China and the Wireless Undertow

Anna Greenspan is Assistant Professor of Global Contemporary Media at NYU Shanghai. She is the author of Shanghai Future: Modernity Remade (Oxford University Press, 2014), India and the IT Revolution: Networks of Globalization (Palgrave, 2005). She also writes for a non-academic audience including these three books: Ccru: Writings 1997-2003 (Urbanomic, 2015), Future Mutations: Technology and the Evolution of the Species (Time Spiral Press, 2014) and Urbanatomy: Shanghai 2008 (China Intercontinental Press, 2008).

• PrefaceK-WavesKey TermsKey Characters　　　　　　　　 Acknowledgements　Introduction. Historical Waves; Electric Waves; Wave Philosophy5GThe Fifth WaveMedia Infrastructure　Elemental Media Wave Cosmo-ontology　Chapter 1. From Oscillation to Undulation: Chinese Culture and Techno-ModernityTi-Yong 體用Chinese Learning for Essence, Western Learning for PracticeThe Roots of Ti/YongXiong Shili 熊十力The Yogacara RevivalNew ConfucianismNew TreatiseChapter 2. Contraction and Expansion: From Wires to WirelessnessTelegraph SovereigntyTechno-NationalismThe Internet with Chinese CharacteristicsThe Telegraph and GlobalizationTechnological Time　Chapter 3. Repetition: Pirate Culture and the Cell PhoneThe Special Economic ZoneThe Shenzhen EpochThe Shenzhen MythShanzhai 山寨Land and SeaSimulation　Chapter 4. Vibration: The Body ElectricInfrastructural ImaginaryMysterious WavesTan Sitong 譚嗣同The Ether and Occult MaterialismYitai 以太The Ether and The SpectrumEmbodied ExperimentsChapter 5. Immersion: The Sentient CitySentient City vs Smart CityAlien IntelligenceNonhuman TimeTranscendental MaterialismMou Zongsan 牟宗三Surveillance　City Gods　Cultivation　Conclusion. Apprehending the Whole of the Wave　Bibliography

Anna Greenspan adeptly interweaves the concept of Wave, linking premodern Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist thought with today's rapidly changing, wireless China. This elucidates the historical and metaphysical underpinnings of contemporary Chinese media culture in all its intricacy. It leaves us keen to see where the waves of technology will carry China amid current geopolitical turbulence.