ABSTRACT
Diba launched an attack on several Facebook home pages on January 20, 2016, with a war chant: “When Diba goes for battle, nothing brainless will grow”. If this social media war has aroused the curiosity of the mass media and people unfamiliar with network subcultures, Diba Expedition is now growing into a mainstream day-to-day ritual. The concept “nationalism” should first be clarified. People tend to discriminate between “good nationalism” (patriotism) and “bad nationalism” (Shavinism) in everyday discourse. However, nationalism is used in this case as a neutral academic concept, despite that it might be stigmatized under some circumstances. From the book China Can Say No to the protest against NATO’s bombing of the Chinese embassy in the former Yugoslavia, cyber-nationalism was mainly expressed in a tough and angry way. However, in Diba Expedition since the start of 2016, the expression and symbols have undergone fundamental changes, different from both traditional nationalistic expression and those used in “bar bursting” actions.
