Prelims

Half Title

DIGITAL PARENTING BURDENS IN CHINA

Endorsement Page

PRAISE FOR DIGITAL PARENTING BURDENS IN CHINA

“Lim & Wang’s book provides us with a rare peek into the world of family life in China, a global technological leader, as it is embracing digitalization in all aspects of its life: Parenting, education, leisure, and social relationships. Their thoughtful empirically based observations in this unique culture are highly valuable for readers worldwide well beyond China as they raise the challenges and opportunities facing all families adjusting to the ever-changing digital advancements in their everyday lives.”

Dafna Lemish, Distinguished Professor of Journalism and Media Studies, Rutgers University

“A definitive volume, this book offers nuanced analysis about children, parenting, and digital media in urban China. The implications are, of course, far beyond China as AI and tech-facilitated practices fundamentally transform parenting itself, wherever you are.”

Jack Linchuan Qiu, Shaw Foundation Professor of Media Technology, Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University

“In this insightful and timely book, Sun Sun Lim and Yang Wang provide a groundbreaking exploration of the burdens Chinese parents face due to the digitalization of family life and intensifying academic pressures. Empirically rich and theoretically nuanced, this book offers invaluable guide to anyone seeking to understand the evolving strains and shifting dynamics of parenting in a digitalizing world.”

Bingchun Meng, Professor, Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics & Political Science

“Parenting and family life are not what they used to be, particularly since COVID. Many of the tasks and events that marked family life have been changed via digitalization, such as online shopping, gaming and social networking. In their book Digital Parenting Burdens in China: Online Homework, Parent Chats and Punch-in Culture, Lim and Wang walk us through these changes as experienced in urban China. Thanks to the work of Lim and Wang, this book provides us with perhaps the first glimpse into digital parenting in China. A must-read.”

Rich Ling, author of Taken for Grantedness: The Embedding of Mobile Communication into Society (MIT Press, 2012)

“This book gives us unparalleled views into what was a black box until now: everyday digital parenting dilemmas playing out in the households of another technological superpower, China.”

Anne Collier, Founder and Executive Director at The Net Safety Collaborative

“The global rise of China is accompanied by major technological changes, which reveals important challenges for society and family life. Digital Parenting Burdens in China explores one such significant challenge in studying how digital connectivity affects parents in how they navigate their children’s educational journey in a country dominated by a quest for academic excellence. This is an insightful and thought-provoking book which should be essential reading for every parent and government worried about education in an increasingly digital fueled world.”

David De Cremer, Dunton Family Dean of D’Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University

Title Page

DIGITAL PARENTING BURDENS IN CHINA

Online Homework, Parent Chats and Punch-in Culture

BY

SUN SUN LIM

Singapore Management University, Singapore

AND

YANG WANG

National University of Singapore, Singapore

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Emerald Publishing, Floor 5, Northspring, 21-23 Wellington Street, Leeds LS1 4DL.

First edition 2024

Copyright © 2024 Sun Sun Lim and Yang Wang.

Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This work is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this work (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-83797-758-1 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83797-755-0 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83797-757-4 (Epub)

Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

Co-authoring this book has been a joyful and exhilarating albeit challenging experience, made easier by the wide bench of institutions and people behind us. We extend our deepest gratitude to the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) for supporting the fieldwork that laid the foundation for this book. The SUTD–Zhejiang University IDEA Seed Grant was instrumental in conducting comprehensive research on the digital parenting practices of Chinese parents and bringing our ideas to fruition.

We would also like to express our sincere appreciation to the Singapore Management University for awarding Sun with the Lee Kong Chian Fellowship and grant that generously covered the open access publishing fees. Given the import of our research topic, we felt motivated to broaden the reach of our findings so that our research can inform the use, management, and design of digital communication platforms that schools and parents increasingly rely upon.

Writing this book would not have been possible without the keen participation of the Chinese parents whom we interviewed, who trusted in us, generously sharing their views and giving us illuminating insights into their experiences of parenting in a rapidly digitalising world. We also thank our research collaborator, Prof. Gao Fang Fang of Zhejiang University, whose support during the fieldwork greatly contributed to the success of this project.

On a personal note, Sun owes a debt of gratitude to Yang for being her ever-reliable research collaborator and co-author. Yang’s enthusiasm to explore uncharted territory, dedication to the project from start to finish, excellent research instincts, and unflappably good humour made the co-authorship a fun and rewarding process. Sun would also like to thank her family for providing delightful diversions from writing and research and patiently indulging the many bees in her bonnet! She is also immensely grateful to her global fraternity of academic colleagues across diverse disciplines whose research informs, inspires, and motivates her.

Yang would like to extend her deepest gratitude to Sun, not only as her trusty co-author but also as the visionary Principal Investigator of the research project – for initiating this academic endeavour and shaping the trajectory of this book, from the very inception of the idea to the meticulous organisation of the writing process. Yang also wishes to express heartfelt thanks to her husband, whose unwavering support and invaluable emotional backing have been the cornerstone of this journey. She also extends her appreciation to her precious two-year-old son, whose boundless joy, unconditional love, and innocent encouragement have been a constant source of inspiration, enriching her understanding of parenting as she writes on parenting experiences.

We dedicate this book to our families whose support make all the difference.