There are billions of internet users in China, and this number is continually growing. This book looks at the various purposes of this internet use, and provides a study about how the entertainment-consuming users form into publics through the mediation of technologies in the era of network society. It questions how individuals, mediated by new information and communication technologies, come together to form new social categories. The book goes on to investigate how public(s) is formed in the era of network society. Using online surveys and in-depth interviews, this book provides a rich description of the process of constructing a new social formation in contemporary China.

Weiyu Zhang is Associate Professor in the Department of Communications and New Media at the National University of Singapore.

1. Publics, Fans, and Social Media 2. Popular Culture and ICTs 3. Rear Window to Movies: From Fans to Subaltern Publics 4. Ten Years After: From Subaltern to Regular Publics 5. Online Translation Communities: From Consumers to Prod-users 6. House of Cards: From Entertainment to Politics 7. Douban vs. Renren: Fan Objects as Network Nodes8. Weibo Publics: Celebrities as Network Nodes 9. Fandom Publics: Social Formation in the Network Society