Chinese Social Media Social, Cultural, and Political Implications

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 between 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.

Foreword Michael Keane 1. Chinese social media today Mike Kent, Katie Ellis and Jian Xu Part I: Chinese Social Media and the Public 2. Micro-philanthropy and new grassroots associations: Social media and the rights discourse in China. Haiqing Yu 3.Social media and legitimization tactics of grassroots NGOs in China: A case study of Love Save Pneumoconiosis Dianlin Huang 4. The "Making" of online celebrity – A case Study of Chinese rural same-sex male couple Anwei and Yebin Tianyang Zhou and Lianrui Jia 5. Populist sentiments and digital ethos in the social media space: Revelations of Weibo celebrities in China Zixue Tai, Xiaolong Liu and Jiang Liang Part II: Chinese Social Media and (Re)Presentation 6. Framing food safety issues in China: The interplay of official discourse and civil discourse Yang Wang 7. Face-work on social media: The presentation of self on Renren and Facebook Xiaoli Tian 8. RenRen and social capital in contemporary China Naziat Choudhury and David Holmes Part III: Chinese Social Media and Disability 9. WeChat and the Voice Donor campaign: an example of ‘doing good’ on social media Mike Kent, Katie Ellis, Joy Zhang, and He Zhang 10. Accessibility in China: a Peep at a Leopard through a tube Yao Ding and G. Anthony Giannoumis 11. The Accessibility of Chinese Social Media Applications: A heuristic evaluation of WeChat app Weiqin Chen, Way Kiat Bong and Nan Li Part IV: Chinese Social Media in Greater China and Overseas 12. From (anti-mainland) sinophobia and shibboleths to mobilisation on a Taiwanese message board Joshua Cader 13. The Chineseness of Chinese Internet companies Gianluigi Negro 14. Chinese language social media overseas: Global expansion and influences on diasporic identity formation Jiajie Lu Part V: Chinese social media critique 15. Re-imagining Guangzhou on Sina Weibo - developing a geographic approach of Chinese social media Wilfred Yang Wang 16. The decline of Sina Weibo: A technological, political and market analysis Jonathan Benny and Jian Xu

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