Let 100 Voices Speak

From the Occupy movement in the Western world to the Arab Spring and the role of Twitter in the Middle East, the internet and social media is changing the global landscape. China is next. Despite being a heavily censored society, China has over 560 million active internet users, more than double that of the USA.

Social media expert and China-watcher Liz Carter tells the story of how the internet in China is leading to a coming together of activists, ordinary people and cultural trendsetters on a scale unknown in modern history. With the help of inventive memes and Chinese puns, political news, gossip and satirical jokes are spreading fast through Weibo – China’s Twitter – and the internet underground, becoming practically impossible to censor. A grassroots, foundational shift of assumptions and expectations is taking place, as Chinese men and women cast off the communist-era ‘stability at all costs’ mantra and find new forms of self-expression, creativity and communication with the world.

Lively, ground-breaking and brilliantly researched, Let 100 Voices Speak reveals a new side to the world’s largest country, and is the must-read guide to China’s future, and the future of protest and censorship in the internet age.