Abstract
Chinese Platforms: A Critical Introduction by Jian Lin, Wilfred Yang Wang, and Ping Sun offers a timely and theoretically grounded intervention into platform studies by repositioning China at the centre of global debates on digital media, governance, and cultural production. Instead of taking China as an exception to the Euro-American perspectives, the authors take Chinese platforms as central to understanding the global platform landscape.
The book is organised to move from macro-level historical and political analysis to sector- specific case studies. Chapter one and two trace the ideological and institutional foundations of China's platform economy, highlighting how state governance, techno- nationalism, and market-oriented reforms intersect. Particularly insightly is the discussion of how the Chinese state simultaneously constrains and enables the development of platforms, through regulatory interventions such as the Great Firewall and strategic industrial policies. As the authors discuss in the book, the state's adoption of platform nationalism and techno-solutionism constitutes a form of ‘schizophrenic governance’, capturing the tension of control and innovation in Chinese platform governance.
Chapter three to five examine key sectors within the Chinese platform economy. The analysis of platform labour shows how algorithmic governance and labour precarity operate within China's unique socio-economic conditions, where migrant workers form the backbone of the gig economy. The chapters on e-commerce and social media entertainment show how platforms such as Taobao, Douyin, and Kuaishou serve as both economic and cultural infrastructure, with livestreaming, influencer economies, and ‘lifestyle-driven’ content reshaping both production and consumption of online content.
A key highlight of the book lies in its reconceptualisation of ‘Chineseness’. Rather than treating it as a fixed cultural essence or simply equating it with state control, the authors frame Chineseness as relational, processual, and historically contingent. The book cautions against the metaphor of a self-contained ‘parallel universe’, instead emphasising that Chinese platforms are simultaneously territorialised through state sovereignty and deterritorialised through transnational expansion. This framing enables a more nuanced understanding of how platform power is co-constructed across local and global scales, moving beyond reductive binaries such as ‘West versus China’.
Using TikTok as a key case, the authors unpack the ongoing geopolitical debates and how Chinese platforms are increasingly caught within competing national agendas. TikTok is analysed not simply as a global success story, but as a strategically positioned platform navigating between national identities and global markets. The unexpected movement of ‘TikTok refugees’ during the TikTok ban in 2025 – US TikTok users migrating to Chinese platforms such as RedNote – highlights the paradox between platform as a diverse users’ interaction and a mechanism of state control. Instead of understanding ‘Chinese platform universe’ as a monolithic entity, the constellation of hybrid systems is shaped by the interplay of geopolitics, and the intertwined of state-platform power, and local and global cultures.
By foregrounding relationality and global entanglement in the study of Chinese platforms, this book makes a significant contribution to the ongoing agenda of de-Westernising platform studies while offering a compelling account of an increasingly multipolar global platform landscape.
