The Operation of Moe: A Discourse Practice of Cyber Nationalism

Abstract

Unlike the previous cyber-nationalism events characterized by anger and hatred, the "Panda Ya Ya" incident highlights a special form of "soft emotion." This paper focuses on the common representation of this soft emotion in both self-media and official media discourse practices: moe. Through Fairclough's discourse analysis, the specific mechanisms of its operation are explored to understand the emotional motivations in cyber nationalism. The study finds that at the levels of representation and style, the "moe discourse" in the Ya Ya incident is co-created by self-media and official media as: floating factual evidence, repeatedly performed legitimacy, and normalized political figures. However, there are characteristic differences in "time-space representation" and register between the two. The operation of moe discourse is premised on human participation, with the relationship between moe objects and humans essentially being "agented agency." Finally, the soft emotion manifested by moe discourse exhibits more significant network characteristics, relying on more universal human values, and more closely resembling the fulfillment of emotional needs. This can be viewed as a new, more powerful "commonality" resource in the development of cyber-nationalism. However, the operation of soft emotions in cyber-nationalism often remains in a state of "unfinished" without a directed outcome, becoming a kind of "emotional machine running idle."