Online Mothers in Hong Kong: The Baby-Kingdom

1. Online Mothers in Hong Kong: The Baby-Kingdom Victoria F. Caplan

2. Virtual Communities • White, male, American, and highly educated (Barwell and Bowles 2000) • English dominated much of the Net, with the voices of most women marginalized or silenced (Inayatullah and Milojevic 1999). • Computer networks inarguably social networks, “loosely bounded and sparsely knit” which help to increase people’s social capital (Wellman 2001). • www.baby-kingdom.com is a virtual community, Chinese language dominated, allowing women to escape silence, although perhaps still marginalized

3. Numbers and Language in HKSAR • 197 internet service providers • 1,071,299 dial-up users and 1,249,714 broadband users rgistered (~43.5% of the population) (Key Telecommunication Statistics 2004). • Fantizi, jiantizi, GB, Big5, CNS –problems of standardization and comptiobility solved in 2000 with Unicode browsers • Use of “Cantonesisms”: on the Baby-Kingdom • “Ngo Dou Hai” (我都係) not “Wo ye shi” • “Ma-mi” (媽咪) not “Mama” (媽媽); • “Yau Mou” (有無) construction.

4. Parenting Sites • Parenting Conference on “The Well” (Reheingold 2000) • Misc.kids, Misc,kids.pregnancy, misc.kids.breastfeeding on the Usenet • Parentsoup.com, Ivillage.com & The Baby-Kingdom • Similar to women’s service magazines • Interactivity • Allows for vicarious pleasure • Learn more about new products, services, and health news • Make $ through selling ad space • Dissimilar to women’s service magazines • Content provided by the users • More interactivity • Displacement of the Experts

5. The Baby-Kingdom • Main Chinese language Parenting Site in HK • Almost completely “chat” or “board” driven • For-profit, paid by advertisements (rates) • Bounded Community (registration required) • Has Community maintenance and Creation techniques

6. Self Presentation – Aid to Community Maintenance • Username • Status on the board • Number or postings • Graphical element • Geographical Location • SigFile

7. Username • Variant of “English name” • ““Cecilia_Ip” or “Christywai” “jnwchan” • Pseudonym • “LeBlue”, “cottontail”, “ec822”. • name with mother reference in Chinese • maymay媽 “ “小吉媽媽”,”奀豬mami” “小新媽媽 • name with mother reference in English • “mummy”, a “heinrichma” and a “NICHOLASMAMI”.

8. Status on Board • New member (新加入會員), • Fresh flower member (鮮花級會員) • Pearl member (珍珠級會員 ) • Platinum member (白金級會員) • Status marking allows weight and respect given to older members, marks newbies, adds incentive to post frequently • Not unique to Baby-kingdom, other boards often have status markings

9. Other Status Markings • Date of Joining • Exact number of posts • “The community, any community, exists because it constitutes a separate claim on the purses and time and energy of its members. There is no community unless its members concede its right to fund itself by levies upon themselves. For their part, the dues they pay are an investment and they exact corresponding rights.” (Douglas 1996). • Posts are the levies. • Time and energy spent reading & responding are the investments in the community

10. Graphical Elements - Cartoons

11. Meanings of Cute Cartoons & Kawaii (Cuteness) • Incorporation of Japanese pop-culture in Hong Kong (Chan 2000). • A way in which women accept (or appear to accept) and manipulate patriarchal expectations (McVeigh 2000) • A retreat to a nostalgic childhood, showing naturalness and lack of pretense, & a way of resisting adult responsibilities (Kinsella 1995) • Or… an embrace of the child-to-be who is cute and will be using many cute things

12. Graphical Element – Photo of baby or child

13. Geographical Location • Not used by all members • Tends to be real, not very glamorous locations: Ma On Shan, Tuen Mun, Hang Hau, Wan Chai, etc. • Locations also posted in subject lines • “有無屯門區全職媽咪入0黎傾0下” • 北角返工既媽媽，入黎傾下啦 • Facilitates getting together IRL or f2f

14. Huge SigFiles 我叫做恩恩BB呀!! 我係正預產期11月9日出世0架!! 09/11/03 - 2.86kg26/11/03 - 3.60kg04/12/03 - 4.05kg09/12/03 - 4.32kg15/12/03 - 4.67kg29/12/03 - 5.22kg(浴室磅)

15. Huge SigFiles BB女Charmaine Fung 已於12月19日出世~~ 佢係迷你B~ 重6磅3安 士 媽咪個傷口已經唔痛喇~!!Thanks God for giving me a lovely BB and everything was super smooth!!!

16. Some Shorter Sigs • Due date 8 Jan 2004. It is a baby girl! • 這是我的第一胎,很開心呀! • 我好想快d到3月10日呀! 好心急呀! • Trend towards increasing social presence noted for several years (Wellman, Salaff, Dimitova, Garton, Guila and Haythornthwaite 1996) • More common use of broadband makes people less shy about use of graphics and big sigfiles. • Usenet social norm of terseness defunct in this environment

17. Meeting in Real Life • Mothers working outside the home seek lunch partners in the area where they work • Housewives seek women in their area for company and playmates for their kids. • The Baby Kingdom organizes formal activities like group barbeques and parties • Sub-communities like “2000年” mothers also plan get-togethers, working out catering arrangements, location, etc.

18. Baby-Kingdom – Gendered Space • Mostly women, the “father’s” forum has very low traffic • Phua and Yeoh (1998) describe the “unfocused” and marginal spaces in Singapore housing estates as places where women cope with or challenge the gender prescriptions (playground, hallways, waiting for lifts, gathering in front of shops) where they meet and chat • So the Baby-Kingdom is also a space where women gather to online to meet & chat

19. Posting as Gossip • Gossip strengthens interpersonal bonds, creates group bonds, and allows one to gain information about other people’s lives that may shed light on one’s own situation (Ben-Ze'ev 1994) • Useful tool in information seeking, especially among marginalized and oppressed groups (Ayim 1994) • Baby-Kingdom is an online venue for gossip, especially medical gossip

20. Medical Gossip • Women constantly ask questions like: • 在法國醫院生好唔好?” • “政府醫院同私家醫生做產前檢查的分別?” • “請介紹一個"正"的浸會醫生”. • Relate detailed experiences of particular doctors and hospitals: • “The total charge is around 22,000. I forgot the exact amount but it is not more than this figure. Dr. [X] charged me only 6500 for delivery and regular checking (twice a day. 4 days), 2000 goes to the baby checking, the doctor is also a very famous doctor… I heard some mama said that joining package is more expensive than not joining [sic], so I am just wondering if I should join this time. but my husband said it is better to join for secure reason as at least we can have a budget. But doctor [X] charge a very reasonable price because the first doctor I approached is not him, she is a very famous doctor (one of mama has introduced at below) but she is not very nice to me. I felt she is very commercial and not very sincere and reliable, she charge me almost double of what Dr [X] charge me. In fact, no body introduced Dr. [X] to me. I went to [Hospital A] because I had flu when I was prengent [sic], so I chose Dr [X]to check flu, not for baby checking. But he was very helpful, he not only gave me the advice of flu but also prengnant [sic] problem. He freely check my baby heart beat. so when I met doctor [X], I changed my mind at once. I think a doctor can make you feel : save [sic], reliable is very important. ..”

21. Conclusion • The Baby-Kingdom is an example of Han Chinese women’s online communities in the early 21st century • Sense of solidarity is formed through bounded membership, status markers, visual & linguistic clues • Fosters communication among women in their community online, and facilitates meeting in real life. • Broadens and deepens women’s social networks, increase their network capital. • Through gossip and small talk of being pregnant and raising small children, women can validate themselves as mothers, among like minded companions.