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Photo of Marina Svensson

Marina Svensson

Professor

Photo of Marina Svensson

“Crazy Jack” and the “Gay CEO” : Visions, Entrepreneurship, and the Chinese State in the New Digital Economy

Author

  • Marina Svensson

Summary, in English

This article analyses the visions, careers, and companies of Jack Ma of Alibaba and Geng Le of Blue City. Jack Ma is a well-known business leader and visionary, whereas the less well-known Geng Le only began to receive more attention since launching a successful gay dating app in 2012. The article focuses on the personal narratives and visions of these two IT entrepreneurs. It provides new perspectives on the role of individual entrepreneurs in relation to the Chinese state’s global ambitions and vision of creating a “strong internet country.” It argues that the commercialisation and platformisation of the Chinese internet, and the growing transnational nature of Chinese IT companies, serve to make them more, not less, co-dependent of the state and its visions. The internet’s emancipatory potential is today increasingly conflated with consumption, and online spaces and social relations are subject to both commodification and datafication.

Department/s

  • Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University

Publishing year

2021

Language

English

Pages

63-85

Publication/Series

Journal of Current Chinese Affairs

Volume

50

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Institute of Asian Studies at the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies

Topic

  • Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

Keywords

  • China
  • digital economy
  • platformisation
  • internet
  • visions
  • Alibaba

Status

Published

Project

  • Digital China

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1868-1026