of social networks operating
we believe,
forged through guanxi,
through personal connections. The connections
at
environments?at
the
local
and
levels
within
macro, medial,
many
operate
global
their effects may be amplified
levels of culture and development?and
and micro
We
understand
and complicated by, the globalized web of computer networks (Castells, Rise,
established through guanxi may allow some indi
and
Power,
End). The connections
to begin the work of addressing
Liu
and
viduals, in this case, Lu
Yi-Huey Guo,
and to increase their "access to informa
and participation"
"barriers to knowledge
both within, and across, cultures (United Nations Devel
tion and communication"
within,
32).
Programme
open our essay with their literacy narratives and introduce Lu Liu, from
and Yi
the People's Republic of China and a graduate student at Purdue University,
at Ur
at
a
of
Illinois
the
student
Taiwan
and
from
University
graduate
Huey Guo,
opment
We
Each interviewed with us when she was thirty-one years old and
bana-Champaign.
is
continues to correspond with us online whether here or abroad. Our goal?which
to tell
part of a larger project in which we have been engaged for several years?is
and digital literacies
the stories of these two women, who have acquired English
of their thirty-some years and who have used these literacies to
communicate within and between cultures as they advance their educations. In un
women have in addition depended on the practice of
dertaking these efforts, both
introduced to us by Lu. Their
stories, we
concept originally
guanxi, the Chinese
in
the
educators
a
and
for
valuable
twenty
believe, provide
language
literacy
snapshot
over
the course
first century.
Lu
Liu
the capital city of Sichuan prov
the twenty-third ofMarch,
1972, in Chengdu,
was
born into the modern People's Republic of China (PRC), a country
ince, Lu Liu
States but home to
the same size, in terms of land mass, as the United
approximately
or ethnic groups, many of whom speak their own dialects
fifty-six different national
after
Lu's birth, Zhou Enlai outlined the program of modern
Two
years
("China").
ization that eventually led to China's entry into the world of cyberspace (Scaruffi).
could help transform a society that
The hope at the time was that computerization
was primarily agrarian in the twentieth century into a global economic power for
into cyberspace, however, China
its move
the twenty-first
century. In beginning
its populace, while addressing,
and
educate
to
its infrastructure
modernize
first had
both legacies
among other challenges, widespread poverty and political repression,
On
Globalization
of Maoist
group,
communism. Lu's family, for instance, while
the Han, was far from wealthy, as she explains:
The
in was
I lived
"house"
of
part
actually
part of the dominant
a mansion
situated
621
and Agency
in a big
ethnic
The
yard.
mansion belonged to a big landlord in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province before
P.R. China was founded. The two rooms my family lived inwere part of the kitchen
of that big house. Actually we had only one room but my father extended the roof
himself and added another small room (altogether the two rooms took up about twenty
Our
square meters).
was
"house"
two
steps
away from
the public
toilet.
It looked
very
simple and shabby but my father did create a very small garden forme infront of the
house.
Like many Chinese
families, Lu's family valued literacy highly. In her early literacy
was
in a range of ways, often by members
Lu
of her immediate
efforts,
encouraged
as
Lu's
in
who
who
served
role
models.
left
his
father,
family
college
sophomore year
to support his family as a skilled electrician, bought her and her brother lianhuanhua,
illustrated story books that were "simplified versions" of "Chinese classical novels."
In addition, he subscribed tomagazines
that were "relevant to her studies" when Lu
was
in primary
school and high school.
somewhat different strategies, Lu's mother,
Using
was
a skilled factory worker, also supported
and
ploma
who
held a high
her daughter's
school di
early literacy
practices. As Lu explains,
My mother
to use
used
encouraged
to write
chalk
says writing
helps
told me
that
They
help myself
us
to read
down
and write.
to-do
her
to remember
Iwas
born
things.
in a poor
She
lists on
family
herself
Both
and
likes
concrete
the
to
to-do
lists.
keep
floor of our house.
She
She
of my
valued
education.
parents
education
is the only way for me
to
to get a better life. I cannot remember what kind of writing/reading
my mother's
housework
busy with
except
to-do
lists that my
parents
did when
Iwas
little. They
were
always
at home.
Lu's grandparents also served as literacy role models. Although her grandfather, her
mother's
father, never spoke of his work as a Secretary to the Chinese Nationalist
the
after the People's Republic of China was formed in 1949,
Party,
Guomindang,
were
his life and household
informed
by traditional
intellectual
values. As Lu re
members:
He
taught
me
to recite
Chinese
poems
and
rhymed
short
stories
when
I was
about
three years old. He read from books while I listened and learned the lines by heart.
After Iwent to school, I still went to live with my grandpa and grandma during the
school breaks. Every day my grandpa would askme: "Did you read and write what
you are
are very
supposed
important
to?" He
things
was
I need
there
always
reminding
to do on a
daily basis.
me
that
reading
and
writing
She
too, played an active role in Lu's early literacy development.
grandmother,
as
Lu
remembers
of
the
was,
it, keenly appreciative
English
language, and sensed
Her
622
College English
this language would assume both in the world and in Lu's life. She
Lu to her first encounter with guanxi. As Lu explains,
the importance
also introduced
I was very young, about three years old. My
I learned my first English word when
was
grandma
to
going
send me
to a
kindergarten.
I was
Because
not
a
registered
resident in the district where the kindergarten was, my grandma had to ask the lady in
charge to bend the rules. I was an adorable kid, so my grandma thought I had a
To
chance.
was
phrases
the
impress
"Good morning."
part
lady more,
mom
my
taught
me
to say
are
"How
and
you?"
So when my grandma brought me to that lady, saying the English
of my
show."
"talent
I was
admitted.
Along with learning these first words in a foreign language, as a child of the modern
novels,
age, Lu grew up reading "lianhuanhua books" along with "classic Chinese
and magazines
Given
on Chinese
her home
and literature for students."
composition
success
in school was predictable?first
training, Lu's
at
("tower of the talented") Primary School and later at Chengdu
Chengdu Kuixinglou
School. Lu's secondary education, especially
Shude ("morality cultivation") Middle
influenced by the dramatic political reforms
from 1980 to 1989, was profoundly
same year that the IBM personal computer ap
taking place in China. In 1981, the
on
introduced large-scale programs to modern
the
market, Deng Xiaopeng
peared
ize China. Rapidly,
these efforts began to pay dividends. By 1987, the People's
a network developed by U.S. universi
Republic of China had applied to join Bitnet,
a professor in Beijing, had sent out the first e-mail in China
ties, and Qian Tianbai,
the
Chinese
Network
Academic
{China Online).
through
But these were also chaotic times, and Lu witnessed
great changes taking place
in the late 1980s. There was such turmoil, in fact, that Lu feared she would not be
dream had
able to take the necessary steps to attend the university. Lu's mother's
Institute and pursue studies in
always been to attend the Beijing Foreign Language
a dream that her mother was unable to fulfill.
its top-rated English department,
This too became Lu's aspiration, but in 1989, when riots exploded around protesters
was "wondering what was going on" and
inTiananmen
Square, Lu
demonstrating
she could still take her college entrance exam, scheduled in early July.When,
later during the same year, she entered the foreign language university at the age of
seventeen, Lu felt as though she was not only fulfilling her mother's dream but also
own "love affair with English."
It was at this time too
following through with her
whether
that Lu had her first experiences
with
digital
literacy. As she relates:
was
My first encounter with computers dates back to my freshman year in college. It
1989 when I took my first computer class and learned BASIC (a computer language,
if I remember correcdy). I believe I sat infront of a personal computer and learned to
type words
of a simple
language
so that
the computer
can
show me
all the
files,
I can
set up a folder, or I can delete and copy documents to floppy disks. Itwas that simple.
[.
. We
.]
would
talk about
how
to use
that
language
in class
and
then
have
access
to
computers
special
room
for forty-five
we
where
minutes
all had
every
to wear
two weeks.
slippers
The
[...].
were
computers
at that
Computers
623
and Agency
Globalization
located
time were
in a
not
a big deal for my parents and other relatives. I actually told them little about my
computer
literacy
because
the computer
class was
to me.
a bit
boring
to
Lu recalls being taught these classes in Chinese,
although she needed English
in English as con
read the computer programs and views her growing proficiency
to her gradual accumulation
of digital literacies. Interest
tributing substantively
in order to learn
she needed English
ingly, in this first experience with computers,
to
which
she
used
another
the
BASIC,
program
yet
computer. By 1999,
language,
amaster's
at
in
American
after she completed
studies
degree
Beijing Foreign Lan
Lu enrolled in the London
School of Economics
and Political
guage University,
Science at the University
of London. There,
she used a borrowed computer until
she purchased a used 486 UNISYS
laptop for 150 British pounds. The combination
at the university online and face-to-face?and
of guanxi?her
growing connections
of English helped Lu to acquire the necessary materials
her knowledge
that would
enable her to finish her degree in London.
Lu also built connections
communications
the United
scholar
States
in the United
States while
in London.
a
She e-mailed
and told him about her research on images of
bestsellers from the 1980s and 1990s. Although he was
in the U.S.
in Chinese
retired, he invited Lu to send him her work for a possible book he was doing on
rhetoric and communication.
Also via e-mail, he invited Lu to join a panel on Chi
nese communication
studies at the National
Association
Communication
confer
ence in Chicago. With
his help, she presented her first conference paper, in 1999,
and in 2000 published her first book chapter. In this way, the Internet made avail
able to her guanxi that, again, would not have been accessible without her growing
expertise in English and digital literacies.
to Purdue and had purchased a
By 2001, Lu had moved
desktop computer. At
a
and then in rhetoric
Purdue, enrolled in PhD program, first in communication
to be plentiful. When we interviewed her in
and composition,
Lu found technology
e-mail and making
e-cards for family, friends,
2003, Lu was reading and writing
and professors; conducting much of her academic research on theWeb;
to listservs connected with her
contributing
pre
profession; designing multimedia
sentations for the Purdue Writing
de
Lab, along with conference presentations;
colleagues,
sites; downloading free antivirus software from theWeb; participating
signing Web
in chat rooms; and taking and manipulating
digital photographs. As she noted, de
her
some
reservations about
spite
young people who developed a "morbid" obses
sion with online life,
I think
accounts
able
part
are now
a very
computers
important
playing
and surfing
the net for all kinds of information
of many
people's
daily
activities.
The
Internet
role
in our
have
life. E-mail
daily
an
become
indispens
has
[.
.
.] helped
people
to
624
College English
transcend
in touch. Virtual
on
and keep
communities
space
I know
of several virtual
communities
for overseas
dramatically.
the Web
have
grown
Chinese.
and is able to use a Chinese
interface
Today, Lu reads and writes online in Chinese
to connect with people and to access Chinese Web
sites. She also finds, however,
can prove
that her Chinese
terms she wants to
inadequate for the technological
In
her
words:
convey.
Learning computers confirmed my interest in learning English because English seemed
to enable
me
to have
me
glish enabled
times when
even
know
I talk
the
access
to the
to continue
latest
of En
computer
My
technologies.
learning
the computer
via an interface
in English.
Some
some
about
I do not
issues,
computer
technology
to use
to my brother
in Chinese.
terms
In some respects, then, English has contended with Chinese
as Lu's academic lan
and
has
become?at
the
moment?her
of
insofar as digi
guage
preference
language
are
same
tal literacies
concerned. At the
time, however, her growing proficiency
with English has distanced her from her brother: Lu can speak about computer
in English but not in her family language. She has, nevertheless,
in
technology
vested a great many years in learning how to make both English
and computers
as she moves culturally,
work for her professionally
and
linguistically,
geographi
cally through diverse academic settings. Today computers and English are essential
to Lu's daily literate activities in the profession.
Yi-Huey
Guo
citizen currently completing her dissertation at the Uni
Guo, aTaiwanese
at
of
Illinois
and author of our second literacy narra
versity
Urbana-Champaign,
was
on
same year as Lu. In talking about the
23
born
the
November
1972,
tive,
education and languages of her grandparents,
her parents, and her own generation,
Yi-Huey
she encapsulates Taiwan's eventful and difficult history. Depending
upon the politi
cal rule of the time, different languages?and
different people?have
predominated
in her country, a country which has been known throughout the years asNationalist
the name given to the island
China, the Republic of China, Taiwan, and Formosa,
as
as
Here
is
her
far
1500s.
the
the
how she contextualizes
back
by
Portuguese
own
terms
in
of
her
family:
country's language history
My
grandparents
only
attended
school.
elementary
Due
to the
history
of Taiwan,
my
grandparents learned some Japanese in school (since Taiwan was the colony of Japan
at that
They
only
Before
wanese.
their whole
During
Taiwanese.
spoke
time).
Taiwan
WWII,
After WWII,
many
was
life,
they
the colony
non-communist
couldn't
speak
of Japan. People
came
Chinese
any Mandarin
Chinese.
and Tai
spoke Japanese
. .
to Taiwan.
[.
]They
Globalization
also
class of Taiwan;
the ruling
they forbade
to learn Mandarin
from then on.
Chinese
became
started
Therefore,
there was
some
we
can
speak
speak Taiwanese.
We
then
use. In my
of our language
grand
change
if
attended
Taiwanese
school,
(or
they
they
speak
and Mandarin
used both Taiwanese
generation
only
parents'
generation,
they
could
parents'
My
speak Japanese).
of this generation
But many
Chinese.
people
receive
if they don't
Chinese
higher
particularly
generation,
to
transitional
could
In my
us
and Agency
fluent
are not
at
Mandarin
good
speaking
a lot.
education.
code-switch
They
Chinese.
annexed Taiwan as a province because they wanted to keep
the Chinese
Although
the island from Japan, when Japan defeated China in 1895 Taiwan became a part of
Japan. It was during the next fifty years that the Japanese language became promi
a situation that persisted until the fall of Japan at the end
nent among the Taiwanese,
in the daily lan
events had many historical repercussions
War II. These
to
use
in
the
which Yi-Huey alludes
of people inTaiwan,
previous quotation.
guage
an agreement was made regarding the future
In 1943, at the Cairo Conference,
ofWorld
of Taiwan. The Allied Forces, without the benefit of Taiwanese
over to Chiang Kai-shek
and his Nationalist
Republic
Taiwan
input, agreed to give
in
of China. When
and two million
1949, then, as Chiang Kai-shek
refugees fled mainland China and
the Republic of China essentially moved to Tai
its rising communist government,
see these years as difficult and fraught with prob
wan. Although many Taiwanese
of the hard work of the Taiwanese
lems, they concede that economically?because
period yielded
people and the social infrastructure established by the Japanese?this
some major improvements
in their country, and literacy rates rose dramatically. Since
1949,Mandarin Chinese has been the official language of Taiwan although, as Yi-Huey
points out, several other languages, especially Taiwanese and Hakka, are spoken in the
more rural areas, and English has become a prized language among the educated.
times that
Yi-Huey Guo and her family benefited from the good economic
the third
marked the 1970s and 1980s inTaiwan. She herself was born inTaichung,
an
in
into
Taiwanese
middle-class
Taiwan,
educated,
family. She was
largest city
raised in a four-story house in which she and her brothers all had their own bed
rooms. From
the very first, Yi-Huey realized that education would be central to her
an English
life and to those of her two younger brothers. Her mother,
teacher of
the
of
stressed
and
the
value of
importance
twenty-five years, constantly
English
for his children, the epitome
being educated. Her father?a university professor?was,
of an educated man, and he continues
today to teach and write books about law.
seems to come from affluence, she insists
to
in
Lu, Yi-Huey
comparison
Although,
that her family comes from the middle class. If they are mistaken
for a family from
or upper class, Yi-Huey notes, it is only because of the
the upper-middle
high value
her parents have placed on education and literacy. She explains,
625
626
College English
are
my parents
consider
don't
Although
we
above,
consider
us as middle-class
is as common
tion.
Since
and general
a child,
I was
and we
teachers
all hold
children
three
master's
or
as upperupper-middle-class.
since we are not wealthy.
parents
My
always
as others
attention
that they pay more
except
ourselves
my
us
told
have
parents
that
"Our
family
or
degrees
I would
only
say our family
to our educa
is as average
as
those of others, so ifyou want to buy anything luxurious, you should work hard to get
them by yourselves. But if you want to study for the higher degrees, we'll always
support
you.
So, you
don't
need
to worry
tuition
about
things."
this background Yi-Huey and her brothers attended one of the best schools
and they did
available in Taichung. Their first language, however, was Taiwanese,
not learnMandarin Chinese until they went to school. All of the children continued
Given
school in
at home. Although
they attended public elementary
a
to
when
school
transferred
private
Yi-Huey and her siblings
School,
Yi-Huey was in the sixth grade. This school, Tong-Hai University Elementary
was connected
to the university where her father worked and was especially well
to speak Taiwanese
their neighborhood,
instruction
for its excellent
known
Yi-Huey
with science
excelled
in English
in English.
throughout
she earnestly
her school years but often had trouble
these years, Chinese
disliked. During
and math, which
her primary language and was constantly reinforced in school and through
to Yi-Huey's
in Chinese. According
the flood of television programs she watched
as
in
even
more
more
her proficiency
fluent
and
mother, Yi-Huey's Chinese became
the English
declined. Although
Taiwanese
language became increasingly important
as well, itwas Chinese
that gradually replaced her home language of Taiwanese.
a great deal of
When
Yi-Huey was in junior high school, Taiwan experienced
its
in
and
research
its
because
of
technology,
development
part
early
prosperity?in
the
around
firms
successful foreign trade, and its digital connections with high-tech
sector was
in the computer
of innovation
globe. In the late 1980s, the explosion
at home and abroad, and the Internet was gaining momen
picking up speed both
tum in multiple
countries around the world. At this time, Yi-Huey graduated from
where she
Second High School and entered Providence University,
the Taichung
was
here that she first
received her BA in English language and literature in 1995. It
encountered
computers:
became
In my
undergraduate
WordPerfect
used
offered
years,
I had
computer
classes
in school.
I needed
to
learn
and Lotus. But I never used computer before. I had difficulty to get
to computers
computer
at that
time.
lessons.
However,
I thus
turned
the
it
to a private
for help, where
institute
in both private
I learned
lessons
computer
institute and school did not help me a lot. Iwas very slow in learning anything tech
nical.
From
with
I was
confused
and
afraid
of using
computer
at that
time.
the start, however, Yi-Huey used both Chinese and English when she worked
on in Taiwan contained the English al
computers. The keyboards she typed
Globalization
and Agency
on the
side of the keys. Her
upper-right
phabet at the center of the keys and Chinese
instructions either through manuals or through her teachers were similarly in Chi
and Lotus, the first programs she learned.
nese, aswere the interfaces onWordPerfect
was
was
in
It
while Yi-Huey
still
junior high school that her family began to
show an interest in computers,
especially her two younger brothers, who became
avid gamers. Although never as expert as her brothers, Yi-Huey
eventually became
somewhat comfortable with computers and even more proficient with English when
in Columbus. After earning
attending graduate school at the Ohio State University
anMA
in 1996 in language arts, reading, and literature education, she returned to
as a teacher who relied increasingly on computers for her schoolwork and e
mailed her friends at Ohio State on a daily basis. In her doctoral program at the
to hone her computer skills, which she
of Illinois, Yi-Huey
continued
University
Taiwan
still sees as insufficient
for today's world. As she puts it,
I have low computer skills and this sometimes made me feel it difficult to survive.
Computer
use
is not
just
a fashion
puter skills is just like possessing
but
another
form
of
literacy.
Possessing
low com
low literacy.
to Taiwan as a college English instructor at
Chang
she
has come to recognize the intimate relationship of
Jung University.
Increasingly,
in her teaching and use of computers. Although
the Internet
English and Chinese
Yi-Huey
Recently,
has returned
today is populated
World Wide Web
sites unavailable before the
by great numbers of Chinese Web
took off inTaiwan during the early 2000s, it also remains a ubiq
uitous resource for the learning of English. The English Web
sites help Yi-Huey
immerse her students in English-only worlds replete with words, images, and sounds,
despite her students'
preference
for the Chinese
sites.
Discussion
sorts of themes can we draw from Lu and Yi-Huey's narratives of
literacy and
English learning as they intersect with the cultural ecology inwhich these two women
live out their lives? In many respects, their stories serve to underscore
and amplify
several themes that have emerged in current scholarship on digital literacies, but
the challenges facing people from around the world as
they also demonstrate
they
What
and redesign
design
their literacies
in cyberspace.
Digital literacies, indeed all literacies, exist and develop within
complex and interrelated local and global ecologies.
Our
the context of
States, for example, and the work of
study of digital literacies in the United
like Brian Street, James Gee, Harvey Graff, and Deborah Brandt
{Literacy)
remind us that we cannot hope to understand any
or
literacy or language use?print
scholars
627
628
College English
we understand the complex social and cultural
digital?until
ecology, both local and
are
within
which
As these two narra
and
values
situated.
global,
literacy practices
tives indicate, the ways in which people from various nations acquire and develop
are prevented from doing so?depends
on a constellation
of fac
digital literacy?or
tors: among just a few of them, income, education, access and the specific conditions
in English, and support systems, some
of access, geographical
location, proficiency
times in the form of guanxi and sometimes practiced over the Internet.
The
also demonstrate
the multiple
di
literacy narratives of Lu and Yi-Huey
on
to
mensions
which technology helps
shape the lived experiences of people within
a cultural
of markets
Related
macrolevel
trends
such as the globalization
ecology.
and monetary
systems,
the growth of information
China's efforts to modernize
networks, the rapid pace of tech
an agrarian society, Taiwan's ex
of U.S. technological
interests during
innovation,
periment with democracy, and the expansion
their language
the 1980s and 1990s clearly shaped the lives of these two women,
the
have
and
valued. These
and
acquisition,
acquired
digital literacy practices they
women came of age and attended school in the early 1980s just as the People's Re
nological
public of China began to realize the dividends of massive economic and technologi
cal reforms and Taiwan began a period of increasing economic prosperity. Both
were influenced by their country's emphasis
women's
literacy practices and values
on
infrastructures, assembling a critical mass of skilled engi
building technological
neers and scientists, investing in education and educational technology, establishing
political stability, and formulating
lived experiences of its citizens.
Linked
themselves
technology
policies
that made
a difference
in the
to these macrolevel
trends, of course, have been factors that manifest
level of the individuals' environments. The high schools
attended were beginning to offer courses that incorporated the
at the medial
that Lu and Yi-Huey
as in the United
use of computers?although,
States, these first passes at integrating
successes
met
and failures. Each school Lu and
into
with
varied
teaching
technology
had achieved an excellent reputation for the teaching
Yi-Huey attended, moreover,
of English, a language that proved essential in advancing their educations and digi
the high value that both Lu's and Yi-Huey's
tal literacies. Similarly, at the microlevel,
to ensure that their offspring
on
determination
their
and
parents placed
literacy
to accu
attended the best schools available have given their daughters opportunities
the requisite cultural capital (Bourdieu) to acquire English and the literacies
of technology. As in the United
States, however, physical access to computers has, at
even
when access has been available the specific condi
and
been
times,
sporadic,
tions have sometimes proven less than conducive to learning digital literacies. Lu,
for example, found that learning BASIC was pretty boring, and Yi-Huey notes:
mulate
I started to learn computers when Iwas afreshman inmy college life. I had not much
motivation
to learn
computer
at all at that
time. The
courses
did not
help
me
at all.
Rather
after
I did
tion.
I felt that the computer
taking the course,
access
at that
not have
to the computer
a very
was
time
inven
inconvenient
the
except
629
and Agency
Globalization
class
time.
Al
though the school had a computer lab itwas always full. And that somehow made me
lose patience
in learning
to use
computer.
only subject she tells us that
Yi-Huey did, however, excel in English in school?the
she really excelled in. Her expertise in English and her subsequent schooling in the
United
States eventually provided her with a kind of access that allowed her to de
literacies,
velop digital
The
site
although
never
to the extent
she thought was necessary.
is seldom
monocultural
and
of literacy
ecology
between
of contestation
competing,
emerging,
and fading languages
never
static;
changing,
it is always
a
accumulating,
and literacies.
ecology of literacy consists of a dynamic mosaic of patches, mini
systems characterized variously by different languages and histories
self-organizing
and locations, different literacy practices and digital environments,
different belief
and
different
systems
hegemonic
relationships,
"organisms, artifacts, landscapes,
this dy
dialects, communities,
cultures, and social individuals" (Lemke 94). Within
The
cultural
namic environment,
levels, and different
both hegemonic
and counterhegemonic
forces contend atmany
literacies and languages emerge, compete, change, accumulate,
and fade.
In this context, scholars have continued to express concerns about the overlap
and globalization,
ping processes of informatization
especially when considering
U.S.
but
numbers
have also identified
expansionism,
technological
increasing
in
tendencies
various
around
the world. As
counterhegemonic
patches
developing
and globalization
have the capacity to
Randy Kluver has argued, "If informatization
transform culture (the yang), then they also strengthen
them (the yin)." And, as
Kewen Zhang and Xiaoming Hao add, the recent proliferation
of non-English me
dia in cyberspace may serve to fortify and strengthen
the cultures of immigrants,
than
rather
weaken
them.
the literacy narratives of Lu Liu and Yi-Huey Guo bear out this
In 1995, when these women were twenty-three, for example, Netscape
began supporting both Chinese and Japanese. Soon thereafter, as Joe Lockard notes,
"Asian nets started expanding exponentially,"
and by the time that Yi-Huey
and Lu
Liu were working on computers
in graduate school they were able to access Web
sites not only in English, but also in Chinese.
In 2001, as Lu and Yi-Huey were
Certainly,
understanding.
working
that
on their doctoral
degrees
in the United
States,
Steven Jarvis was writing
[t]he distinction between the global and the local is always a negotiated one. [. . .]
[T]he fact that three quarters of the content on the Internet is in English has led
and leaders to voice concern
many Asian governments
to the moral
could be detrimental
fabric and cultural
that the openness
of the Internet
of some communities.
identity
630
College English
it is possible
in pure
However,
glish
this
that
dominates
could
be somewhat
While
En
overstated.
position
an eye is cast toward what
when
information
people
numbers,
actually consume on the Internet, the validity of the "English Imperialism" argument
becomes
suspect.
in 2000,
Japanese
To
the case
take
and
there
active
over
of Japan,
low
relatively
95%
of all web
of access
level
to
pages
are written
non-Japanese
in
sites
(5).
author associated with Funredes, a nongovernmen
cultural and linguistic diversity on theWeb?
Pimienta?an
By 2002, Daniel
tal organization
is a
in defending
reported
[...] the relative presence of English on theWeb has declined from 75% in 1998 to 50%
today (in terms of the percentage of web pages in English).
The
of each
presence
language
on
the Web
appears
to be
proportional
to the number
of
web users who speak that language (at least for the 7 languages we have studied),
in the number
The
growth
tion, whereas
users
of English-speaking
in other
numbers
linguistic
areas
has
are often
and
slowed
very
growing
is close
strong
to satura
(with
the
in the lead).
Chinese
should also note that?given
the multiplied
literacy practices of individuals like
in a number of different parts of the world, including sub-Saharan
Lu and Yi-Huey
itself is changing and being
Africa, Egypt, India, Greece, and Korea?cyber-English
as
some
think,
(Lockard). Consider, for example, this
"cyberneopolitan"
redesigned,
We
in 1996:
post cited by Lockard
I am sorrywith purists but cultural domination of a language has always determinated
in non-native
or
a strong
towards
dominated
culturally
In USA
contamination.
a
development,
this is clear
maybe
in blacks'
unconsciosly
slung and
of
latinos
riot,
like
it happens formaya indigenous inMexico, irish in Ireland, Catalanouse in Spain and
others. I personally don't love english like don't love italian prefering usually talk in
neapolitan.
As Lockard
continues,
Brathwaite's
Kamau
this kind of language
description
it is in an English which
wave
...
sometimes
recalls
of nation
language:
"It may
be
in English:
is like a howl, or a shout or amachine-gun
it is English
and African
at the
same
but
often
or the wind or a
time."
In discussing
similar variations of language in the Caribbean, Emily Williams
sug
seem
at
often
first
while
that
such
repre
efforts,
simplistic,
glance
they might
gests
sent an effective form of linguistic resistance, a "sophisticated code of communication"
can serve as a "distancing
to the colonizers,"
which, while "largely unintelligible
an
from the European power structure while simultaneously
mechanism
providing
Lu notes that such literate re
enclave of survival for the slave" (22). Min-Zhan
sponses represent "diverse visions of what life and success have meant and could and
(34), "senses of self, visions of life, and notions of one's relations with
and the world" (28) that are resistant to dominant hegemonies.
should mean"
others
631
and Agency
Globalization
nation language, pidgin, or Cre
resistant Englishes?cyberneopolitan,
out of specific ecological patches in Italy, Jamaica, India, Egypt, or China,
ole?grow
among many other locations. On the Internet, these variations compete with each
and fade. As they do so, they also
other, change over time, and also accumulate
These
efforts do not mean,
system for digital literacy. These
formations of
associated with the potent overlapping
U.S.
has
been
obviated
culture
and
informatization,
(see Bollag; Dor;
globalization,
a complex set of factors within patches of an
Chang). Rather, they indicate that
change the larger ecological
of course, that the hegemony
the play of difference among patches?may
support ongo
and change. As authors of a 1999 British report entitled The
summed up the case:
ecological system?and
ing efforts of resistance
Future
ofEnglish
is [...] at a critical moment
[T]he
language
who
the number
of people
speak English
career:
in its
global
as a second
language
within
will
a decade
exceed
or so,
the num
ber of native speakers. The implications of this are likely to be far reaching: the centre
of authority regarding the language will shift from native speakers as they become
in the
global
stake-holders
minority
resource.
Their
longer provide the focal point of a global English
longer
form
the unchallenged
authoritative
models
literature
and
television
may
no
language culture; their teachers no
for
learners.
("Language"
par.
3)
or not, in their online conversations
Lu's and Yi-Huey's use of resistant Englishes,
to us in our role as their U.S.
remains
hidden
and
friends
essentially
family
with
and colleagues. At the same time, however, we have watched firsthand as
Yi-Huey has at times struggled with the language and arrangement of theWorld
In one instance, she tried to secure U.S. airline tickets to travel to Tai
Wide Web.
wan but felt she was misled by the English online
advertising. She was angry enough
teachers
to write
of this "consumer threat" in a formal academic paper that she presented at
on Computers
In her paper, she wraps her con
andWriting.
in an academic discourse which
in its own way is every bit as resistant and
the 2002 Conference
cerns
critical of the status quo as Lockard's example. She writes, for example, that "Even
and nonlinear
information system of the hypertext liber
though the multiplayered
ates a reader from reading linear texts, it has generated violence
in the network
are
to
the
readers
where
the
forced
writer's
community,
struggle against
hegemony.
is particularly serious when the readers engage in the process of
for
the purpose of commerce." Here
she argues that far from
hypertext reading
a
at
reader free, theWeb's hypertext format is
best confusing and at worst a
setting
venue that enables
to deceive consumers. Her paper
webmasters
English-writing
This
phenomenon
as an
outraged complaint in class and eventually made its way into a written
which
she reworked into a conference proposal and presentation.
response
began
People
often
exert their own powerful agency in, around, and through digital literacies,
in resistant
and
unanticipated
ways.
632
College English
Lu also points out, people continually design and redesign the
As Min-Zhan
local ecological patches they inhabit through literacy practices and values. The sto
ries of Lu Liu and Yi-Huey Guo, and the work of scholars such as Anthony Giddens,
as people's
remind us that?even
language acquisition and digital literacies are being
and microlevel
factors in the literacy ecology they in
shaped by macro-, medial-,
environments
also
these
habit?they
shape
through their language practices and
are only
the digital environment
values. Within
of the Internet, Lu and Yi-Huey
two individuals among millions
and
landscapes of
continually designing
redesigning
cyberspace through their literacy practices on bulletin boards and in chat rooms, in
e-mail and on nonprofit Web
sites, and through their efforts to teach and to learn.
both
women's
lives have clearly been shaped by the overlapping,
Although
trends
of
and informatization,
and the U.S. efforts of tech
macrolevel
globalization
acquisition of digital literacies, their interest in English,
nological expansion?their
have also been clearly influenced by the lit
and family, peers and teachers. And just as
their own code-switching
literacy practices work for them.
their study in the United
States?they
eracy practices and values of parents
clearly, they have made
Yi-Huey notes, for instance,
The
language
[I] use
depends
on whom
Iwrite
to or what
Iwant
to search
or research
about. In terms of English, I often do three things: (1) e-mail contact with my inter
national friends, (2) searching for shopping information online, and (3) academic
writing. In terms of using Chinese, I usually do the following things: (1) workplace
writing, (2) read the news thru the Internet.
As Anthony
Smith
Internet necessarily
argues, it is amistake
leads to amonologic
to think that the global landscape
global culture or language:
of the
that the techno-economic
follows
that "culture
structure,"
[T]o believe
sphere will
is to
of a global
and content
the impetus
and therefore
the conditions
culture,
provide
once
same economic
that dogged
the debate
determinism
the
be misled
again by
historical
the vital role of common
and to overlook
about
"industrial
convergence,"
experiences
and
[. ..] culture.
(180)
seem to know, as does John Tomlinson,
that the articulated forma
and technology have resulted in a cyber land
tions of globalization,
informatization,
theWest, America, nor multinational
capitalism?can
fully
scape that "no one?not
control" (189).
We
should note here that the personal motivations,
interests, actions, and per
Lu and Yi-Huey
also to
sonalities of these two women?bolstered
by the practice of guanxi?seem
have had a significant effect on their literacy practices, their values, and the environ
ments inwhich they live, work, and interact with others. Although Yi-Huey
struggled
her desire to please her parents and her
within her early educational environments,
to acquire English were factors that helped make it possible for her
determination
Globalization
to succeed
in school
with
633
and Agency
and to pursue an advanced education. Similarly, although Lu's
computers were limited and less than applicable to her inter
early experiences
to education?and
ests in language studies, her personal commitment
the shaping
her to persevere in school.
influence of her family's literacy values?encouraged
This same theme of personal agency also played itself out in terms of gender
and computer use. Yi-Huey, for instance, persisted in developing com
in her country tend to pursue studies in
puter expertise despite the fact that women
the humanities. As she explains,
expectations
in Taiwan,
fer
females
tend
since
female
to think
engineering
students
with
word-processing
it's better
I do
And
meanwhile
majors,
males
to blue-collar
related
science
think
major
affects
this
didn't
Take
majors.
and more
have
in engi
lit
computer
of
acquisition
many
example,
in Taiwan.
days
people
majors
to more
leads
jobs. This
male
students
for
me,
undergraduate
our
pre
that
to believe
tend
students
major
engineering/science
skills in my
science
Not
why,
people
knowing
and men
for analytical
skills. In addition,
to choose
for the women
humanities-related
are more
majors
in humanities/social
major.
humanities
neering/science
eracy, because
pared
that
or social
humanities
majors.
engineering
are
for memorization
gifted
women
also
prefer
or
science
computer
I only
courses
com
learned
some
In short, given the overdetermined?and
of cultural tenden
often invisible?force
to
her
motivation
and
cies, Yi-Huey's
tenacity,
acquire
develop digital literacy, at
tests to the power of her personal agency within the cultural ecology she inhabits. It
is also likely that these same invisible forces may have shaped her as a woman
expect and achieve easy success with the English
language.
Schools,
and
homes,
through which
the
increasingly
Internet
people gain access to digital
itself
are
primary
to
gateways
literacies.
to the gateways?supported
Finally, we find it useful to pay some attention
of
the
Lu
and Yi-Huey access to the acqui
practice
again by
provided
guanxi?that
sition and development
of digital literacies. Individuals who gain access to technol
ogy through the standard gateways of school, home, and increasingly the Internet
also frequently network with those who may serve as literacy sponsors. Brandt uses
this
term
"sponsor"
to denote
"agents,
local
or
distant,
concrete
or
abstract,
who
as well
as recruit,
lit
enable, support, teach, model,
regulate, suppress or withhold
some
it
in
we
a
As
166).
mentioned,
eracy?and
gain advantage by
way" ("Sponsors"
related notion of guanxi emerges from the stories of Lu and Yi-Huey. Lu tells us
that guanxi iswidely used when people talk about doing business in China and that
the
term
ganizations
alone. The
academic
refers
to networks
constituted
by
relatives,
acquaintances,
teachers,
or
or
that can help people achieve something they might not be able to achieve
lives, for example, often took the form of
guanxi in Lu and Yi-Huey's
connections
of parents and friends that facilitated their studies abroad,
634
College
English
in the use of information
supported their developing
sophistication
technologies,
and finally became crucial to their literacy development. These personal networks
allowed Lu first to travel from the People's Republic of China to London and then
to the United
education.
States for her conference
paper and subsequently her graduate-school
same sorts of international
connections
also led to further tech
These
and the
case, to both the Ohio State University
Yi-Huey's
gateways?in
was
to
of
she
where
able
additional
Illinois,
University
develop
digital literacy ex
serves
term
to
The
Chinese
extend
Brandt's
pertise.
guanxi, then,
explanation of
a
more
literacy sponsorship?providing
complex, concrete, and global perspective
nology
on how
such relationships
By
Lu
Ending,
in an increasingly
but
Only
for
networked
the
world.
Moment
taught us a great deal about the complex local and global
to develop digital literacies. Using
the
they have worked
us
own
as a communicative
shown
how
their
environment,
they have
languages
and Yi-Huey
ecologies within
Web
of
Way
function
have
which
and resist the linguistic formation of Standard
in digital spaces. They have also demon
of English
strated how their interests, values, and practices have shaped the cultural exchanges
in which they have participated,
and how their literacies have func
of information
and literacy practices both
English and the dominance
reflect
to redesign the world they inhabit. Their narratives, we believe, also
size the interdependent
relationship between
learning English(es),
learning
means of success in an increasingly technological
the
and
literacies,
acquiring
the connections
between
Lu and Yi-Huey's
stories, for instance, highlight
tioned
empha
digital
world.
guanxi
that form
concept of social and cultural capital: personal connections
in both per
social networks and help individuals acquire the means of succeeding
the family, friends, and
sonal and economic arenas. In this context, we understand
valu
shared knowledge,
education, and beliefs?as
spouses of the two women?their
and Bourdieu's
able sets of personal resources. The
instance, provided her a context?and
background of Yi-Huey's family, for
a set of resources?that
helped to encourage
and enable her to pursue her own education and to develop the digital literacy that
success. Similarly, the academic connections
was a critical part of her educational
over the
in
the
with
United
Lu
scholars
that
States, China, and London
forged
Internet helped her to present her first conference paper and publish her first book
academic
chapter.
In short, we have come to understand guanxi as a useful term for describing not
of connections
and resources that structure
only the richly textured constellations
are related?
the lives of individuals, but also for suggesting how these connections
at various
economic
the social, cultural, ideological,
levels and in a range of ways?to
that structure the "information age" (Castells, Rise). The
formations
and
term
and Agency
Globalization
that confront
also gives us a sense of how complexly rendered are the challenges
to
must
within
learn
who
students
operate effectively
contemporary
dynamic and
at
rapidly changing economic contexts shaped by the logic of flexible accumulation
the local, regional, and global levels. In an increasingly
technological world, per
also com
and resources can be amplified in reach and scope?but
sonal connections
of
the
in
and
network
their
formation
expanding
deployment?within
plicated
and through the practice of digital literacies. Lu Liu and Yi
computer networks
their own ways to cope successfully with these chal
have
discovered
Guo
Huey
us about
about the influence of
have
the
way,
guanxi?and
taught
lenges and, along
their personal
literacies?in
digital
lives.1
and professional
Note
thank
1.
We
are indebted
them
sincerely.
at every
step of the way worked
to make
our essay better. We
Cited
Works
Burton.
Bollag,
Pierre.
Bourdieu,
Brandt,
-.
Language
"Sponsors
Literacy
in American
Edward
Manuel.
MA:
Maiden,
in Academe."
Chronicle
English Dominates
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