“Scattered Like Sand” WeChat Warriors in the Trial of Peter Liang

This paper builds on social media activism scholarship and critical historiographies of Asian-Black conflict to examine the February 20, 2016 rallies for Peter Liang as a digital grassroots effort and a symbolic referendum on Asian-Black relations in the era of Black Lives Matter. Considering WeChat activism as a counterpublic enclave, we seek to bring critical context to the collision of new digital media strategies and old neoconservative “colorblind” race rhetoric that brings power to the increasingly visible Chinese American conservative movement.