Chinese Digital Diasporic Media and The Shaping of Identity: The Case of UKzone

The expansion of Chinese media’s global influence has attracted many attentions around the world. When scholars focus on describing how the state-owned media extend beyond borders to reach audience around the globe, the long-existed Chinese diasporic media overseas are lack of discussion. How have they performed and shaped the imagination in-between China, host societies and transnational space? In the meantime, with the fast development of information and communication technology, Chinese diasporic media have transferred from traditional printed media to the digital version on social media platform. The thesis relied on content analysis of the case of UKzone. It took a social constructivist approach, applying concepts from Anderson's imagined community and Van Dijck and Poell’s theory on social media to analyze how have Chinese diasporic media performed on WeChat and shaped the Chinese identities. It argued that UKzone was a service platform first to translate practical information in host societies to Chinese diasporas. During the process of translation, UKzone shaped the identity of model Chinese overseas based on the imagination of an ideological China-centered picture. To some degree, the role digital diasporic media chose to play was linked with the networked power structure of market, social media and media governance.