Prelims

Half Title Page

Chinese Social Media

Series Title Page

Digital Activism and Society: Politics, Economy and Culture in Network Communication

The Digital Activism and Society: Politics, Economy and Culture in Network Communication series focuses on the political use of digital everyday-networked media by corporations, governments, international organisations (Digital Politics), as well as civil society actors, non-governmental organisations, activists, social movements and dissidents (Digital Activism) attempting to recruit, organise and fund their operations, through information communication technologies.

The series publishes books on theories and empirical case studies of digital politics and activism in the specific context of communication networks. Topics covered by the series include, but are not limited to:

• the different theoretical and analytical approaches of political communication in digital networks;

• studies of socio-political media movements and activism (and ‘hacktivism’);

• transformations of older topics such as inequality, gender, class, power, identity and group belonging;

• strengths and vulnerabilities of social networks.

Series Editor

Dr Athina Karatzogianni

Title Page

Chinese Social Media: Face, Sociality and Civility

by

Shuhan Chen

University of Sheffield, UK

Peter Lunt

University of Leicester, UK

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

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2021

© 2021 Shuhan Chen and Peter Lunt.Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

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

ISBN: 978-1-83909-136-0 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83909-135-3 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83909-137-7 (Epub)

Dedication

Shuhan dedicates this book to Xiaoqiang, Xinai, Yingjun and Xiangquan with love.

Peter dedicates this book to Sonia, Joe and Anna

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Professor Athina Karatzogianni (University of Leicester, UK), the series editor of Digital Activism and Society, Emerald. Thanks for providing the opportunity to publish our project in your series and for your valuable suggestions and comments during the development of the research. Our thanks also go to Professor Deborah Chambers (Newcastle University, UK), for suggesting we develop a book out of the research and for valuable comments on our proposal.

We want to express our thanks to the participants in our research, who took part in our study in a hot summer in Beijing. Thanks for sharing your WeChat practices, your reflections and your desire to work for a better future for China. We wish you all the best and hope all your dreams come true in your future endeavours. We also would like to express thanks to Prof. Wei Chao (Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication), who helped us to recruit participants for our research.

Thanks also to Joe Livingstone for helpful comments on an early draft of the book and to Anna Livingstone for advice on our account of social media.