“Just Like the Qing Empire”: Internet Addiction, MMOGs, and Moral Crisis in Contemporary China

This article examines discourse about Internet addictions & video game-related suicide in China. Through an analysis of media reports, interview transcripts, & chat rooms, a preliminary account of the origins of contemporary Chinese concerns with Internet addiction is provided. The study approach draws on anthropological & sociological models of the cultural constructions of social problems & argues that concerns with Internet addiction are part of a more general moral crisis faced by the Chinese, in response to rapid consumerism, the medicalization of mental illness, & new forms of public & publicity. (50 refs.)