Distributed for UCL Press
Understanding China through Digital Anthropology
A reconsideration of the meaning of “digital” in light of China’s distinct technological trajectory.
Understanding China through Digital Anthropology questions our understanding of digital technologies by demonstrating fundamental differences in the meaning of both technology and the digital between China and the West. This follows from a longstanding historical divergence in the meaning of and attitude towards the relationship between technology and humanity. The book includes coverage of a considerable body of scholarship on digital anthropology previously only published in Chinese.
324 pages | 6.14 x 9.21 | © 2026
Anthropology: Cultural and Social Anthropology
Asian Studies: East Asia
Culture Studies:
Table of Contents
List of contributors
Editorial note
Introduction
Daniel Miller and Xinyuan Wang
1 Normativity in/with period-tracking apps: the normal body and sexual morality
Xiaolin Li
2 Normativity through social media: an exploration of Enshiness in posts
Kunyu Xiang
3 Networks that transform structure: the impact of digital technologies on the matsutake trade of the Shangri-La region of southwest China
Chun Liu
4 Doing social e-commerce: Chinese grass-roots women and their search for a better life
Haichao Wang
5 Rethinking data in healthcare: data work in an elderly care institute in Shanghai
Xinyuan Wang and Yuling Sun
6 From Hunan TV to Mango Supermedia: building futures and pasts
Xinru Li
7 The ghosts inside the algorithmic recommendation system
Ken Zheng
8 Digital anthropology studies in China: a literature review
Chuyao Lai, Guangxu Ji, Linliang Qian, Lingyu Zhou, Shiyu Lu, Xinru Sun, Xinyuan Wang, Yong Hu and Zeqi Qiu
Conclusion
Daniel Miller and Xinyuan Wang
Index