The Sage Handbook of Chinese Digital Media and Communication
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London; Thousan Oaks (Cailf.) et al.: Sage (2026), 800 pp.
Series: SAGE Handbooks of Modern China
ISBN 9781036238926 (hbk)
"Spanning activism, governance, labor, industry, everyday life, and research methods, the handbook offers a critical and interdisciplinary survey of the field. It explores how the internet and digital media have reshaped political participation, civil society, and national identity; how state regulation and surveillance intersect with innovation and platformization; and how digital labor, fandom, gaming, and e-commerce are redefining cultural production, consumption and economy. It also reflects on the lived experiences of users, from parenting and diaspora to queer communities and mobile rituals. Structured across five thematic parts, the volume not only maps the current landscape of Chinese digital media and communication but also interrogates the knowledge production that has shaped the field. It invites dialogue with global digital media scholarship and offers a timely reflection on the past, present, and future of China’s digital transformation." (Publisher description)
Introduction / Jian Xu, Shaohua Guo and Weiyu Zhang
PART 1: ACTIVISM, CIVIL SOCIETY AND POLITICS
1 Digital vigilantism in China: Dynamics and politics in networked justice-seeking / Qian Huang, Yiming Wang & Yiran Ding
2 Digital media and contentious politics in Hong Kong / Francis Lee
3 Understanding China’s digital feminism: Struggles, resilience, and businesses / Altman Yuzhu Peng & Fengshu Liu
4 China’s digital nationalism: Narratives, technological affordance, practice / Florian Schneider
5 Digital environmentalism and non-confrontational activism in the lifeworld / Weiyu Zhang, Yu Sun, Ding Xiang Chua & Yun Lin Seet
6 Activism of no action: The lying-flat movement in Chinese cyberspace / Yuan Wang & Rongbin Han
7 Digital citizenship of young people in China / Jun Fu
8 Public opinion, Yulun and Yuqing / Dan Chen
9 Panda as the flagship of China’s digital diplomacy: Rethinking the intersection of network and emotional narrative strategy / Zhao Alexandre Huang & Rui Wang
PART 2: TECHNOLOGY, REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE
10 China’s internet governance path: From ‘great country’ to ‘strong country’ strategy / Gianluigi Negro
11 Civilisation, technology and surveillance in the Middle Kingdom / Michael Keane
12 Communication politics and the social credit system / Haiqing Yu
13 Big data and public health governance: A review of China’s health code system during the Covid-19 pandemic / Wilfred Yang Wang & Pengfei Fu
14 ‘Double-bind regulation’ of private internet firms in China: Dilemmas, autonomy and resilience / Aifang Ma
15 Regulating Chinese livestreaming industries: Historical regulatory-industrial trends and current issues / Xiaofei Han
16 Tensions and contradictions in China’s approach to AI Governance / Huw Roberts, Lujain Ibrahim, Junhua Zhu
17 China’s digital publishing transformation: Platformisation, artificial intelligence, and regulatory complexity / Xiang Ren
PART 3: PLATFORM, LABOR AND INDUSTRY
18 Cross-cultural comparative platform studies: Insights from short video research / Xu Chen & D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye
19 The ‘unsettling’ political economy of communication in China: State reconfigurations and financialization of digital news industries / Chenhao Ye
20 From Weibo to AI: How research on digital journalism reflects technological / Kecheng Fang & Youyi Wei
21 E-commerce and rural development: Taobao Villages in China / Anthony Li
22 Wanghong and the formation of ethical subjects in the Chinese creator economy / Jian Lin & Han Fu
23 China’s digital fandom and platformized affective labor / Yiyi Yin
24 Reconsidering the globalization of Chinese digital games: A platformization turn / Gejun Huang
25 Gaming mobility: Players, industry, market and state rulemaking in China / Zixue Tai & Fengbin Hu
26 Chinese digital giant going out under digital transformation and platformization: Rethinking Tencent’s pan-entertainment strategy / Wenjia Tang
PART 4: USER, CULTURE AND EVERYDAY LIFE
27 Digital media, Chinese diaspora, and new transnational subjects – A case study from Australia / Wanning Sun
28 Chinese gay men’s digital media studies: A critical review / Weishan Miao & Jiacheng Liu
29 The Remaking of an Underclass in Digital China: Contested Voices, Disciplined Cultural Production, and a Rising Lumpen Internet / Jiaxi Hou
30 Internet literature in China revisited / Michel Hockx
31 Revisiting Web 2.0 via blogs: A comparative study of mainland China and Taiwan / Shaohua Guo
32 Digital parenting in China: State, school, and family / Xinyu Zhao
33 Routinizing Technology: Mobile Payments and the Reinvention of Social Interactions in China / Yipeng Xi
PART 5: METHOD, APPROACH AND REFLECTIONS
34 Digital ethnography in, on and through China: A methodological history / Gabriele de Seta
35 How to use computational methods and online experiments to study Chinese digital media / Yingdan Lu & Matt DeButts
36 Researching Chinese internet history: A social memory perspective / Shiwen Wu, Xiaoya Yang & Jian Xu
37 Researching China’s digital economy: A critical political economy perspective / Min Tang
PART 1: ACTIVISM, CIVIL SOCIETY AND POLITICS
1 Digital vigilantism in China: Dynamics and politics in networked justice-seeking / Qian Huang, Yiming Wang & Yiran Ding
2 Digital media and contentious politics in Hong Kong / Francis Lee
3 Understanding China’s digital feminism: Struggles, resilience, and businesses / Altman Yuzhu Peng & Fengshu Liu
4 China’s digital nationalism: Narratives, technological affordance, practice / Florian Schneider
5 Digital environmentalism and non-confrontational activism in the lifeworld / Weiyu Zhang, Yu Sun, Ding Xiang Chua & Yun Lin Seet
6 Activism of no action: The lying-flat movement in Chinese cyberspace / Yuan Wang & Rongbin Han
7 Digital citizenship of young people in China / Jun Fu
8 Public opinion, Yulun and Yuqing / Dan Chen
9 Panda as the flagship of China’s digital diplomacy: Rethinking the intersection of network and emotional narrative strategy / Zhao Alexandre Huang & Rui Wang
PART 2: TECHNOLOGY, REGULATION AND GOVERNANCE
10 China’s internet governance path: From ‘great country’ to ‘strong country’ strategy / Gianluigi Negro
11 Civilisation, technology and surveillance in the Middle Kingdom / Michael Keane
12 Communication politics and the social credit system / Haiqing Yu
13 Big data and public health governance: A review of China’s health code system during the Covid-19 pandemic / Wilfred Yang Wang & Pengfei Fu
14 ‘Double-bind regulation’ of private internet firms in China: Dilemmas, autonomy and resilience / Aifang Ma
15 Regulating Chinese livestreaming industries: Historical regulatory-industrial trends and current issues / Xiaofei Han
16 Tensions and contradictions in China’s approach to AI Governance / Huw Roberts, Lujain Ibrahim, Junhua Zhu
17 China’s digital publishing transformation: Platformisation, artificial intelligence, and regulatory complexity / Xiang Ren
PART 3: PLATFORM, LABOR AND INDUSTRY
18 Cross-cultural comparative platform studies: Insights from short video research / Xu Chen & D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye
19 The ‘unsettling’ political economy of communication in China: State reconfigurations and financialization of digital news industries / Chenhao Ye
20 From Weibo to AI: How research on digital journalism reflects technological / Kecheng Fang & Youyi Wei
21 E-commerce and rural development: Taobao Villages in China / Anthony Li
22 Wanghong and the formation of ethical subjects in the Chinese creator economy / Jian Lin & Han Fu
23 China’s digital fandom and platformized affective labor / Yiyi Yin
24 Reconsidering the globalization of Chinese digital games: A platformization turn / Gejun Huang
25 Gaming mobility: Players, industry, market and state rulemaking in China / Zixue Tai & Fengbin Hu
26 Chinese digital giant going out under digital transformation and platformization: Rethinking Tencent’s pan-entertainment strategy / Wenjia Tang
PART 4: USER, CULTURE AND EVERYDAY LIFE
27 Digital media, Chinese diaspora, and new transnational subjects – A case study from Australia / Wanning Sun
28 Chinese gay men’s digital media studies: A critical review / Weishan Miao & Jiacheng Liu
29 The Remaking of an Underclass in Digital China: Contested Voices, Disciplined Cultural Production, and a Rising Lumpen Internet / Jiaxi Hou
30 Internet literature in China revisited / Michel Hockx
31 Revisiting Web 2.0 via blogs: A comparative study of mainland China and Taiwan / Shaohua Guo
32 Digital parenting in China: State, school, and family / Xinyu Zhao
33 Routinizing Technology: Mobile Payments and the Reinvention of Social Interactions in China / Yipeng Xi
PART 5: METHOD, APPROACH AND REFLECTIONS
34 Digital ethnography in, on and through China: A methodological history / Gabriele de Seta
35 How to use computational methods and online experiments to study Chinese digital media / Yingdan Lu & Matt DeButts
36 Researching Chinese internet history: A social memory perspective / Shiwen Wu, Xiaoya Yang & Jian Xu
37 Researching China’s digital economy: A critical political economy perspective / Min Tang
