China and the Wireless Undertow

Explores the increasingly intimate relationship between China and wireless technology, taking the wave as a central concept Provides a new theoretical apparatus that reimagines key issues around technological evolution in a shifting geopolitical landscape Offers a corrective to certain myopias of Western media theory Presents a deep, historical engagement with issues and debates surrounding Chinese cyberculture Brings together contemporary media theory with modern Chinese philosophical thought In the 21st century city, wireless waves constitute an imperceptible, immersive, all-encompassing environment. Nowhere is this more so than in China, where a hyperdense network of mobile media has restructured daily life. Anna Greenspan re-imagines the relationship between China and wirelessness by synthesising contemporary media theory with modern Chinese thought. It focuses specifically on the work of three critical figures: Tan Sitong ??? (1865 1898), Xiong Shili ??? (1885 1968) and Mou Zongsan ??? (1909 1995).