Abstract: This study examines how a child kidnapping incident caused gossip and rumour, and finally became the talk of the town in Shenzhen in 2009. Based on the analysis of public opinions, in-depth interviews with informants, and a survey of ten primary schools in five districts of Shenzhen, this paper demonstrates the evolutionary process from group-level gossip to society-level rumor, and finally to culture-level public narrative. This process involves not only development in time and space, but also sublimation of meanings. Through this process, we can see isolated individuals, divided society, and alienated civilization, as well as the public desire for group identity, mutual trust between government and people, and the return to traditional norms.
Keywords:gossip, rumor, the talk of the town, Shenzhen, kidnapping
与西方学者的社会心理学路径不同,中国学术界侧重流言和谣言的对策研究,像哈佛大学孔飞力(Philip A. Kuhn)那样见微知著,从乾隆年间的“叫魂”妖术大恐慌中解构出专制体制下各社会阶层的失序与动荡的研究并不多。{10}中山大学的李若建对“毛人水怪”谣言的研究揭示出新中国成立初期社会大变革的背景下“民间集体记忆”的威力{11};而新闻学者徐晖明和严三九针对非典的研究则直言不讳地指出权威声音的缺席导致处于“应激状态”的公众不得不用流言来“解决疑难问题”。{12}
{46}F. Furedi, Culture of Fear: Risk-taking and Morality of Law Expectations, London: Cassell, 1997. E. Goode & B; Nachman, Moral panics: The Social Construction of Deviance, Oxford: Blackwell, 1994.