The social media platform WeChat has had a subtle but meaningful influence within the Chinese immigrant community in America. It serves as a channel for dispensing political information and keeping this minority racial group connected.
WeChat and the New Chinese American examines how and why the platform, which originated in China and followed many recent immigrants to their new life in America, has become an indispensable source of communication, community access, and interconnection not just between immigrants, but also with China and the rest of the Chinese diaspora.
Jingsi Christina Wu conducts interviews with upper-middle-class Chinese immigrants who settled in America after 2000 to track general trends in the larger WeChat information and opinion environment, including its rise as a source of political discourse during the 2016 election and beyond and its impact on U.S.-China relations. In doing so, she tells a complicated, evolving story about Chinese and Chinese American populations, the changing media landscape, and the ongoing social division in the Chinese immigrant community as well as in the larger American society.
