Doctoral student Elisa Oreglia received an honorable mention at the recent Chinese Internet Research Conference in Beijing for her paper “The country modern: the internet as a bridge between urban and rural China.” Oreglia's research focuses on young rural-to-urban migrant Chinese women and on their ties with their places and families of origin. These women often leave their villages for the the economic opportunity of the city, where they are exposed to new patterns of technology consumption.
The paper discusses the importance of the internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT) as tools used by rural-to-urban migrant women to connect the city and the countryside. Much as ‘old’ ICTs like radio and television have been important in creating a common, popular identity for the country, Oreglia argues that ‘new’ ICTs are helping to create a sense of participation in urbanization, progress, and modernity for people who are at the margin of it. “ICT and migrants are a link between urban and rural life, channels through which ideas of modernity and city life flow back to the countryside,” she says.
Oreglia is currently conducting fieldwork for her dissertation in Beijing and in the countryside of the Hebei and Shandong Provinces. She is exploring how Chinese rural-to-urban young migrant women use technology in their social lives, and whether the women play a role in bringing technologies back to the countryside when they return to their homes in rural China.
The 8th Chinese Internet Research Conference was held June 29–30 at Peking University — the first time the conference has been held in mainland China. The conference brought together scholars and experts around the theme “Internet and Modernity with Chinese Characteristics: Institutions, Cultures and Social Formations.”
