Book review: The Chinese Typewriter: A History

Abstract

This book is based on rich firsthand and secondhand materials. By weaving together a number of key actors in China’s informal and formal digital media economy, the book contributes to the field of Chinese Internet studies, digital labor studies, platform studies and, more broadly, communication and media studies. The author consistently and carefully links on-the-ground practices to macro-level political and socio-economic milieux where these practices take shape. By doing so, Zhao sheds light on the larger theoretical issues. Overall, the author should be applauded for writing such an excellent book.