Abstract
Since 2008, China has experienced an explosive growth in the use of digital media and communication. Government-supported tech giants such as Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent are significant industrial players contributing to China’s economy. The prosperous and vigorous digital space accommodates vibrant information flows, while generating new discourses, mobilising collective activism, and establishing online citizenship in China (Fu 2021). In parallel, the Great Firewall1 and online control in China has become more sophisticated, strategic and systematic, including but not limited to censorship, propaganda and accommodation to save or to eliminate certain contents and actively construct acceptable public discourse (Han 2018). Scholars have described the phenomenon of virtual China as a ‘co-evolution’ of Internet civil space and the growth of authoritarianism (Yang 2003)
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Routledge Handbook of Sexuality, Gender, Health and Rights |
| Editors | Peter AGGLETON, Rob COVER, Carmen H. LOGIE, Christy E. NEWMAN, Richard PARKER |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| Chapter | 18 |
| Pages | 174-182 |
| Edition | 2nd |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781032243986 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781003278405 |
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 22 Dec 2023 |