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In the Court of Public Opinion: A Zone of Error Shared by Overseas Chinese
Victor N. Shaw
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DOI:10.17265/2160-6579/2026.02.001
California State University-Northridge, Northridge, USA
WeChat as the most widely used social media in China provides a platform of communication for overseas Chinese to remain connected to their homeland as well as among one another. It enables them to maintain a court of public opinion wherein to express views, engage in debates, and entertain sentiments. This paper focuses on a zone of error shared by overseas Chinese over the court of public opinion afforded through WeChat. It describes what zone of error is, analyzes how overseas Chinese overreact to issues from China while neglecting matters in their present life, and explains why lacks of involvement coincide with assumptive judgments, groundless assumptions with autocratic personalities, and personal autocracy with reality disengagement. A critical finding is this: The zone of error is an inevitable trap for first-generation immigrants. It takes at least a generation to crawl out of the trap when second-generation immigrants perceive their birthplace as home.
public opinion, social media, immigrant entrenchment, autocratic personality, zone of error, overseas Chinese
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