Sina Weibo of China: From a Copycat to a Local Uptake of a Global Technology Assemblage

In this essay the author presents an expanded genre view to examine global diffusion of interactive technologies in this increasingly globalized world. Through an analysis of its generic features, the author explores how Sina Weibo, a technology considered as a copycat of a Western technology, arises as a local uptake in a discourse of global technology diffusion. In studying its struggle and resistance, the author shows how a local uptake is shaped by the implicit value and ideology of the technology it imitates from. Meanwhile, this diffusion process is also a process of enacting the emergent structure of local technology use. The dynamic and dialogical structuring process behind genre formation worldwide manifests the complex interactions of technology and culture in our contemporary conditions. Sina Weibo of China: From a Copycat to a Local Uptake of a Global Technology Assemblage