This book analyzes a new trend in Chinese cyber-nationalism by studying the incident of “Diba expedition” in 2016. Written by communica tion scholars from the U.S. and China, the eight chapters examine the history, mobilization and organization of the new cyber-nationalism, the evolution of symbolic devices, and the impact of ICTs, consumerism, fan culture, and internet subcultures on cyber nationalism. Situating the “Diba expedition” and the new cyber-nationalism in the media ecology of social media, mobile internet, smart mobile phones and other new-generation ICTs, the authors illuminate the changing meanings of Chinese political culture under the influences of official nationalistic education, commercial culture, and grassroots internet culture.
https://www.routledge.com/From-Cyber-Nationalism-to-Fandom-Nationalism-The-Case-of-Diba-Expedition/Hailong/p/book/9781138330641

This exciting new text is the first to explore the discipline of Netnography the conduct of ethnography over the internet a method specifically designed to study cultures and communities online. For the first time, full procedural guidelines for the accurate and ethical conduct of ethnographic research online are set out, with detailed, step-by-step guidance to thoroughly introduce, explain, and illustrate the method to students and researchers. The author also surveys the latest research on online cultures and communities, focusing on the methods used to study them, with examples focusing on the new elements and contingencies of the blogosphere (blogging), microblogging, videocasting, podcasting, social networking sites, virtual worlds, and more.

Despite the widespread consensus that China's digital revolution was sure to bring about massive democratic reforms, such changes have not come to pass. While scholars and policy makers alternate between predicting change and disparaging a stubbornly authoritarian regime, in this book Shaohua Guo argues that this dichotomy misses the far more complex reality. The Evolution of the Chinese Internet traces the emergence and maturation of one of the most creative digital cultures in the world, through four major technological platforms that have marked trends in internet use over the past two decades: the bulletin board system, the blog, the microblog, and WeChat. Guo transcends typical narratives, structured around the binaries of freedom and control, to argue that Chinese internet culture displays a uniquely sophisticated interplay between multiple extremes, and that its vibrancy is dependent on these complex negotiations. In contrast to the flourishing of research findings on what is made invisible online, this book examines the driving mechanisms that grant visibility to particular kinds of user-generated content, offering a systematic account of how and why an ingenious internet culture has been able to flourish. Guo highlights the pivotal roles that media institutions, technological platforms, and creative practices of Chinese netizens have played in shaping culture on- and offline.