Radio and Social Transformation in China

The first systematic, comprehensive and critical English-language study of radio in China, this book documents a historical understanding of Chinese radio from the early twentieth century to the present.

Covering both public matters and private lives, Radio and Social Transformation in China analyses a range of themes from healthcare, migration and education, to intimacy, family and friendship. Through a concentrated and thorough scrutiny of a variety of new genres and radio practices in post-Mao China, it also investigates the interaction between radio and social change, particularly in the era of economic reform. Building on the core theoretical concept of -compressed modernity-, each of the radio genres explored is shown to embody China-s efforts to achieve modernity, while simultaneously exemplifying radio-s capacity to manage the challenges that have arisen from the country-s distinctive and perhaps unique process of modernization.

Writt