WeChat and the Chinese Diaspora: Digital Transnationalism in the Era of China's Rise
London; New York: Routledge (2022), xiv, 273 pp.
Contains illustrations, index
Series: Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia, 73
ISBN 978-0-367-72430-6 (pbk); 978-1-00-315475-4 (ebook);
"WeChat, launched in 2011, has rapidly become the most favoured Chinese social media. Globally available, equally popular both inside and outside China and widely adopted by Chinese migrants, WeChat has fundamentally changed the ways in which Mandarin-speaking migrants conduct personal messaging, engage in group communication and community business activities, produce and distribute news, and access and share information. This book explores a wide range of issues connected to the ways in which WeChat works and is used, across the world among the newest members of the Chinese diaspora. Arguing that digital/social media afford a great degree of individual agency, as well as a collective capacity for sustaining an 'imagined community', the book shows how WeChat's assemblage of infrastructure and regulatory frameworks, technical capabilities, content and sense of community has led to the construction of a particular kind of diasporic Chinese world, at a time marked both by China's rise, and anxiety about Chinese influence in the West." (Publisher description)
WeChat and the Chinese diaspora: introduction / Wanning Sun, Haiqing Yu, 1
PART I: INFRASTRUCTURE, REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS, BUSINESS AND INDUSTRIES
1 WeChat as everyday tactic: Ride-hailing and place-making in Vancouver / Yijia Zhang, 19
2 WeChat as migration infrastructure: The case of Chinese-Russian precarious labour markets / Natalia Ryzhova, Iuliia Koreshkova, 38
3 From ethnic media to ethno-transnational media: News-focused WeChat subscription accounts in Australia / Fan Yang, 57
PART II: TECHNOLOGICAL TENDENCIES, AFFORDANCES, AND RELATIONS
4 WeChat as a digital bridge for the Chinese community in Italy? The use of social media during the first wave of COVID-19 / Gianluigi Negro, Lala Hu, 79
5 "Canary in the coal mine": WeChat subscription accounts in the United Arab Emirates / Haiqing Yu, Jack Kangjie Liu, 95
PART III: CONTENT, NARRATIVES, DISCOURSES
6 WeChatting American politics: Misinformation and political polarisation in the immigrant Chinese media ecosystem / Chi Zhang, 117
7 WeChat for Chinese speakers in Brazil: Towards integration with the PRC information environment / Josh Stenberg, 147
PART IV: IDENTITY, SENTIMENTS, EMOTIONS AND AFFECT
8 Building a life on the soil of the ultimate other: WeChat and belonging among Chinese migrants in Japan / Xinyu Promio Wang, 171
9 From the politics of the motherland to the politics of motherhood: Chinese golden visa migrants in Hungary / Fanni Beck, 191
10 WeChat, ethnic grouping and class belonging: The formation of citizen identity among Chinese living in Paris / Simeng Wang, 212
11 Global app, local politics and Chinese migrants in Africa: A comparative study of Zambia and Angola / Hangwei Li, 234
Further notes on WeChat and the Chinese diaspora: Conclusion / Haiqing Yu, Wanning Sun, 257
PART I: INFRASTRUCTURE, REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS, BUSINESS AND INDUSTRIES
1 WeChat as everyday tactic: Ride-hailing and place-making in Vancouver / Yijia Zhang, 19
2 WeChat as migration infrastructure: The case of Chinese-Russian precarious labour markets / Natalia Ryzhova, Iuliia Koreshkova, 38
3 From ethnic media to ethno-transnational media: News-focused WeChat subscription accounts in Australia / Fan Yang, 57
PART II: TECHNOLOGICAL TENDENCIES, AFFORDANCES, AND RELATIONS
4 WeChat as a digital bridge for the Chinese community in Italy? The use of social media during the first wave of COVID-19 / Gianluigi Negro, Lala Hu, 79
5 "Canary in the coal mine": WeChat subscription accounts in the United Arab Emirates / Haiqing Yu, Jack Kangjie Liu, 95
PART III: CONTENT, NARRATIVES, DISCOURSES
6 WeChatting American politics: Misinformation and political polarisation in the immigrant Chinese media ecosystem / Chi Zhang, 117
7 WeChat for Chinese speakers in Brazil: Towards integration with the PRC information environment / Josh Stenberg, 147
PART IV: IDENTITY, SENTIMENTS, EMOTIONS AND AFFECT
8 Building a life on the soil of the ultimate other: WeChat and belonging among Chinese migrants in Japan / Xinyu Promio Wang, 171
9 From the politics of the motherland to the politics of motherhood: Chinese golden visa migrants in Hungary / Fanni Beck, 191
10 WeChat, ethnic grouping and class belonging: The formation of citizen identity among Chinese living in Paris / Simeng Wang, 212
11 Global app, local politics and Chinese migrants in Africa: A comparative study of Zambia and Angola / Hangwei Li, 234
Further notes on WeChat and the Chinese diaspora: Conclusion / Haiqing Yu, Wanning Sun, 257
