The Sage Handbook of Chinese Digital Media and Communication

Dr Jian Xu is Associate Professor in Communication in the School of Communication & Creative Arts, Deakin University, Australia. He convenes the Asian Media, Culture & Society Research Group at Deakin University. He researches Chinese digital media cultures and celebrity studies. He is Editor-in-Chief of Communication Research and Practice, the official journal of the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand Communication Association (AANZCA). He is the author of Media Events in Web 2.0 China (Liverpool University Press, 2016) and the lead editor of Internet Vulgarities in China (Routledge, 2026) and Asian Celebrity Cultures in the Digital Age (Hong Kong University Press, 2025).   Shaohua Guo is Associate Professor of Chinese at Carleton College. Her research interests focus on contemporary Chinese studies, digital media studies, and cultural studies. She is the author of The Evolution of the Chinese Internet: Creative Visibility in the Digital Public (Stanford University Press 2021). Provost′s Chair Professor Weiyu Zhang is Director of the Civic Tech Lab (www.civictechlab.org), currently located at the Department of Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore. Her research focuses on civic engagement and Information and Communication Technologies, with an emphasis on Asia. She has led on multi-nation projects on youth engagement, online deliberation, and civic tech in Asia. Her current interest is to develop and examine civic tech applications to facilitate citizen deliberation on science topics such as artificial intelligence, Covid-19 vaccines, climate change, and novel food.

This volume stands as a landmark achievement — a comprehensive, systematic, and up-to-date mapping of China’s digital transformation. It brings together leading scholars to dissect the shifting terrains of civil society and politics, technology regulation and governance, digital platforms and labor, user cultures and everyday life. With analytical rigor and a keen sense of critical reflection, the book illuminates not only the architectures of power and participation but also the struggles and negotiations that define China’s digital present. For scholars and advanced students in the humanities, social sciences, and technology policy, this handbook is indispensable. It offers both breadth and depth, equipping readers to understand, critique, and re-imagine the future of Chinese digital media and communication.

• Introduction - Jian Xu, Shaohua Guo and Weiyu ZhangPart 1: Activism, Civil Society and PoliticsChapter 1: Digital vigilantism in China: Dynamics and politics in networked justice-seeking - Qian Huang, Yiming Wang & Yiran DingChapter 2: Digital media and contentious politics in Hong Kong - Francis LeeChapter 3: Understanding China’s digital feminism: Struggles, resilience, and businesses - Altman Yuzhu Peng & Fengshu LiuChapter 4: China’s digital nationalism: Narratives, technological affordance, practice - Florian Schneider Chapter 5: Digital environmentalism and non-confrontational activism in the lifeworld - Weiyu Zhang, Yu Sun, Ding Xiang Chua & Yun Lin SeetChapter 6: Activism of no action: The lying-flat movement in Chinese cyberspace - Yuan Wang & Rongbin HanChapter 7: Digital citizenship of young people in China - Jun FuChapter 8: Public opinion, Yulun and Yuqing - Dan ChenChapter 9: Panda as the flagship of China’s digital diplomacy: Rethinking the intersection of network and emotional narrative strategy - Zhao Alexandre Huang & Rui WangPart 2: Technology, Regulation and GovernanceChapter 10: China’s internet governance path: From ‘great country’ to ‘strong country’ strategy - Gianluigi NegroChapter 11: Civilisation, technology and surveillance in the Middle Kingdom - Michael KeaneChapter 12: Communication politics and the social credit system - Haiqing YuChapter 13: Big data and public health governance: A review of China’s health code system during the Covid-19 pandemic - Wilfred Yang Wang & Pengfei FuChapter 14: ‘Double-bind regulation’ of private internet firms in China: Dilemmas, autonomy and resilience - Aifang MaChapter 15: Regulating Chinese livestreaming industries: Historical regulatory-industrial trends and current issues - Xiaofei HanChapter 16: Tensions and contradictions in China’s approach to AI Governance - Huw Roberts, Lujain Ibrahim, Junhua Zhu Chapter 17: China’s digital publishing transformation: Platformisation, artificial intelligence, and regulatory complexity - Xiang Ren Part 3: Platform, Labor and IndustryChapter 18: Cross-cultural comparative platform studies: Insights from short video research - Xu Chen & D. Bondy Valdovinos KayeChapter 19: The ‘unsettling’ political economy of communication in China: State reconfigurations and financialization of digital news industries - Chenhao YeChapter 20: From Weibo to AI: How research on digital journalism reflects technological - Kecheng Fang & Youyi WeiChapter 21: E-commerce and rural development: Taobao Villages in China - Anthony LiChapter 22: Wanghong and the formation of ethical subjects in the Chinese creator economy - Jian Lin & Han FuChapter 23: China’s digital fandom and platformized affective labor - Yiyi YinChapter 24: Reconsidering the globalization of Chinese digital games: A platformization turn - Gejun HuangChapter 25: Gaming mobility: Players, industry, market and state rulemaking in China - Zixue Tai & Fengbin HuChapter 26: Chinese digital giant going out under digital transformation and platformization: Rethinking Tencent’s pan-entertainment strategy - Wenjia TangPart 4: User, Culture and Everyday LifeChapter 27: Digital media, Chinese diaspora, and new transnational subjects – A case study from Australia - Wanning SunChapter 28: Chinese gay men’s digital media studies: A critical review - Weishan Miao & Jiacheng LiuChapter 29: The Remaking of an Underclass in Digital China: Contested Voices, Disciplined Cultural Production, and a Rising Lumpen Internet - Jiaxi HouChapter 30: Internet literature in China revisited - Michel Hockx Chapter 31: Revisiting Web 2.0 via blogs: A comparative study of mainland China and Taiwan - Shaohua GuoChapter 32: Digital parenting in China: State, school, and family - Xinyu ZhaoChapter 33: Routinizing Technology: Mobile Payments and the Reinvention of Social Interactions in China - Yipeng XiPart 5: Method, Approach and ReflectionsChapter 34: Digital ethnography in, on and through China: A methodological history - Gabriele de SetaChapter 35: How to use computational methods and online experiments to study Chinese digital media - Yingdan Lu & Matt DeButtsChapter 36: Researching Chinese internet history: A social memory perspective - Shiwen Wu, Xiaoya Yang & Jian XuChapter 37: Researching China’s digital economy: A critical political economy perspective - Min Tang