This is the first scholarly attempt to write a history of cyber literary criticism in China. The author uses the Internet as the departure point, literature as the horizontal axis, and criticism as the vertical axis, to draw a detailed trajectory of the development of cyber literary criticism in China. The book comprises two parts. The first part focuses on the representation of historical facts about cyber literary criticism, covering five topics: the evolution of cyber literary criticism in the context of the new media; major types of cyber literary critics and their criticism; academic achievements in cyber literary studies; the form, contents, and rhetorical expressions of so-called netizens’ critical commentaries; and important events in the history of cyber literary criticism. The second part discusses the historical changes in literary criticism as responses to cyber literature, covering another five topics: the conceptual transformation in literary criticism of the Internet era; the establishment of evaluation criteria for cyber literature; changes in the function of cyber literary criticism; changes in the constitution of cyber literary critics; and the impact of cyber literary criticism. This book will be an essential read to students and scholars of East Asian Studies, literary criticism, and those who are interested in cyber literature in general.

"This is the first scholarly attempt to write a history of cyber literary criticism in China. The author uses the Internet as the departure point, literature as the horizontal axis, and criticism as the vertical axis, to draw a detailed trajectory of the development of cyber literary criticism in China. The book comprises two parts. The first part focuses on the representation of historical facts about cyber literary criticism, covering five topics: the evolution of cyber literary criticism in the context of the new media, major types of cyber literary critics and their criticism, academic achievements in cyber literary studies, the form, contents, and rhetorical expressions of so-called netizens' critical commentaries, and important events in the history of cyber literary criticism. The second part discusses the historical changes in literary criticism as responses to cyber literature, covering another five topics: the conceptual transformation in literary criticism of the Internet era, the establishment of evaluation criteria for cyber literature, changes in the function of cyber literary criticism, changes in the constitution of cyber literary critics, and the impact of cyber literary criticism. This book will be an essential read to students and scholars of East Asian Studies, literary criticism and those who are interested in cyber literature in general"--

“Information” has become a core concept across the disciplines, yet it is still often seen as a unique feature of the Western world that became central only in the digital age. In this book, leading experts turn to China’s textual tradition to show the significance of information for reconceptualizing the work of literary history, from its beginnings to the present moment. Contributors trace the organization of literary information across China’s three millennia of history, examining the forms and practices of information management that have evolved alongside the increasing scale and complexity of textual production. They reimagine literary history as information processing, detailing the many kinds of storage, encoding, sorting, and transmission that constitute and feed back into China’s long and ever-growing cultural tradition. The volume features state-of-the-field essays on all major forms of literary information management, from graphs to internet literature, and from commentaries to literary museums and archives. By shifting focus from individual works and their authors to the informatic schemata of literature, it identifies three scales of information management—the word, the document, and the collection—and surveys the forms that operate at each level, such as the dictionary, the anthology, and the library. Literary Information in China is a groundbreaking work that provides a systematic and innovative reassessment of literary history with implications that extend beyond the particular Chinese context, revealing how informatic practices shape literary tradition.

This is the first scholarly attempt to write a history of cyber literary criticism in China. The author uses the Internet as the departure point, literature as the horizontal axis, and criticism as the vertical axis, to draw a detailed trajectory of the development of cyber literary criticism in China. The book comprises two parts. The first part focuses on the representation of historical facts about cyber literary criticism, covering five topics: the evolution of cyber literary criticism in the context of the new media, major types of cyber literary critics and their criticism, academic achievements in cyber literary studies, the form, contents, and rhetorical expressions of so-called netizens' critical commentaries, and important events in the history of cyber literary criticism. The second part discusses the historical changes in literary criticism as responses to cyber literature, covering another five topics: the conceptual transformation in literary criticism of the Internet era, the establishment of evaluation criteria for cyber literature, changes in the function of cyber literary criticism, changes in the constitution of cyber literary critics, and the impact of cyber literary criticism. This book will be an essential read to students and scholars of East Asian Studies, literary criticism and those who are interested in cyber literature in general.

Since the 1990s, Chinese literary enthusiasts have explored new spaces for creative expression online, giving rise to a modern genre that has transformed Chinese culture and society. Ranging from the self-consciously avant-garde to the pornographic, web-based writing has introduced innovative forms, themes, and practices into Chinese literature and its aesthetic traditions. Conducting the first comprehensive survey in English of this phenomenon, Michel Hockx describes in detail the types of Chinese literature taking shape right now online and their novel aesthetic, political, and ideological challenges. Offering a unique portal into postsocialist Chinese culture, he presents a complex portrait of internet culture and control in China that avoids one-dimensional representations of oppression. The Chinese government still strictly regulates the publishing world, yet it is growing increasingly tolerant of internet literature and its publishing practices while still drawing a clear yet ever-shifting ideological bottom line. Hockx interviews online authors, publishers, and censors, capturing the convergence of mass media, creativity, censorship, and free speech that is upending traditional hierarchies and conventions within China—and across Asia.

The Internet was supposed to be an antidote to authoritarianism. It can enable citizens to express themselves freely and organize outside state control. Yet while online activity has helped challenge authoritarian rule in some cases, other regimes have endured: no movement comparable to the Arab Spring has arisen in China. In Contesting Cyberspace in China, Rongbin Han offers a powerful counterintuitive explanation for the survival of the world’s largest authoritarian regime in the digital age. Han reveals the complex internal dynamics of online expression in China, showing how the state, service providers, and netizens negotiate the limits of discourse. He finds that state censorship has conditioned online expression, yet has failed to bring it under control. However, Han also finds that freer expression may work to the advantage of the regime because its critics are not the only ones empowered: the Internet has proved less threatening than expected due to the multiplicity of beliefs, identities, and values online. State-sponsored and spontaneous pro-government commenters have turned out to be a major presence on the Chinese internet, denigrating dissenters and barraging oppositional voices. Han explores the recruitment, training, and behavior of hired commenters, the “fifty-cent army,” as well as group identity formation among nationalistic Internet posters who see themselves as patriots defending China against online saboteurs. Drawing on a rich set of data collected through interviews, participant observation, and long-term online ethnography, as well as official reports and state directives, Contesting Cyberspace in China interrogates our assumptions about authoritarian resilience and the democratizing power of the Internet.

Marxism initiated a new era not only for people to fight for socialist future, but also for each discipline of sciences to witness profound changes. In such a context, literature, which has always been closely related to politics, will inevitably move toward a new direction. This book is composed of two parts. Part One studies the development of literary theories in contemporary China from a Marxist perspective. It introduces the basic ideas of Marxist literary theories as well as their spread and development in China, such as the combination of the theories and Chinese revolutionary literature. Moreover, it discusses the challenges facing Marxist literary theories in the 21st century under the background of diversification of literature and art, in terms of theory and practice, and high technologies which brought about electronic writing and digital communication of literary works. The second part elucidates the author’s insights into major issues concerning literary theories (e.g. the relationship between literature and people, literature and reality, perception and rationality in literary creation, etc.) This book will appeal to scholars and students of literary aesthetics and Chinese literary and cultural studies. People who are interested in history of contemporary Chinese literature will also benefit from this book.

"A thorough overview and analysis of the literary scene in China during the 1949-1999 period, focusing primarily on fiction, poetry, drama, and prose writing"--Provided by publisher.

Chinese Cyber Nationalism offers the first comprehensive examination of the social and ideological movement that mixes Confucian cultural traditions and advanced media technology. Over the past decade, the Internet has increasingly become a communication center, organizational platform, and channel of execution by which Chinese nationalistic causes have been promoted throughout the world. Dr. Xu Wu chronicles the movement's evolutionary path through five distinct developing phases that cover the span of twelve years. Through the use of online surveys and in-depth interviews with foreign policy makers, nationalist webmasters, and leading intellectuals in China, this book analyzes the characteristics and political implications of the movement. Xu presents a unique framework for scholars to understand China's modernization and historic return onto the world stage. Chinese Cyber Nationalism is a important addition to the study of political communication and China's foreign policy.

In The Making of Chinese-Sinophone Literatures as World Literature, Kuei-fen Chiu and Yingjin Zhang aim to bridge the distance between the scholarship of world literature and that of Chinese and Sinophone literary studies. This edited volume advances research on world literature by bringing in new developments in Chinese/Sinophone literatures and adds a much-needed new global perspective on Chinese literary studies beyond the traditional national literature paradigm and its recent critique by Sinophone studies. In addition to a critical mapping of the domains of world literature, Sinophone literature, and world literature in Chinese to delineate the nuanced differences of these three disciplines, the book addresses the issues of translation, genre, and the impact of media and technology on our understanding of “literature” and “literary prestige.” It also provides critical studies of the complicated ways in which Chinese and Sinophone literatures are translated, received, and reinvested across various genres and media, and thus circulate as world literature. The issues taken up by the contributors to this volume promise fruitful polemical interventions in the studies of world literature from the vantage point of Chinese and Sinophone literatures. “An outstanding volume full of insights, with chapters by leading scholars from an admirable range of perspectives, Chiu and Zhang’s The Making of Chinese-Sinophone Literatures as World Literature expertly integrates Chinese and Sinophone studies with world literature scholarship, opening numerous possibilities for future analyses of literature, media, and cultural history.” —Karen L. Thornber, Harvard University “This book is, at once, the best possible introduction to recent debates on world literature from the perspective of Chinese-Sinophone literatures, and a summa critica that thinks through their transcultural drives, global travels, varied worldings, and translational forces. The comparative perspectives gathered here accomplish the necessary and urgent task of reconfiguring both the idea of the world in world literature and the ways we study the inscriptions of Chinese-Sinophone literatures in the world.” —Mariano Siskind, Harvard University