ORIGINAL PAPER

ICTs and China: An Introduction

Pui-lam Law & Wai-chi Rodney Chu

Received: 12 March 2008 /Accepted: 18 March 2008 / Published online: 16 April 2008# Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2008

This special issue includes articles on the effects ofInternet use in rural China, the social consequences ofthe diffusion of mobile phones in Beijing, the culturalinterpretation of information and communicationtechnology (ICT) use, and the relationship betweenICTs and the Chinese polity. Before introducing thesetopics, we will briefly describe the traditional rela-tionship between knowledge and technology in Chinaand the long-held attitudes of the Chinese towardsscience and technology. We will also discuss theeconomic conditions in China in recent decades,when ICTs were introduced. This background isintended to provide the reader with the broadperspective necessary for the evaluation of the socialconsequences of the diffusion of ICTs in contemporaryChina.

Knowledge and Technology in China

Knowledge, particularly knowledge of science andtechnology, in ancient China was much more advanced

than that of the West (Needham 1969). China wasresponsible for many technological advances, includingfour great inventions: the compass, gunpowder, papermaking, and printing. These achievements had a greatimpact not only on China but also onWestern countries.Francis Bacon, even he did not know that they werefrom China, maintained that their effect was enormousand much more important than any other scientificadvances or any political or cultural movement (Temple2007). Other Chinese inventions such as the abacus,seismometer, and armillary sphere were also wellknown throughout the world.

The advancement and sophistication of technologicalskill in China, however, did not evolve into a coherentsystem of scientific knowledge nor did it constitute amodern scientific revolution. Since the Han dynasty(around 140 BC), the pursuit of knowledge had beendominated by Confucian philosophy, which puts moreemphasis on moral well-being and good society thanon science and technology. Unlike Western philosophyas characterized by Bacon, which holds that the pursuitof scientific knowledge enables humans to regain thesovereignty and the control over the creative thingsthey had lost since the Fall, Confucian philosophy seesthe pursuit of knowledge of nature as understandingthe norms of society because it maintains that natureand man are on harmonious terms (Alvares 1991).According to one of the most important Confucianclassics, I Ching (The Book of Changes), scientific andtechnological research at the empirical level is less

Know Techn Pol (2008) 21:3–7DOI 10.1007/s12130-008-9038-8

P.-l. Law (*) :W.-c. R. ChuDepartment of Applied Social Sciences,The Hong Kong Polytechnic University,Hunghom,Kowloon, Hong Konge-mail: sspllaw@polyu.edu.hk

W.-c. R. Chue-mail: ssrodney@polyu.edu.hk

important than the quest for logos at the metaphysicallevel. Studying the logos enhances moral well-beingand social harmony and is, therefore, central toConfucian teaching. Acquiring scientific knowledgeand inventing technologies, in contrast, were consideredmeans of improving ordinary “this-worldly” life. Scien-tific knowledge and its technological application wasnot only dominated by Confucian philosophy, it wasalso under the control of the imperial power. Besides,sophisticated technology had not been urgently requiredas the Chinese economy was based on agriculture untilthe early twentieth century. In Europe, on the otherhand, the religious reformation, coupled with the rise ofcapitalism, led to the rapid development of modernscience, starting in the sixteenth century. Modernscience in the West has revolutionized technology.Although the development of science and technologyin China had not been stagnant, it has lagged far behindthe West since the sixteenth century. The Chinese wereextremely impressed by the Western science andtechnology introduced by Jesuit missionaries in thesixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Elman 2006).

The participants in the May 4th movement in 1919,which promoted science and democracy as the meansof China’s modernization, were strongly critical of thedomination of Confucian philosophy and its influenceon the Chinese social order (Metzger 1977). Thismovement had little effect on the ingrained culturalbeliefs that the Chinese had held for thousands ofyears. The impetus towards modernization in the earlytwentieth century occurred during a time whenChina’s social and political situation was unstable.As a result of these factors, scientific knowledge inChina remained comparatively underdeveloped andtechnological advancement was very slow untilChina’s economy was restructured in the late 1970s.

Technology and Cultural Responses

Given that, in China, science and technology have notbeen considered central to the pursuit of knowledge andhave not kept pace with the West for the past fewcenturies, it is not surprising that the awareness of thesocial consequences of science and its technologicalapplication is still relatively poor. In the West, thescientific revolution began three centuries ago, soWestern society has had a long time to gauge its effectsand analyze the relationship between technology and

society. The profound and perceptive analyses by greatthinkers such as Karl Marx, Max Weber, and EmileDurkheim on the relationship between science andsociety are key and strong evidence. In China, most ofthe scholars in the late nineteenth and the twentiethcenturies focused on reforming Confucianism in orderto meet the challenges brought about by modernity,particularly the advanced technology from the West.Very few great thinkers were engaged in analyzing theimpact of science and technology on society. Theresponses of the West towards science and technologyhave not been limited to the academia. It was alsoreflected in the advent of science fiction, a literatureshaped not only by the creative imagination of theauthor but also by the consensual feelings of society ingeneral (Bacon-Smith 2000). The earliest work ofscience fiction was Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: Orthe Modern Prometheus which appeared in 1818.Since that time, the genre has gradually become centralto the popular culture in the area of machines andsociety in Western societies. Science fiction exploresthe West’s emotional investment in, and ambivalenceabout, science and technology in general and themachine in particular. On the one hand, it showsWestern society’s affection towards machines and itshubristic belief that technological achievements haveimproved people’s ability to control nature, haveopened up new possibilities for society, and willeventually free humanity from all possible constraints.On the other hand, science fiction also portrays peoplesurrounded by hybrids, or even gradually becominghybrids, and subsequently leading to catastrophes iftechnologies are not to be tamed or controlled (Hardand Jamison 2005). In China, the first work of sciencefiction appeared in 1904, a serialization of YueqiuZhimindi (Tales of Moon Colonization) in PortraitFiction by Huangjiang Diaosuo (Aged-Angler ofDesolate Lake) (Wu and Murphy 1989; Tatsumi2005). Science fiction has still not entered themainstream of Chinese popular culture. It is difficultto find works of this genre even in the largest bookstore in Beijing. Science and technology have not yetbecome central to the lives of the Chinese, who do notshare the West’s emotional investment in machines.1

1 This idea of using science fiction to reveal the differencesbetween Western and Chinese cultural responses towardsscience and technology has originated from Matteo Tarantino,who has been researching the cultural interpretations of scienceand technology in China.

4 P.-l. Law, W.-c.R. Chu

For thousands of years, the Chinese have not consid-ered machines and technology to be importantelements in their lives.

In contrast to theWest, where the influence of scienceand technology in general and the machine in particular,in both academic circles and the popular culture, isenormous, China shows very little interest in suchdevelopments. This is understandable since China, aswe have discussed, did not undergo themodern scientificrevolution and its progress in technological developmenthas been comparatively stagnant. In recent decades,however, this situation has been changing. Rapideconomic development has led to the swift penetrationof advanced technologies in Chinese society. Of these,ICTs have been the most rapidly and ubiquitouslyadopted. The unprecedented scale of new technologieshas, not surprisingly, posed many challenges to, andelicited many responses from, Chinese society.

Compressed Modernity and the Rapid Diffusionof ICTs

Since the introduction of economic reform in 1978,China’s economy has been experiencing a sharpupsurge. In 1978, the GDP in China was 362.4 billionyuan (Chinese yuan had been usable only domesticallyuntil the late 1980s) and the GDP per person was 379yuan. In 2005, the GDP had risen to 18.2321 trillionyuan (US$ 1 was approximately 8.11 yuan) and theGDP per person was 14,040 yuan. The GDP perperson in the coastal cities is much higher. InGuangdong, the GDP per person in 2005 was 23,616yuan. The Chinese, particularly those residing in thecoastal cities, have enjoyed a much better lifestyle thanthat preceding decollectivization. Before 1978, only afew of the 600 households in a village in the PearlRiver Delta, one of the richest regions in China today,had an electric rice cooker. By the mid-1990s, almostall of the households in the village had basic electricappliances such as electric rice cookers, refrigerators,electric fans, washing machines, and TVs (Yuen et al.2004). Technological acquisition was also evident innearby cities. In 1987, of 100 city dwellers, 34.36owned a color TV, five a refrigerator, and seven acamera (State Statistical Bureau 1988). In fact, today,most families own more than one TV set, DVD player,hi-fi, and computer. Some have broadband Internetconnection and most family members have their own

mobile phone, in addition to the household’s landlinephone. Well-to-do families are likely to have a luxuryimported automobile.

China, particularly in the coastal regions, hasundergone a compressed process of modernity, bothin the development of economy and in the adoption ofnew technologies, notably ICTs. At the time whenChina introduced economic reform and opened itsmarkets, its economy had been primarily agricultural.With the encouragement of the Chinese government,there was a surge in foreign investment and Chineseentrepreneurship. Within a couple of decades, nearlyall of the peasant villages in the coastal regions hadbecome industrialized towns. Although the process ofsocial modernity in China has progressed slowly andcan barely support a healthy free market economy, theeconomy has been booming. In three decades,China’s economy has become the second largest inthe world. Obviously, the sharp upsurge of theeconomy has significantly improved the lifestyle ofthe Chinese. It has also led to massive importation ofnew technology from the West. The Chinese can nowenjoy the most advanced technological devices,devices that are the product of hundreds of years ofscientific research in the West. China has become theworld’s largest market for these products as well asthe world’s factory for their manufacture. In anattempt to become even more assimilated into themodern world, the Chinese government has introducedpolicies that advocate the importance of scientific andapplied research and that are primarily designed toimprove the technology industry in China (Hong 2006).

Of all the technological innovations, ICTs haveproved to be the most rapidly and ubiquitouslyassimilated, as the penetration rates of landlinephones, mobile phones, and the Internet attest. Chinahad around 2 million landline users (0.2% penetrationrate) in 1978, 100 years after the invention ofthe telephone. By 1997, this number had risen to54.6 million (4.42%) and at the end of 2007, itreached 369 million (28%). There were only 300 mobilephone users in China in 1987. By 1997, 13 millionChinese (1.05%) had mobile phones. The increasewas even more dramatic in the last decade: thenumber of mobile users reached 539 million (40.8%)by the end of 2007. The penetration rate is highest inthe coastal cities. In Shanghai, for instance, thenumber of mobile users reached 17.765 million bythe end of 2007 (the population is estimated to be

ICTs and China: an introduction 5

around 18 million). In terms of Internet use, Chinasent its first e-mail to Germany in September 1987;20 years later, China has the second-highest numberof Internet users in the world.

The speed of ICT penetration has been astounding,particularly in the case of new technologies. InGuangdong, the richest province in southern China,the penetration rate of household landlines is 25.8% butthat of the mobile phone is already 84.3%. Before thelandline had a chance to demonstrate extensively itseffect on Chinese society, the mobile phone gainedascendancy and, in the coastal cities, has becomeubiquitous. A similar situation has evolved in the media.While mainstreammedia such as newspapers, radio, andTV are still under the tight control of the centralgovernment, the Chinese are able to access a widerrange of news and express themselves more freely onthe Internet. The new ICTs have had a profound effect.In 2007, a couple living in Hunan province in thehinterland, where the landline penetration rate is stilllower than 20%, were able to use an MSN Web cam inan Internet cafe to chat with their son who was workingin Shenzhen, the first special economic zone in China.

Given the relative stagnation of socio-culturalconditions in China in the past centuries, the startlingspeed of the influx of technological products in thepast decades, and the accelerated introduction of theseproducts, it is clear that research on the socialconsequences of the introduction of ICTs in China isvital. This special issue provides some preliminaryfindings. In the following section, we will brieflyintroduce the issues covered in the papers.

ICTs and China

Of the various ICT products, the penetration rate ofthe Internet is dramatically fast. The number of usershas increased from 0.62 million in 1997 to 162million in June 2007. Despite the fact that China hasthe second-highest number of Internet users in theworld, the vast population in China’s hinterland hasnot been able to access this new technology, leadingto a digital divide in the communication sphere(Harwit 2004). However, many believe that theInternet represents an opportunity for rural communitiesto improve their economic conditions and advanceeducation. A number of experimental projects havebeen established to test this hypothesis. Zhao examines

the effects of Internet use on various aspects of rural lifein China. She maintains that the introduction of theInternet in rural areas has not resulted in fundamentalchanges to the modes of production, the organization ofwork, and the norms of consumption. However, it hashad some positive effects: the Internet has increasedfarmers’ access to advanced agricultural technologiesand enhanced communication of farming innovations,which have contributed to agricultural productivity.Zhao also maintains that the Internet has served aneducational purpose by improving the level of techno-logical awareness and readiness. Still, Zhao warns usnot to overestimate the effect of ICTs in improving theproblems found in rural areas. She concludes that theInternet diffusion, adoption, and use are shaped bythe social context.

The diffusion rate of the mobile phone in Chinahas also been striking, and it shows no signs ofslowing down. Its dissemination has been much morewidespread than any other ICT. Still, very fewresearch studies on the social consequences of mobilephones in China have been conducted, and there havebeen no quantitative studies. The paper of Fortunati,Manganelli, Law, and Yang report the first survey ofmobile use conducted in 2006 in Beijing, China’scapital. Although the survey used a conveniencesample and, therefore, the data is probably notstatistically representative, the study represents animportant step and provides some insight into thediffusion, adoption, and use of mobile phones inBeijing. In evaluating the changes in the social andcommunicative sphere as a result of the introductionof mobile phones, they note that mobile users’ sphereof social communication has been expanded as wellas their ability to maintain close ties with others. Theyshow that the mobile phone is more apt to be used asa functional tool than a source of amusement by thosewith higher educational and income levels. Apparently,machines have always been considered to be a kind oftools for improving the lives of Chinese. Fortunati et al.point out that the cultural differences between the Westand China have affected their attitudes towards themobile phone. The issue of trust is one of the importantcultural factors influencing communication in China.Unlike Europeans, the Chinese are reluctant to give theirphone number to strangers. They tend to restrictthemselves to a network of trustworthy contacts.Fortunati et al. also analyze the effect of gender on thesphere of communication. Traditions that have required

6 P.-l. Law, W.-c.R. Chu

women to stay at home and attend to domestic workhavemitigated the benefits ofmobile phones for women;women are much less likely than men to use the mobilephone to enhance their sphere of communication.

Culture plays an important role in shaping the useof technologies. When we observe the Chinese waysof using the mobile phone in public places, perhapswe may share the similar views as some studiessuggest that face-to-face interactions are alwaysdisrupted by mobile users engaging in privatecommunications with absent–present others, leadingto the possible conflation of the traditional separationof public space and private life (Licoppe and Heurtin2002). This seems to lend support to the argument oftechno-determinism. But when we delve deeper intothe issue of mobile phone use in China, we will beaware of the working of culture on the uses of ICTs.Concerning the phenomenon that the Chinese mobileusers, similar to the users in the other countries, alsotransgress the norm of public communication, Chuexamines the way in which the Chinese concept ofrelational shelf shapes mobile communication. Chualso maintains that some cultural elements, such asmianzi (face), have a significant effect on the use ofmobiles among the migrant workers. Culture is one ofthe dominant factors influencing the adoption of themobile phone in China, and, conversely, as Chusuccinctly points out, the accelerated introduction ofnew ICTs has had important social consequences.

These consequences are also the subject of Yang’spaper, which deals with the effects of the Interneton political participation. Non-profit organizations(NPOs) in China are accustomed to adopting apassive role and have failed to take advantage of theopportunities for advocacy that the Internet provides.Individual Internet users, in contrast, have beenactively pursuing their goals via the Internet—educating themselves in the features of a civil societyand participating in political activities. Although theChinese have very little experience in public debate and,therefore, tend to express their opinions in virtualforums with a disregard for the conventions of rationaldiscussion and a lack of mutual respect, they have atleast found a vehicle to express their commitment toactive participation in civic and political issues. Yangbelieves this is a positive trend. He maintains thatChinese NPOs must recognize the advantages of theInternet, its capacity to mobilize large numbers of users,and the contribution of the users; if NPOs are unable to

adapt to the new technology, they will cease to beeffective agents of change.

The Chinese invented print technology a thousandyears ago, but the socio-cultural context in China hasshaped its use and limited its application so that it didnot contribute to the formation of civil society as itdid in the West (Thompson 1995). It is hoped that theintroduction of the Internet in particular and ICTs ingeneral, at this much later date, will gradually lead tosignificant changes in China in the future.

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