Abstract
Koi culture is a Japanese national tradition, created in that country over a century ago, and this tradition has since been exported to, and localized in, many countries around the world. China is one such example, with koi energetically imported into the country for around 20 years and appreciated by many Chinese people. Today, koi have a significant influence on the spiritual landscape of the Chinese people and are now described as, and believed to be, beings with the spiritual power to bring good fortune. This vernacular belief concerning koi was created by an internet meme disseminating the image and narrative of koi as a symbol of good fortune through social media. This vernacular expression and discourse online have led many Chinese people to internalize koi culture as their own national tradition, and to recognize and speak of it as a uniquely Chinese tradition. The internet has accelerated this internalization, and when compared against oral communication and traditional media, the superior range and speed of information transmission allowed by this medium puts it in a category of its own.
The internet also involves an interactive model of generation and transmission of information and narratives, where the public can act not only as simply recipients of various forms of those information and narratives, but also as their creators and distributors. These characteristics of the medium have made it a catalyst behind the collaborative “invention” of national traditions by the public at large, one that has significantly accelerated the internalization of those national traditions. This paper examines the manner in which vernacular beliefs and folk narratives concerning koi generated through online communication have become a driving force behind major transformations in the perception of tradition in the daily lives of the Chinese people.
10 Bibliography
Anderson, Benedict: Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. 1st Edition. London/New York 1983.Search in Google Scholar
Ben-Amos, Dan: Toward a Definition of Folklore in Context. In: Journal of American Folklore 84,331 (1971) 3–15.10.2307/539729Search in Google Scholar
Blank, Trevor J. (ed.): Folklore and the Internet: Vernacular Expression in a Digital World. 1st Edition. Logan 2009.10.2307/j.ctt4cgrx5Search in Google Scholar
Blank, Trevor J. (ed.) (2012a): Folk Culture in the Digital Age: The Emergent Dynamics of Human Interaction. 1st Edition. Logan 2012.Search in Google Scholar
Blank, Trevor J. (2012b): Pattern in the Virtual Folk Culture of Computer-Mediated Communication. In: Folk Culture in the Digital Age: The Emergent Dynamics of Human Interaction. 1st Edition. ed. Trevor J. Blank. Logan 2012, 1–24.10.7330/9780874218909.c00Search in Google Scholar
Blank, Trevor J.: Hybridizing Folk Culture: Toward a Theory of New Media and Vernacular Discourse. In: Western Folklore 72,2 (2013) 105–130.Search in Google Scholar
Burke, Peter: Cultural Hybridity. 1st Edition. Cambridge/Malden 2009.Search in Google Scholar
De Kock, Servaas/Gomelsky, Boris: Japanese Ornamental Koi Carp: Origin, Variation and Genetics. In: Biology and Ecology of Carp. 1st Edition. eds. Constanze Pietsch/Philipp Hirsch. Boca Raton 2015, 27–53.10.1201/b18547-4Search in Google Scholar
Fialkova, Larisa/Yelenevskaya, Maria N.: Ghosts in the Cyber World. An Analysis of Folklore Sites on the Internet. In: Fabula 42,2 (2001) 64–89.10.1515/fabl.2001.011Search in Google Scholar
Guo, Yingjie: Cultural Nationalism in Contemporary China, 1st Edition. London 2004.10.4324/9780203300480Search in Google Scholar
Handler, Richard/Linnekin, Jocelyn: Tradition, Genuine or Spurious. In: Journal of American Folklore 97,385 (1984) 273–290.10.2307/540610Search in Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, Eric/Ranger, Terence (eds.): The Invention of Tradition. 1st Edition. Cambridge/New York/Melbourne 1983.Search in Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, Eric: Introduction: Inventing Traditions. In: The Invention of Tradition. 1st Edition. eds. Eric Hobsbawm/Terence Ranger. Cambridge/New York/Melbourne 1983, 1–14.10.1017/CBO9781107295636.001Search in Google Scholar
Howard, Robert Glenn: Toward a Theory of the World Wide Web Vernacular: The Case for Pet Cloning. In: Journal of Folklore Research 42,3 (2005) 323–360.10.1353/jfr.2005.0028Search in Google Scholar
Howard, Robert Glenn (2008a): Electronic Hybridity: The Persistent Processes of the Vernacular Web. In: Journal of American Folklore 121,480 (2008) 192–218.10.1353/jaf.0.0012Search in Google Scholar
Howard, Robert Glenn (2008b): The Vernacular Web of Participatory Media. In: Critical Studies in Media Communication 25,5 (2008) 490–512.10.1080/15295030802468065Search in Google Scholar
Howard, Robert Glenn: Digital Jesus: The Making of a New Christian Fundamentalist Community on the Internet. 1st Edition. New York 2011.Search in Google Scholar
Howard, Robert Glenn/Blank, Trevor J.: Introduction: Living Traditions in a Modern World. In: Tradition in the Twenty-First Century: Locating the Role of the Past in the Present. 1st Edition. eds. Trevor J. Blank/Robert Glenn Howard. Boulder 2013, 1–21.10.7330/9780874218992.c00Search in Google Scholar
Huang, Tao: Xieyin xiangzheng yu jixiang minus. In: Hebei daxue xuebao (Zhexue shehui kexue ban) 31,2 (2006) 14–19.Search in Google Scholar
Krawczyk-Wasilewska, Violetta: Folklore in the Digital Age: Collected Essays. 1st Edition. Jagiellonian 2016.10.18778/8088-258-4Search in Google Scholar
Kuroki, Takeo: Nishikigoi. 1st Edition. Shimonoseki 1966.Search in Google Scholar
Lu, Weiwei/Suga, Yutaka: “Zhongguo jinli” shi ruhe dansheng de?: Xianshi yu xuni kongjian zhong de “disanzhongwenhua.” In: Minsu yanjiu 144 (2019) 126–135.Search in Google Scholar
Ma, Eric: Grassroots Nationalism: Changing Identity in a Changing Context. In: China Review 7,2 (2007) 149–167.Search in Google Scholar
Mcluhan, Marshall: Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. MIT Press Edition. Cambridge/London 1994.Search in Google Scholar
Schneider, Ingo: Erzählen im Internet. Aspekte kommunikativer Kultur im Zeitalter des Computers. Fabula 37,1–2 (1996) 8–27.10.1515/fabl.1996.37.1-2.8Search in Google Scholar
Suga, Yutaka: Nishikigoi to Koishi no Rekishi to Bunka. In: Biostory 3 (2005) 38–47.Search in Google Scholar
Suga, Yutaka (2009a): Sekai wo oyogu Nishikigoi: Doubutsu bunka no zenkyuka, genchika, datsu-kokusekika. In: Hito to Doubutsu no Nihonshi 3: Doubutsu to Gendai Shakai. 1st Edition. eds. Yutaka Suga. Tokyo 2009, 69–94.Search in Google Scholar
Suga, Yutaka (2009b): Kagyo no bunkashi. In: Hito to Doubutsu no Kankeigaku 2: Kachiku no Bunka. 1st Edition. eds. Fumihito Akishinonomiya/Yoshihiro Hayashi. Tokyo 2009, 168–178.Search in Google Scholar
Suga, Yutaka: Global jidai wo ikiru Nishikigoi: Nihon bunka no kakusan to datsu-kokusekika. In: Seigyo to seisan no shakaitekihuchi: Globalization no minzokushi no tameni. 1st Edition. eds. Matsui Takeshi/Nobayashi Atsushi/Nawa Katsuo. Tokyo 2012, 269–298.Search in Google Scholar
Tao, Siyan: Zhongguo yu wenhua. 1st Edition. Nanjing 2008.Search in Google Scholar
Yin, wei: Zhongguo yu wenhua. 1st Edition. Beijing 2009.Search in Google Scholar
Zhan, Jiazhi/Yao, Tongyan/Yang, Xi eds.: Jinli: Yangzhi shiyong jifa. 1st Edition. Hefei 2004.Search in Google Scholar
Zittoun, Tania/Gillespie, Alex: Internalization: how culture becomes mind. In: Culture & Psychology 21,4 (2015) 477–491.10.1177/1354067X15615809Search in Google Scholar
© 2025 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- I Editoral
- Internetlore in Japan
- II Articles
- From Kisaragi Station to the Elevator Game: The Reconfiguration of the Otherworld in Japanese Internet Narratives
- Global Folklore Studies: The Rainbow Bridge and Hell’s Ginseng
- The Internalization of Tradition: The Invention of “Koi” as a National Tradition as Mediated by Online Vernacular Expression and Discourse
- Fake News in Japan: Ein Blick auf kultische und okkulte Eschatologie
- Humor und Internetlore in Japan und ihr kultureller Hintergrund
- Taiwanese urban legends: formation, characteristics and dissemination
- Urban Legends as an Emic Category
- Die Verteidigung des Absurden: Erdbeeren im Winter
- Grimms Märchen im Werk von Rudolf Steiner
- III Reports, News, Announcements
- Erzählungen der Ainu. Zur Edition von Folkloretexten aus dem Nachlass Gerhard Hubers O.F.M.
- III Reviews
- Reviews
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- I Editoral
- Internetlore in Japan
- II Articles
- From Kisaragi Station to the Elevator Game: The Reconfiguration of the Otherworld in Japanese Internet Narratives
- Global Folklore Studies: The Rainbow Bridge and Hell’s Ginseng
- The Internalization of Tradition: The Invention of “Koi” as a National Tradition as Mediated by Online Vernacular Expression and Discourse
- Fake News in Japan: Ein Blick auf kultische und okkulte Eschatologie
- Humor und Internetlore in Japan und ihr kultureller Hintergrund
- Taiwanese urban legends: formation, characteristics and dissemination
- Urban Legends as an Emic Category
- Die Verteidigung des Absurden: Erdbeeren im Winter
- Grimms Märchen im Werk von Rudolf Steiner
- III Reports, News, Announcements
- Erzählungen der Ainu. Zur Edition von Folkloretexten aus dem Nachlass Gerhard Hubers O.F.M.
- III Reviews
- Reviews