Communication In China » (1st Edition)

This authoritative study explores China's rapidly evolving polity, economy, and society through the prism of its communication system. Yuezhi Zhao offers a multifaceted, interdisciplinary analysis of communication in China and its central role in the struggle for control during the country's rise to global power. The industry in all its forms-ranging from the news media to entertainment outlets to the Internet-has been a critical battleground among different social forces in this period of wrenching change. The author explores alterations in the structure and content of Chinese communication in light of the rapid evolution of state-society relations to reveal the profoundly contradictory, conflicted, and uncertain nature of China's ongoing transformation.

Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction     1
Reconfiguring Party-State Power: Market Reforms, Communication, and Control in the Digital Age     19
Securing the "Commanding Heights": Class, Power, and the Transformation of the Party-State's Media and Culture Sector     75
Dancing with Wolves? Transnational Capital, Nationalism, and the Terms of Global Reintegration     137
Entertaining the Masses: Domestic Private Capital, Popular Media, and the Role of Cultural Entrepreneurs     195
Civil Rights, Legal Justice: Possibilities and Limits of Media and Internet Mobilization     245
Challenging Neoliberalism? The "Lang Xianping Storm," Property Rights, and Economic Justice     287
Conclusion: The Trees Want to Be Quiet but the Winds Won't Stop     339
Index     359
About the Author     373