Thirty years of the Internet in China: On writing Chinese Internet histories

This article introduces the special issue on “Thirty Years of the Internet in China.” The goal is to highlight insights and lessons which are particularly relevant to the burgeoning field of the study and writing of Chinese Internet histories. Through a careful review of the 24 articles in this special issue, we identify five clusters of analytical issues. They are (1) periodization and panoramic views, (2) texture and scale, (3) the digital everyday, (4) unsettling and recentering scholarship, and (5) methodologies and archives. The 24 essays in this special issue are discussed under these five thematic clusters.