Xiaoling Zhang is a lecturer in the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, the University of Nottingham, UK. She researches on the transformation of media, culture and society in China. Yongnian Zheng is Professor and Director of Research in the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham, UK. He is the author of 13 books, including Technological Empowerment, De Facto Federalism in China, Discovering Chinese Nationalism in China and Globalization and State Transformation in China, and co-editor of, amongst other books, The Chinese Communist Party in Reform.

This book examines China's information and communications technology revolution. It outlines key trends in internet and telecommunications, exploring the social, cultural and political implications of China's transition to a more information and communications rich society. It shows that despite remaining a one-party state with extensive censorship, substantial changes have occurred.

Introduction. 1. Historical Imagination in the Study of Chinese Digital Civil Society 2. Dancing Thumbs: Mobile Telephony in Contemporary China 3. Regulating E Gao: Futile Efforts of Recentralization? 4. In the Name of Good Governance: E-Government, Internet Pornography, and Political Censorship in China 5. Chinese Intellectuals and Internet in the Formation of a New Collective Memory 6. From "Foreign Propaganda" to "International Communication": China's Promotion of Soft Power in the Age of Information and Communication Technologies 7. Web Engineering in the Chinese Context: "Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom, a Hundred Schools of Thought Contend" 8. The Political Cost of Information Control in China: The Nation-State and Governance