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An anthropological perspective on the Internet in China

My research investigates the various ways in which (predominantly) young people in urban China have appropriated the Internet, ranging from communication with friends to networked gaming to hobbies and the pursuit of specific interests. Following on from previous work in which I began to map practices and preferences involving the use of the Internet, my PhD fieldwork will go a step further and in addition, through the lens of "Internet use", look at a more general aspect of Chinese society, the case of personal relationships.

In doing this, my research will leave behind most academic writing about the Internet in China to date, which from a political science perspective is discussing its potential for independent information, free speech, and forcing political reform vis-a-vis state control and surveillance. While interesting in its own right, on the whole this literature unduly focusses on just one aspect of Internet use and ignores the bulk of less "extraordinary" practices which, I contend, are of greater actual concern to most users. Starting from these everyday practices of ordinary people in Beijing, and looking at how they have integrated the various media of a no-longer-new technology into their lives, I am going to ask:

• How has "the Internet" been appropriated in China?
  Important activites and their relation to concerns predating the Internet, in a comparative perspective.
• How is "the Internet" changing China?
  What impact does the Internet have on the life of ordinary people in China, in what ways has it started to change the way things are being done and everyday situations are understood?
• What can this show about personal relationships in Chinese society?
  What does the Internet mean for the maintenance of relationships? What can patterns and forms of interaction over the Internet tell us about the (offline) relationships of the people involved, and can they illuminate a long-term change (unrelated to the Internet) in the social relations of the younger generation?

Results