Between Demonization and Celebration: Chinese Urban Youth and the Net Café

For many Chinese urban youth, the Internet café, wangba in Chinese, remains popular despite extensive broadband access at home and despite tightened regulation, constant crackdowns and unfavorable media depictions. What does the wangba offer its goers in the Chinese context then? This is the central question to be explored in this chapter. Such an endeavor is much needed, given that whereas the Internet in China has received considerable academic attention, research on the Internet café has been very scarce. This is especially true with regard to wangba related perceptions and experiences of young people themselves. The few existing studies have focused on regulatory measures (e.g., Qiu and Zhou, 2005).