Information and Communications in the Chinese Countryside:A Study of Three Provinces

Abstract

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Cell Phone Use and Happiness Among Chinese Older Adults: Does Rural/Urban Residence Status Matter?

“…China’s commitment to advancement in ICT is evident from the fact that the government has made significant efforts to provide a strong structure such as mobile networks and Internet even in rural areas of the country to improve ICT use among the residents with the help of Non-Governmental Organizations (Qiang, Bhavnani, Hanna, Kimura, & Sudan, 2009; Zhao, 2010). But despite all these efforts, a digital divide still exists between urban and rural communities in terms of technology adoption and older adults in the two locations reflect different reasons for ICT use (Minges et al, 2014). A survey of 284 older adults of retirement apartments in Eastern China by Chen, Downey, McGaughey, and Jin (2016) revealed the patterns of cell phone use by this group.…”

“…To fill this gap in the literature and offer relevant policy suggestions, we explore the relationship between cell phone use and self-reported happiness among the older Chinese population. Additionally, although the Chinese government has been exerting efforts to reduce the existing rural–urban digital gap (Minges, Kimura, Beschorner, Davies, & Zhang, 2014), China’s current urban–rural divide is enlarging in terms of the levels of household income (Xie & Zhou, 2014), social service quality (Zimmer & Kwong, 2003), as well as health care and residents’ average educational attainment (Zhang & Kanbur, 2005). Despite governmental efforts, financial and emotional support by the state is limited especially for older adults residing in rural areas in terms of pensions as well as physical and mental health facilities (He & Ye, 2014).…”

InterBoxes: A social innovation in education in rural China

“…Nationally, 62% of non-netizens reside in rural areas (China Internet Network Information Center website, 2018). As a result, children growing up in rural China lack the opportunity to access important technology and are at risk of being left even further behind in today's new information age (Minges, Kimura, Beschorner, Davies, & Zhang, 2014). Utilizing both a physical and virtual library via books and highspeed internet, InterBoxes presents as an innovative solution to inequitable information access, successfully opening a window to the outside world for Yekeng Primary School students.…”

Towards Inclusive, Quality ICT-Based Learning for Rural Transformation

“…In China, the national and provincial governments are implementing a policy goal of providing ICT in the countryside, which is also referred to as 'rural informatization'. In their report, Information and Communications in the Chinese Countryside, A Study of Three Provinces, Minges, Kimura, Beschorner, Davies, and Zhang (2014) found that signifi cant progress had been made to improve ICT infrastructure in China's rural areas, which consisted of more than 650 million people. All the villages in the study were connected to electricity and had a mobile telephone signal.…”

“…Though there are fi nancial, administrative and maintenance challenges that limit the effectiveness of the libraries, Minges et al (2014) noted that the rural ones are more utilized than the urban ones. In order to sustain the Chinese rural informatization programme, the report has recommended that telecommunications operators be focused more on operations than on infrastructure deployment.…”