Urgent action is needed to combat the rise in anti-Asian hate exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This systematic literature review examines previous studies on social media-mediated anti-racism strategies, given the increasing scholarly interest in the role of social media in addressing social justice issues and the need to empower both Asian and non-Asian communities in anti-racism efforts. The paper reviewed 38 peer-reviewed studies, categorizing them based on key attributes such as publication outlets, geographic focus, and methodological approaches. It also reviewed the identified anti-racism strategies in the papers, as well as their interrelationships with agents, effectiveness, and outcomes. The review also documented the associated challenges. Based on the findings, this review proposes four key directions for future research: (a) expanding the scope of strategies through diverse scholarly perspectives, (b) deepening understanding of these strategies across different national, socio-cultural, and platform-specific contexts, (c) identifying patterns of effectiveness by triangulating findings from multiple methodological approaches, and (d) systematically examining the challenges of leveraging social media for social justice initiatives.

Large language models (LLMs) offer vast computational power yet consistently overlook cultural nuance. While often praised for bridging language gaps, recent research highlights a deeper issue: LLMs largely reflect Anglophone and Western European cultural values, which are embedded in the English-dominated data that shapes them. This review synthesizes findings from 2020 to 2025 to assess the implications of this technological spread for vulnerable groups, particularly immigrants, refugees, and international students, who must navigate adaptation within English-centric and Western communication norms. Using insights from cultural cognition and identity-protective cognition theories, the analysis identifies five central forms of bias: (1) representational bias that undermines non-Western perspectives; (2) linguistic inequity that amplifies challenges for low-resource languages; (3) authenticity failures, with stereotypes substituting for real cultural understanding; (4) identity erosion as users’ voices are homogenized; and (5) reliance on LLMs that may hinder independent language skill development. This “equity paradox” means that the very systems marketed as democratizing global communication can actually deepen exclusion and sameness among those who are most reliant on them. Ultimately, the review concludes that current governance and policy efforts are insufficient to address the underlying power dynamics that shape LLM development. Authentic cross-cultural communication, the evidence suggests, depends on human qualities absent in LLMs: presence, vulnerability, and the openness to change that underpins accurate understanding. In an AI-mediated world, recognizing the limits of these tools is not a matter of nostalgia, but rather necessary wisdom. Keywords: large language models; cross-cultural communication; cultural bias; identity formation; linguistic diversity; cultural homogenization; digital equity; AI governance; cultural representation

This article examines how digital rumors functioned as crisis discourse during the 2022 Shanghai lockdown, serving both as improvised meaning-making and as fragmented acts of micro-resistance. Drawing on digital ethnography and discourse analysis, the study investigates how residents in a middle-class compound used WeChat groups to circulate, interpret, and act upon rumors amidst strict state censorship and material deprivation. Rather than approaching rumors as mere misinformation, the article conceptualizes them as emergent discursive practices that filled communicative voids, generated grassroots knowledge, and temporarily disrupted dominant state narratives. Grounded in Gramsci’s notion of common sense and Shibutani’s theory of improvised news, the analysis highlights the dialectical nature of rumor as both a survival mechanism and a contested form of bottom-up discourse in authoritarian settings. Framed within the global condition of the post-truth era, this study foregrounds the role of digital platforms specifically WeChat as sites where discourse, power, and control are simultaneously produced, circulated, and contested. In contexts where traditional information infrastructures are compromised, platforms become critical battlegrounds for meaning-making, where rumor emerges as a form of user-generated epistemology. The Shanghai case offers broader insights into how platform architectures, algorithmic visibility, and moderation regimes shape the formation and suppression of alternative discourses during crises. By tracing the micro-politics of rumor in Shanghai’s digital public sphere, this article contributes to transnational debates on crisis communication, platform governance, and the shifting dynamics of voice and resistance in digitally mediated authoritarian and post-authoritarian societies.

The Parable of the Three Carts in the Lotus Sūtra, also known as the Parable of the Burning House, has been interpreted differently in Chinese Buddhist exegesis, with a division between the Three-Vehicle School (sanche jia 三車家 ) and the Four-Vehicle School (siche jia 四車家 ). The distinction lies in whether the ox-cart among the three carts is identical to the final great white ox-cart, which essentially reflects different understandings of the relationship between the Three Vehicles (triyāna) and the One Vehicle (ekayāna). This division already existed before the emergence of sectarian Buddhism. Early proponents of the Three-Vehicle interpretation include Huiguan, Sengzhao, Sengrui, Daosheng, and Liu Qiu; those of the Four-Vehicle interpretation include Fayun and Huisi. Fayun represents a crucial turning point, pioneering the Fourth Vehicle interpretation. Huisi, building upon this foundation, used his own contemplative experience and tathāgatagarbha theory to develop a second path for the Four-Vehicle School. The fundamental cause for the emergence of the Four-Vehicle School lies in the further polarization of the relationship between expedient means (upāya) and reality (tattva), which consequently granted the One Vehicle an independent status with concrete content.