ABSTRACT

For years, media scholars have lamented the lack of historical methods and sensibilities in communication studies, especially in political communication. They have called for more attention to the culture and institutions of communication.2

Current studies of the Chinese Internet suffer from a similar deficit of historical imagination. This is partly because the Internet has only a short history in China. It is partly also because the Internet scene changes so fast that it may appear as a moving target. With the rush to catch the target, there is little time left to look back. But the Internet is no more a moving target than other social processes. Historical imagination is just as important for understanding it.