Online society in China
Subtitle: creating, celebrating, and instrumentalising the online carnival
By: edited by David Kurt Herold and Peter Marolt
Series: Media, culture and social change in Asia -- 25
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Abingdon, Oxon; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 216
ISBN-13: 9780415565394; 9780203828519
Subjects: Internet
Description: This book discusses the rich and varied culture of China's online society, and its impact on offline China. It argues that the internet in China is a separate 'space' in which individuals and institutions emerge and interact. While offline and online spaces are connected and influence each other, the Chinese internet is more than merely a technological or media extension of offline Chinese society. Instead of following existing studies by locating online China in offline society, the contributors in this book discuss the carnival of the Chinese internet on its own terms. Examining the complex relationship between government officials and the people using the Internet in China, this book demonstrates that culture is highly influential in how technology is used. Discussing a wide range of different activities, the contributors examine what Chinese people actually do on the internet, and how their actions can be interpreted within the online society they are creating.--Publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Cultural convulsions: examining the Chineseness of cyber China / Rodney Wai-Chi Chu, Chung-Tai Cheng; title: The Internet police in China: regulation, scope and myths / Xiaoyan Chen, Peng Hwa Ang; title: Grassroots agency in a civil sphere? Rethinking Internet control in China / Peter Marolt; title: Parody and resistance on the Chinese Internet / Hongmei Li; title: China's many Internets: participation and digital game play across a changing technology landscape / Silvia Lindtner, Marcella Szablewicz; title: Lost in virtual carnival and masquerade: in-game marriage on the Chinese Internet / Weihua Wu, Xiying Wang; title: Human flesh search engines: carnivalesque riots as components of a 'Chinese democracy' / David Kurt Herold; title: In search of motivations: exploring a Chinese Linux user group / Matted Tarantino; title: Identity vs. anonymity: Chinese netizens and questions of identifiability / Kenneth Farrall, David Kurt Herold; title: Taking urban conservation online: Chinese civic action groups and the Internet / Nicolai Volland; title: Conclusion: netizens and citizens, cyberspace and modern China / David Kurt Herold.