{"product_id":"the-wall-dancers-isbn-9780593491850","title":"The Wall Dancers","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn eye-opening exploration of the Chinese internet that reveals the intricate dance between freedom and control in contemporary China\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Dancers\u003c\/i\u003e is history told in a gripping, novelistic style. It is at once a crash course in contemporary Chinese politics and culture and an epic story about human drive, desperation, and ingenuity against inordinate odds. Yi-Ling Liu has written a masterwork.”\u003cbr\u003e—Jonathan Blitzer, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eEveryone Who Is Gone Is Here\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the late 1990s, as the world was waking up to the power and emancipatory promise of the internet, Chinese authorities began constructing a system of online surveillance and censorship now known as the Great Firewall. But far from being a barren landscape, the digital world that sprouted up behind the firewall brimmed with new subcultures and tech innovations, offering many Chinese citizens previously unimaginable connection and opportunity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eToday, as the country’s leadership intensifies its control of public discourse and Western headlines reduce the Chinese public to a faceless monolith, journalist Yi-Ling Liu presents an intimate portrait of China’s online ecosystem—and a crucial lens into the on-the-ground reality of life there. Tracing the last three decades of the Chinese internet’s evolution—from its lexicon to its memes to the precise nature of its censorship—she equips readers with a critical tool to assess the past, present, and future of a global power.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDrawing on years of firsthand reporting, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Dancers\u003c\/i\u003e weaves together the stories of individuals navigating China’s transformation into both the world’s largest online user base and one of its most populous authoritarian states. As these entrepreneurs, activists, artists, and dreamers experience the internet’s power as a tool for both control and liberation, they grapple with universal questions of success and authenticity, love and solidarity, faith and resilience.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Dancers\u003c\/i\u003e is at once an unforgettable work of human storytelling and a vital exploration of what it means to live with dignity and hope within the technological systems that now shape all our lives.“A sensitive debut. . . . Foreign observers, Liu argues, tend to portray Chinese people as either the enablers or the victims of their government’s excesses. But reality, her book suggests, is messier, as the state and its citizens participate in a ‘dynamic push and pull.’”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“One of the best books of the year.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Joe Weisenthal, \u003ci\u003eBloomberg\u003c\/i\u003e’s \"Odd Lots\" newsletter\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Dancers \u003c\/i\u003eemploys the stories of Ms. Liu’s interviewees to show how 'dancing in shackles' is both possible and ever-changing . . . China is notorious for its internet restrictions. . . . Ms. Liu acknowledges these limits to expression but highlights the people who have broadened and deepened their networks online…”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“[\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Dancers\u003c\/i\u003e] should prompt a timely, uncomfortable global debate on whether tech has proven easier to weaponize than to democratize. . . . As much as this book is a portrait of a flourishing garden behind the Great Firewall, it’s also a map of Beijing’s insecurities.”\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBloomberg Opinion\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Eye-opening. . . . Liu shows how social media became the space for her generation to work out the politics and passions of their everyday lives. . . . It might be hard to build a book around online life, but Liu . . . follows a group of effervescent netizens who more than carry it. . . . What emerges is a portrait of nonconformists who, by feeling out the walls the regime has built, turn that maneuvering into a kind of limited freedom. They do not escape the system; they improvise within it. They dance.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New Republic\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Dancers\u003c\/i\u003e is such compelling reading because it provides deeply intimate portrayals of this universal yearning and the creativity of the human spirit in the face of repression. . . . Liu weaves these personal narratives into the broader background of intensifying authoritarianism and censorship, demonstrating the impact of seemingly abstract political shifts on real individuals’ lives.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eJacobin\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Dancers\u003c\/i\u003e is history told in a gripping, novelistic style. It is at once a crash course in contemporary Chinese politics and culture and an epic story about human drive, desperation, and ingenuity against inordinate odds. Yi-Ling Liu has written a masterwork.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Jonathan Blitzer, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eEveryone Who Is Gone Is Here\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"In her intimate, inner history of the Chinese Internet, Yi-Ling Liu unearths lessons that apply worldwide as citizens struggle to assert their humanity against those who would homogenize what we see, believe, and consume. In the tradition of Vaclav Havel, Liu has given us an urgent, revealing guide for what Havel called 'living within the truth.’” \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—\u003c\/i\u003eEvan Osnos, winner of the National Book Award and\u003ci\u003e New York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of\u003ci\u003e The Haves and Have-Yachts \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“With profound nuance, clarity, and courage, Yi-Ling Liu writes about a cast of individuals who deftly navigate the complex inner workings of the Chinese internet. And yet in Liu’s expert rendering, their stories embody so much more: a history of China’s dramatic rise, a portrait of those who molded and were molded by it, and an examination of the true scorecard of the global internet on free speech and expression. At once intimate and expansive, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Dancers \u003c\/i\u003eis a masterpiece, made only more impressive by Liu’s own exquisite dancing. To gain this level of access and trust to sources in China and to breathe humanity and agency into an often faceless story can only be pulled off by a journalist of the highest caliber.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Karen Hao, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/i\u003ebestselling author of \u003ci\u003eEmpire of AI\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Gripping from the first page, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Dancers\u003c\/i\u003e is a work of rare urgency and insight. Moving effortlessly between the intimate and the world-historical, Yi-Ling Liu pushes beyond the tired binaries that so often define Western views of China, offering instead a portrait of human lives full of contradiction, aspiration, and desire. In doing so, she vividly demonstrates that psychic self-censorship—and the generative possibilities born of solidarity and collective power—are not unique to China but a lesson for all societies confronting ascendant authoritarianism.”\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e—Brian Goldstone, author of\u003ci\u003e There Is No Place for Us\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“As Yi-Ling Liu shows in this masterful piece of reporting, China’s internet is not only a battleground for authoritarian leaders and their oligarchs but also the site of a vibrant counterculture of queer activists, feminist writers, edgy rappers, and tech bros turned sci-fi novelists. A rare report from inside contemporary China, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Dancers\u003c\/i\u003e is an important intervention in our often-simplistic debates about China.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Ian Johnson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and author of \u003ci\u003eSparks\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\"China may be known for its Great Firewall, but journalist Yi-Ling Liu chronicles how the Chinese internet has also provided fertile ground for countercultures, activists, and writers—and in doing so offers a portrait of the country’s political and cultural trajectory in the last three decades.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eForeign Policy, \u003c\/i\u003e\"Most Anticipated Books of 2026\" \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"This incisive, empathetic debut study from journalist Liu examines three decades of the internet’s evolution in China, from the mid-1990s explosion of microblogs and message boards that corresponded with the country’s increasing liberalization, to the mid-aughts raising of the Great Firewall. . . . A vital and subversive window into a cloistered but sprawling online world.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly \u003c\/i\u003e(STARRED REVIEW) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Liu brings broad perspective and nuance to an issue that, despite its extensive global impact, is often discussed only in terms of its extremes. . . . If Liu’s text is in part revelatory of the particular ambitions, risks, and pitfalls humming beneath China’s internet domination, it is also a global cautionary tale. . . . A timely and sophisticated study that is eye-opening, and a touch eerie.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eYI-LING LIU’s work has been published in \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e, WIRED, and \u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e. She has been a New America Fellow, a recipient of the Matthew Power Literary Reporting Award, and an Overseas Press Club Foundation Scholar. Born and raised in Hong Kong, and a graduate of Yale University, she now lives in London.","brand":"Knopf","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48233763668197,"sku":"NP9780593491850","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780593491850.jpg?v=1767742112","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-wall-dancers-isbn-9780593491850","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}