Resistance in Disguise: Understanding the Effect of Chinese Serialized Internet Fiction on Democratization and Development of Civil Society

Abstract

This paper examines the medium of Chinese Serialized Internet Fiction and considers its role in the increasingly complex flow of information on the internet. Specifically, this paper is explores whether the Chinese fiction serialization community possess the potential for challenging problematic strategies of information control in Chinese internet, including but not limited to government censorship and framing effects. The paper concludes that while the medium of Serialized Internet Fiction demonstrate some success in resisting government censorship and framing effects, its main contribution is in the establishment of a discursive and experiential community that allows for an imaginative collective negotiation of values and culture in China, which may be more beneficial to the establishment of civil society in China in its current phase than political democratization.