Downstream: The Secrets of the Chinese Internet w/ Yi-Ling Liu

Downstream: The Secrets of the Chinese Internet w/ Yi-Ling Liu

From Novara Media by Novara Media

April 13, 2026 · 1h 39m

About this episode

Aaron Bastani interviews Yi-Ling Liu about the complexities of the Chinese internet and its cultural implications.

Take part in our audience survey: novara.media/survey In China in the 1990s, the arrival of the internet was swiftly met with the ‘great firewall’: a complex matrix of censorship, surveillance and state control. Since then there have been two internets: the World Wide Web, and the Chinese internet. ​ Aaron Bastani talks to China analyst Yi-Ling Liu about the cultures and innovations that have evolved in this separate digital ecosphere. How have feminist and LGBTQ+ movements manifested through the Chinese internet? How has the Chinese Communist Party negotiated the promise and threat of the internet, and now AI? And why is the West suddenly so obsessed with China? Yi-Ling Liu’s book is The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet.

People in this episode

Host: Aaron Bastani

Guest: Yi-Ling Liu

Topics covered

  • internet censorship
  • Chinese internet
  • LGBTQ+ movements
  • feminism
  • state control

Keywords

  • great firewall
  • censorship
  • surveillance
  • Chinese Communist Party
  • AI
  • The Wall Dancers

Mentioned in this episode

Products: The Wall Dancers

Books & works: The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet

Places: China, West

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