Chapter 7 Conclusion: Cultural Politics of User-Generated Encyclopaedias: Comparing Chinese Wikipedia and Baidu Baike

Abstract

Finally, I will articulate the theoretical and policy implications of the findings in Chapter 7. The findings fill various gaps in our understanding of the Chinese-language Internet. In particular, they show where and how the cultural-political boundaries manifest themselves. It discusses how geolinguistic arrangements are critical for our understanding of how information is ordered and for its boundaries. Geolinguistic processability, or the overall socio-technical processes and outcomes that process linguistic and geographic specificity of information, matters for defining the centre and boundaries of information–rich societies.

7.1 Understanding the Chinese-language Internet 300 7.2 Implications for research and policy 310 7.3 Understanding the geolinguistic dynamics of knowledge and information 316

Keywords: Chinese-language Internet; geolinguistic; Great Firewall of China; culturally defined market