Chinese Social Media: Social, Cultural, and Political Implications

264 Pages·2017·1.746 MB·English

by  Mike Kent, Katie Ellis, Jian Xu

Chinese Social Media
This book brings together scholars from a variety of disciplines to
address critical perspectives on Chinese language social media,
internationalizing the state of social media studies beyond the
Anglophone paradigm. The collection focuses on the intersections be-
tween Chinese language social media and disability, celebrity, sexuality,
interpersonal communication, charity, diaspora, public health, political
activism and non- governmental organisations (NGOs). The book is not
only rich in its theoretical perspectives but also in its methodologies.
Contributors use both qualitative and quantitative methods to study
Chinese social media and its social–cultural–political implications,
such as case studies, in-depth interviews, participatory observations,
discourse analysis, content analysis and data mining.
Mike Kent is head of department and a senior lecturer in the Internet
Studies Department at Curtin University, Australia.
Katie Ellis is a senior research fellow in the Internet Studies Department
and convenor of the Critical Disability Studies Research Network at
Curtin University, Australia.
Jian Xu is a research fellow at the School of Communications and Creative
Arts at Deakin University, Australia.
Routledge Research in Digital Media and Culture in Asia
Edited by Dal Yong Jin
Simon Fraser University
1 Chinese Social Media
Social, Cultural, and Political Implications
Edited by Mike Kent, Katie Ellis and Jian Xu
Chinese Social Media
Social, Cultural, and
Political Implications
Edited by Mike Kent, Katie Ellis
and Jian Xu
First published 2018
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group,
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
CIP data has been applied for.
ISBN: 978-1-138-06477-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-16021-4 (ebk)
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To our colleagues at Curtin University in the Digital China
Lab, and the China Writing Centre.
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Contents
List of Figures and Tables xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Foreword xv
MIChAEl KEANE
1 Chinese Social Media Today 1
MIKE KENT, KATIE EllIS AND JIAN XU
PART I
Chinese Social Media and the Public 7
2 Social Media and the Experience Economy in China’s
Microphilanthropy 9
hAIqING YU
3 Social Media and Activism of Grassroots NGOs
in China: A Case Study of Love Save
Pneumoconiosis (LSP) 22
DIANlIN hUANG
4 The ‘Making’ of an Online Celebrity: A Case Study
of Chinese Rural Gay Couple An Wei and Wu Yebin 42
lIANRUI JIA AND TIANYANG ZhOU
5 Populist Sentiments and Digital Ethos in the Social
Media Space: Revelations of Weibo Celebrities in China 59
ZIXUE TAI, JING lIANG, AND XIAOlONG lIU
viii Contents
PART II
Chinese Social Media and (Re)Presentation 75
6 Framing Food Safety Issues in China: The Negotiation
between ‘Official Discourse’ in Newspapers and
‘Civil Discourse’ on Weibo 77
YANG WANG
7 Face-work on Social Media in China: The Presentation
of Self on RenRen and Facebook 92
XIAOlI TIAN
8 RenRen and Social Capital in Contemporary China 106
DAvID hOlMES AND NAZIAT ChOUDhURY
PART III
Chinese Social Media and Disability 117
9 WeChat and the Voice Donor Campaign: An Example
of ‘Doing Good’ on Social Media 119
MIKE KENT, KATIE EllIS, hE ZhANG
AND DANJING ZhANG
10 Information and Communications Technology and
Social Media Accessibility in China: A Peep at a
Leopard through a Tube? 130
YAO DING AND G. ANThONY GIANNOUMIS
11 The Accessibility of Chinese Social Media Applications:
A Heuristic Evaluation of the WeChat App 144
WEIqIN ChEN, WAY KIAT BONG, AND NAN lI
PART IV
Chinese Social Media in Greater China and Overseas 161
12 From (Anti-mainland) Sinophobia and Shibboleths
to Mobilisation on a Taiwanese Message Board 163
JOShUA CADER
13 Chinese Internet Companies go Global: Online Traffic,
Framing and Open Issues 175
GIANlUIGI NEGRO
Contents ix
14 The Global Expansion of China-based Social Media
Platforms and Its Dynamics in the Australian Context 191
JIAJIE lU
PART V
Chinese Social Media Critique 207
15 Re-imagining Guangzhou on Sina Weibo: Geo-identity
and Chinese Social Media 209
WIlFRED YANG WANG
16 The Decline of Sina Weibo: A Technological, Political
and Market Analysis 221
JONAThAN BENNEY AND JIAN XU
List of Contributors 237
Index 243