ABSTRACT
As indicated in the Introduction, the Internet does not constitute a globally uniform culture. Nor is it ‘a placeless place’, apart from the rest of social life. Therefore, the question is: What makes the Chinese Internet ‘Chinese’ and how. This chapter will cover the history of the Chinese Internet, rapid growth and remaining challenges, governmental control, competing discourses about the Internet in China and the emerging online culture in China. In so doing, I show how the Chinese Internet is being shaped by and also contributing to the shaping of the socio-cultural circumstances of today’s Chinese society undergoing rapid and profound transformation.
