This book examines how China's emerging middle class uses social media platforms, especially WeChat, to build and maintain social networks that enhance their status in society.

It offers an insightful analysis of how digital interactions on platforms like WeChat serve as modern social currency, providing users with advantages and reinforcing social hierarchies. This book explores the relationship between traditional cultural values and contemporary social media practices, showing how these online interactions shape the identities and social dynamics of China's new middle class. By bridging cultural contexts, the study provides applicable perspectives beyond China and offers robust theoretical frameworks alongside practical examples of social media usage.

This book is essential reading for scholars and students of media studies, sociology, and Chinese studies. It also offers valuable insights for anyone interested in understanding the role of social media in shaping social stratification in contemporary China.

Guo Jin, Associate Professor at Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication's School of Journalism and Publication, holds a Ph.D. in advertising (Communication University of China) and a postdoctoral fellowship in sociology (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), researching media and social stratification, media culture, and advertising creativity.