Digital Transnationalism

Wanning Sun is Professor of Media and Communication at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). She is a Fellow of Australian Academy of Humanities (FAHA). She is a member of the College of Experts, Australian Research Council (2020-2022). Wanning is an internationally recognised leading scholar on soft power, public diplomacy and diasporic Chinese media. She has spear-headed the diasporic Chinese media as a field of scholarly research, and she is also known for her work on rural to urban migration and social change in contemporary China. Wanning is the author of a major report Chinese-Language Media in Australia: Developments, Challenges and Opportunities (2016). She is the Chief Investigator in an Australian Research Council Discovery Project Chinese-Language Digital/Social Media in Australia: Rethinking Soft Power (2018-2020). Haiqing Yu is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and Professor of Media and Communication at RMIT University, Australia. She is a critical media studies scholar with expertise on Chinese digital media, technologies and culture and their sociopolitical impact in China, Australia and the Asia Pacific. Her current projects examine the social implications of China’s social credit system, technological innovation, and digital transformation; China’s digital presence in Australasia; and Chinese-language digital/social media in Australia.

• AcknowledgementsList of Figures and TablesList of AbbreviationsIntroduction:A New Direction in Global Chinese Studies?1Between Diaspora Identity and Citizenship: Social Capital in Transnational Space2Place-Making, Flexible Citizens, and the Reality of Living “In Between”3Soft Power and Diaspora Diplomacy4Digital Diaspora and Transnational Place-Making5Australia: A Country-Specific Approach6Chinese-Language Media as an Instrument of Chinese Influence?7Methods and Approach8Chapters1 Media, Migration, and the New Chinese Diaspora:History, Politics, and Context1History of Earlier Chinese Migration2New Migrants from the PRC3“New New” Migrants from the PRC4Changing Demographic Patterns and Characteristics5Changing Political Climate6Chinese-Language Media in Australia2 WeChat Subscription Accounts:Regulation, Business Model, and Institutional Context1WeChat and WeChat Subscription Accounts2The Political and Economic Context3Typology of WSA s and Their Regulatory Framework4 Top Fifty WSA s in Australia:A Collective Portrait5 Beyond a Simplistic Notion of Control:Conclusion3 Production and Consumption of News on WeChat:Platform, Market, and Readers1Methods2Top Ten WSA s:Typology of Content and Style3 Case Studies:Hong Kong Protests and Horton Versus Sun4 Cultural Production of News on WeChat5 Conclusion4 Content Flow, Cultural Brokering, and the Identity of In-betweenness:The Case ofSydney Today1Content:Where, What, and Which Sources?2 Ethno-Transnational Media between Host Country and Motherland: The Politics of Content Flow3 The Chinese-Language Media In Between4 Narrative Analysis of Sydney Today Stories5Editors as Content Brokers6 Cultural Brokering and a New “In-Between” Identity Politics:A Conclusion5 Self-Making through Self-Media:New Opinion Brokers in Transnational Space1Key Issues Pertaining to Self-Media2 Cultural Economy of the Chinese Self-Media Industry3 Chinese Content Entrepreneurs in Australia:Case Studies4 Discussion: Self-Media Operators as Information and Opinion Brokers5Conclusion6 Mobility and Micro-Entrepreneurship:Daigou as Transnational Subjects1 Researching Daigou: A Note on Methods2 Daigou in Australian Metropolitan Centers3Chinese Social Commerce Platforms and the Network of Networks4 Chinese Micro-Entrepreneurial Mobility5 Conclusion7 Becoming Active Citizens:The Australian Federal Election and Civic Education1Approaching WeChat as a New Civic Space2 Negotiating Boundaries and Performing Digital Acts3 Exemplary Citizens4Discussion and Conclusion8 Negotiating Flexibility:COVID-19 and the New Politics of Transnationalism1Transnational Migrants and Citizenship Engagement2COVID-19: From China to Australia:Timeline and Context3 Active Citizens or Still Too Chinese?4 Learning about Rights and Duties as Citizens5Selfish Flexible Citizenship?6 Altruistic Flexible Citizenship?7 Between a Rock and a Hard Place8 ConclusionConclusion:Toward a New Transnational SubjectReferencesIndex