Communication in China: Political Economy, Power, and Conflict

by Yuezhi Zhao Author of Communication i

Overview

The stakes for control over the means of communication in China have never been so high as the country struggles with breathtaking social change. This authoritative book analyzes the key dimensions of the transformation in China's communication system since the early 1990s and examines the highly fluid and potentially explosive dynamics of communication, power, and social contestation during China's rapid rise as a global power.

Yuezhi Zhao begins with an analysis of the party-state's reconfiguration of political, economic, and ideological power in the Chinese communication system. She then explores the processes and social implications of domestic and foreign capital formation in the communication industry. Drawing on media and Internet debates on fundamental political, economic, and social issues in contemporary China, the book concludes with a nuanced depiction of the pitched and uneven battles for access and control among different social forces.

Locating developments in Chinese communication within the nexus of state, market, and society, the author analyzes how the legacies of socialism continue to cast a long shadow. The book not only provides a multifaceted and interdisciplinary portrait of contemporary Chinese communication, but also explores profound questions regarding the nature of the state, the dynamics of class formation, and the trajectory of China's epochal social transformation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742519657
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/20/2008
Series:	State & Society in East Asia
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.37(w) x 9.45(h) x 1.27(d)

About the Author

Yuezhi Zhao is associate professor and Canada Research Chair in the Political Economy of Global Communication at Simon Fraser University.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: Reconfiguring Party-State Power: Market Reforms, Communication, and Control in the Digital Age
Chapter 2: Securing the Commanding Heights: Class, Power, and the Transformation of the Party-State's Media and Culture Sector
Chapter 3: Dancing with Wolves? Transnational Capital, Nationalism, and the Terms of Global Reintegration
Chapter 4: Entertaining the Masses: Domestic Private Capital, Popular Culture, and the Role of Cultural Entrepreneurs
Chapter 5: Crusading for Civil Rights and Legal Justice: Possibilities and Limits of Media and Internet Mobilization
Chapter 6: Challenging Neoliberalism: The Lang Xianping Storm, Property Rights, and Economic Justice
Conclusion

What People are Saying About This

Barrett McCormick

The excellent scholarship provides a badly needed update to the state of Chinese media. Zhao has both breadth and depth as a scholar, providing timely case studies and a wealth of up-to-date information. She makes extensive use of Chinese language sources that are not widely known even by experts in the field.

Dan Schiller

With commanding skill, Yuezhi Zhao reveals the conflicted role of communications in an epochal contemporary change: China's reintegration into global capitalism. Historically grounded and analytically powerful, this work is also vividly nuanced. It is instantly indispensable.

Editorial Reviews

Impeccably researched.. .. A nuanced and generally easy-to-read book.

The China Journal - Louise Merrington

Zhao's nuanced and powerful analysis informs why liberal democracy will not triumphant and why China will not turn back its clock and embrace absolute public ownership.

Journal of Chinese Political Science

Particularly insightful, important, and applicable across the disciplinary perspectives from which scholars study contemporary China. Communication in China's final chapter provides a kind of recapitulation of Chinese intellectual fractiousness—and for this reason alone, the entire book is a must-read for scholars. For teaching advanced undergraduates and graduate students, however, the case study chapters could serve as engrossing readings for contemporary China classes or international and comparative mass communication courses.

Journal of Asian Studies

With commanding skill, Yuezhi Zhao reveals the conflicted role of communications in an epochal contemporary change: China's reintegration into global capitalism. Historically grounded and analytically powerful, this work is also vividly nuanced. It is instantly indispensable.--Dan Schiller, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Impeccably researched. . . . A nuanced and generally easy-to-read book.--Louise Merrington "The China Journal "

The excellent scholarship provides a badly needed update to the state of Chinese media. Zhao has both breadth and depth as a scholar, providing timely case studies and a wealth of up-to-date information. She makes extensive use of Chinese language sources that are not widely known even by experts in the field.--Barrett L. McCormick, Marquette University

From the Publisher

For all students of Chinese media and communication. .. Zhao’s latest book is compulsory reading.. .. [It] further consolidates her standing as the brightest shining light and indisputably the most authoritative political economist in the field—a scholar whose influence and impact nevertheless extends far beyond the field of political economy.. .. Jam packed with a breathlessly engaging narrative and often poignant facts, figures and statistics. .. the book is an intellectual tour de force, unrivaled in its firm and comprehensive grasp of empirical materials and intellectual rigor.

International Journal of Communication

With commanding skill, Yuezhi Zhao reveals the conflicted role of communications in an epochal contemporary change: China's reintegration into global capitalism. Historically grounded and analytically powerful, this work is also vividly nuanced. It is instantly indispensable.

Dan Schiller

A case could easily be made that Yuezhi Zhao's Communication in China: Political Economy, Power, and Conflict is the best book to appear on media, telecommunication, and the Internet in China since the mid-1990s, when Zhao began her career as a scholar and her rapid ascent to the top ranks of specialists on China's communication system.. .. Zhao's vignette filled, beautifully written prose combines with the information richness of Communication in China to make the book a genuine page-turner: enjoyable to read and highly satisfying intellectually. Not only communication scholars, but political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists—everyone, in fact, working on contemporary China—will want to read this book.

Pacific Affairs

The excellent scholarship provides a badly needed update to the state of Chinese media. Zhao has both breadth and depth as a scholar, providing timely case studies and a wealth of up-to-date information. She makes extensive use of Chinese language sources that are not widely known even by experts in the field.

Barrett L. McCormick

Packed with information and insights about the Chinese media system.. .. An eye-opening account.

Global Media Journal

An outstanding reference point for what we want to know about China’s communication system. To be sure, the book is about much more than communication. In fact, it embraces most of the complex issues and forces involved in China’s political, economic, and social modernization.. .. To China scholars and students, I say put this book on your list of the top 25 books on contemporary China. It is a superb study based on solid research and strong analysis.

Literary Review Of Canada

For all students of Chinese media and communication . . . Zhao’s latest book is compulsory reading. . . . [It] further consolidates her standing as the brightest shining light and indisputably the most authoritative political economist in the field—a scholar whose influence and impact nevertheless extends far beyond the field of political economy. . . . Jam packed with a breathlessly engaging narrative and often poignant facts, figures and statistics . . . the book is an intellectual tour de force, unrivaled in its firm and comprehensive grasp of empirical materials and intellectual rigor.

International Journal Of Communication

The excellent scholarship provides a badly needed update to the state of Chinese media. Zhao has both breadth and depth as a scholar, providing timely case studies and a wealth of up-to-date information. She makes extensive use of Chinese language sources that are not widely known even by experts in the field.

Barrett McCormick

A case could easily be made that Yuezhi Zhao's Communication in China: Political Economy, Power, and Conflict is the best book to appear on media, telecommunication and the Internet in China since the mid-1990s, when Zhao began her career as a scholar and her rapid ascent to the top ranks of specialists on China's communication system. . . . Zhao's vignette filled, beautifully written prose combines with the information-richness of Communication in China to make the book a genuine page-turner: enjoyable to read and highly satisfying intellectually. Not only communication scholars, but political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists—everyone, in fact, working on contemporary China—will want to read this book.

Fall 2009 Pacific Affairs

Zhao's nuanced and powerful analysis informs why liberal democracy will not triumphant and why China will not turn back its clock and embrace absolute public ownership.

January 2009 Journal of Chinese Political Science

Particularly insightful, important and applicable across the disciplinary perspectives from which scholars study contemporary China. Communication in China's final chapter provides a kind of recapitulation of Chinese intellectual fractiousness—and for this reason alone, the entire book is a must-read for scholars. For teaching advanced undergraduates and graduate students, however, the case study chapters could serve as engrossing readings for contemporary China classes or international and comparative mass communication courses.

Journal Of Asian Studies