This book analyzes the risk cultures in China that have emerged from the entanglement of new communication technologies and financial markets, examining the role that digital media play in Asian modernity and offering an alternative narrative to that of the West. The book illustrates the impact of exclusively Chinese digital media on power dynamics within risk definition, arguing that information and communication technologies (ICTs) empower individuals, enabling them to compete with an expert-oriented risk culture controlled by Government- and banker-led media outlets. With struggles, competitions, compromises, and confrontations, major communicators in financial world are collectively producing risk cultures based on interpersonal relations instead of contractual obligations, in which insider information is valued over professional analysis. Meanwhile, investors are trapped in a risk culture paradox that they themselves have produced, as they attempt to take advantage of other actors' uncertainties and eventually produce risks for the entire market.

This book analyzes the risk cultures in China that have emerged from the entanglement of new communication technologies and financial markets, examining the role that digital media play in Asian modernity and offering an alternative narrative to that of the West. The book illustrates the impact of exclusively Chinese digital media on power dynamics within risk definition, arguing that information and communication technologies (ICTs) empower individuals, enabling them to compete with an expert-oriented risk culture controlled by Government- and banker-led media outlets. With struggles, competitions, compromises, and confrontations, major communicators in financial world are collectively producing risk cultures based on interpersonal relations instead of contractual obligations, in which insider information is valued over professional analysis. Meanwhile, investors are trapped in a risk culture paradox that they themselves have produced, as they attempt to take advantage of other actors' uncertainties and eventually produce risks for the entire market.

App designers dream of creating a platform that users never want to leave, that keeps them glued forever - a platform that is "sticky". Over 846 million WeChat users leave text and voice messages, share life moments, play games, use stickers, purchase rail and flight tickets, shop online, pay utilities and bills, transfer money to friends, and even donate to charity without leaving WeChat, the super-sticky platform. The Economist called WeChat "one app to rule them all", and as it starts to gain global appeal, it is rewriting the rules for social media platforms. This book provides a balanced and nuanced study of how the super-sticky WeChat platform interweaves into the fabric of Chinese social, cultural, and political life. It keeps the wider global and national social media landscape in view and compares and contrasts WeChat with Weibo and QQ, two other popular social media platforms in China, and other Western social media platforms.