The Evolution of the Chinese Internet
eBook - ePub

The Evolution of the Chinese Internet

Creative Visibility in the Digital Public

  1. 328 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Evolution of the Chinese Internet

Creative Visibility in the Digital Public

About this book

Despite widespread consensus that China's digital revolution was sure to bring about massive democratic reforms, such changes have not come to pass. While scholars and policy makers alternate between predicting change and disparaging a stubbornly authoritarian regime, in this book Shaohua Guo demonstrates how this dichotomy misses the far more complex reality. The Evolution of the Chinese Internet traces the emergence and maturation of one of the most creative digital cultures in the world through four major technological platforms: the bulletin board system, the blog, the microblog, and WeChat. Guo transcends typical binaries of freedom and control, to argue that Chinese Internet culture displays a uniquely sophisticated interplay between multiple extremes, and that its vibrancy is dependent on these complex negotiations. In contrast to the flourishing of research findings on what is made invisible online, this book examines the driving mechanisms that grant visibility to particular kinds of user-generated content. Offering a systematic account of how and why an ingenious Internet culture has been able to thrive, Guo highlights the pivotal roles that media institutions, technological platforms, and creative practices of Chinese netizens have played in shaping culture on- and offline.

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Yes, you can access The Evolution of the Chinese Internet by Shaohua Guo in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Computer Science General. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. 1. A Cultural Revolution in China’s Digital Age
  8. 2. A Historical Overview through Technological Platforms
  9. 3. Tracking Playfulness
  10. 4. National Blogging and Cultural Entrepreneurship
  11. 5. Taboo Breakers and Microcultural Contention
  12. 6. Digital Witnessing on Weibo
  13. 7. WeChat: An Inflorescence of Content Production
  14. 8. Ambivalent Revolution
  15. Notes
  16. Bibliography
  17. Index