China at the Tipping Point? From “Fart People” to Citizens

Issue Date January 2013
Volume 24
Issue 1
Page Numbers 79-85
file Print
arrow-down-thin Download from Project MUSE
external View Citation

In recent years, Chinese netizens have shown they possess boundless creativity and ingenuity in finding ways to express themselves despite government restrictions on online speech. To Chinese Internet users, those terms often resonate deeply by expressing feelings about shared experiences that millions of people can immediately relate to. Does new language lead to new thought? Will new political discourse give birth to a new political identity? Are new forms of networked communication enhancing opportunities for social change and helping to move China toward a “threshold” for political transformation? This study is attempting to shed lights on those questions.

About the Authors

Xiao Qiang

Xiao Qiang is research scientist and director of the Counter-Power Lab at the University of California–Berkeley’s School of Information. He is also founder and editor-in-chief of the China Digital Times. Between 1991 and 2002, he served as executive director of Human Rights in China, an NGO based in New York.

View all work by Xiao Qiang

Perry Link

Perry Link is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature and Foreign Languages at the University of California–Riverside.

View all work by Perry Link