Abstract
Raymond Williams’ work on television as a cultural form offers a theoretical basis for overcoming technological determinism in the study of the Internet. The Internet in China exerts social and political influences through the cultural forms it enables and then only when these forms respond to the human condition. Chinese Internet culture consists of new cultural forms that emerge out of the interactions between Internet and society and that are the products of both cultural tradition and innovation.
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Notes
For example, in a survey report issued in July 2007, the Chinese Internet Network Information Center found that close to 70% of China’s 162 million internet users reported that BBS and online community were among their most frequently used network services. See <http://www.cnnic.net.cn/uploadfiles/pdf/2007/7/18/113918.pdf> . Accessed November 2, 2008.
Of course, the Chinese internet culture has its own regional, generational, and even class differences. For a study of the formation of a working-class internet culture, see Qiu (2007).
http://www.cnnic.net/uploadfiles/pdf/2008/7/23/170516.pdf. Accessed November 4, 2008.
http://www.flashempire.com/corp/index.php. Accessed June 18, 2008.
http://it.sohu.com/7/0404/35/column219983539.shtml. Accessed October 3, 2007.
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An earlier version of this paper was prepared for the Conference on The Role of New Technologies in Global Societies and Its Implications for China, 30–31 July 2008, organized by the Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The author thanks Rodney Chu and Pui-Lam Law for inviting him to the conference and thanks Leopoldina Fortunati and David Herold for their comments.
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Yang, G. The Internet as Cultural Form: Technology and the Human Condition in China. Know Techn Pol 22, 109–115 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12130-009-9074-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12130-009-9074-z