People_
Dr Xiang Ren
MA (Westminster), PhD (QUT)
Lecturer
Discipline of Media and Communications
Discipline of Media and Communications
Email
Address
A20 - John Woolley Building
The University of Sydney
Dr Xiang Ren is Lecturer in Media and Communication and Undergraduate Course Component Coordinator (MECO). He researches and teaches media industries, digital publishing, open knowledge innovations, and Chinese digital media and cultures. He is the author of China's eBook Evolution: Disruptive Models and Emerging Book Cultures (Cambridge Uni Press) and co-author of Open Knowledge Institutions: Reinventing Universities (MIT Press). His work also appears in journals like Media, Culture and Society,International Journal of Cultural Studies,Information, Communication and Society, and Online Information Review. He was previously a research fellow and academic course advisor at Western Sydney University and a member of the Institute for Culture and Society (ICS), and before that, a research fellow at the Australian Digital Futures Institute (ADFI). Prior to his academic career, he spent more than a decade working in the international publishing industries.
- The business and culture of digital publishing
- Social media platforms
- Open access and open knowledge innovations
- Chinese digital media and cultures
- International Communication Association (ICA)
- The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP)
- Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR)
- Steering Committee member of MediArXiv
| Project title | Research student |
|---|---|
| Rebuilding Public Trust in Digital Platforms: A Case Study of Meta’s Oversight Board | Rumeng CAO |
| The Production Platformization and Industrialization of Dianying Jieshuo on Douyin | Yiwen WANG |
| China’s Digital Fashion Power: Hidden Intermediations in Cultural Production and Epistemic and Symbolic Boundaries | Jiahui XING |
Selected publications
China's eBook Evolution: Disruptive Models and Emerging Book Cultures
(Cambridge University Press, 2024)
Open Knowledge Institutions: Reinventing Universities
(The MIT Press, 2021)
Publications
Expand all
Books
- Ren, X. (2024). China's eBook Evolution: Disruptive Models and Emerging Book Cultures. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
- Montgomery, L., Hartley, J., Neylon, C., Gillies, M., Eve, G., Herrmann-Pillath, C., Huang, C., Leach, J., Potts, J., Ren, X., et al (2021). Open Knowledge Institutions: Reinventing Universities. Cambridge: The MIT Press. [More Information]
Book Chapters
- Ren, X. (2024). Redefining digital publishing business in platform ecosystems in China: The case of WeChat Read. In M Bjorn Rimscha, Tim Raats and Ulrike Rohn (Eds.), De Gruyter Handbook of Media Economics, (pp. 451-464). Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter. [More Information]
- Ren, X. (2022). Understanding the Digital Publishing Economy: From eBook Disruption to Platform Ecosystem. In Terry Flew, Jennifer Holt and Julian Thomas (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of the Digital Media Economy, (pp. 301-322). London, United Kingdom: Sage. [More Information]
- Ren, X. (2020). Chinese Consumer Magazines: Digital Transitions in an Evolving Cultural Economy. In Miglena Sternadori and Tim Holmes (Eds.), The Handbook of Magazine Studies, (pp. 417-426). Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. [More Information]
show 10 more
Journals
- Ren, X. (2024). Mapping globalised Chinese webnovels: Genre blending, cultural hybridity, and the complexity of transcultural storytelling. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 27(3), 368-386. [More Information]
- Shim, A., Yecies, B., Ren, X., Wang, D. (2020). Cultural intermediation and the basis of trust among webtoon and webnovel communities. Information, Communication and Society, 23(6), 833-848. [More Information]
- Montgomery, L., Ren, X. (2018). Understanding Open Knowledge in China: A Chinese Approach to Openness? Cultural Science, 10(1), 17-26. [More Information]
show 6 more
Conferences
- Yecies, B., Ren, X., Shim, A., Wang, D. (2019). Banking on Cultural Intermediaries across Webtoon, Webnovel and Video-Sharing Platforms in Asia's Digital Creative Economy. 20th Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers AoIR2019, Chicago, USA: Association of Internet Researchers. [More Information]
- Ren, X. (2019). From Open Knowledge Sharing to Semi-closed Grouping: The Evolution of Academic Social Media in China. 20th Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers AoIR2019, Chicago, USA: Association of Internet Researchers. [More Information]
- Ren, X. (2019). Open and interactive publishing as a catalyst for educational innovations. 32nd Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning and Tertiary Education, ASCILITE 2015, Australia: ASCILITE.
show 1 more
Magazine / Newspaper Articles
- Ren, X. (2025). In China, social media apps are changing how people buy and read books - selling more than physical bookshops do. The Conversation. [More Information]
Expand all
2025
- Ren, X. (2025). In China, social media apps are changing how people buy and read books - selling more than physical bookshops do. The Conversation. [More Information]
2024
- Ren, X. (2024). China's eBook Evolution: Disruptive Models and Emerging Book Cultures. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
- Ren, X. (2024). Mapping globalised Chinese webnovels: Genre blending, cultural hybridity, and the complexity of transcultural storytelling. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 27(3), 368-386. [More Information]
- Ren, X. (2024). Redefining digital publishing business in platform ecosystems in China: The case of WeChat Read. In M Bjorn Rimscha, Tim Raats and Ulrike Rohn (Eds.), De Gruyter Handbook of Media Economics, (pp. 451-464). Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter. [More Information]
2022
- Ren, X. (2022). Understanding the Digital Publishing Economy: From eBook Disruption to Platform Ecosystem. In Terry Flew, Jennifer Holt and Julian Thomas (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of the Digital Media Economy, (pp. 301-322). London, United Kingdom: Sage. [More Information]
2021
- Montgomery, L., Hartley, J., Neylon, C., Gillies, M., Eve, G., Herrmann-Pillath, C., Huang, C., Leach, J., Potts, J., Ren, X., et al (2021). Open Knowledge Institutions: Reinventing Universities. Cambridge: The MIT Press. [More Information]
2020
- Ren, X. (2020). Chinese Consumer Magazines: Digital Transitions in an Evolving Cultural Economy. In Miglena Sternadori and Tim Holmes (Eds.), The Handbook of Magazine Studies, (pp. 417-426). Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. [More Information]
- Ren, X. (2020). Chinese teen digital entertainment: Rethinking censorship and commercialisation in short video and online fiction. In Lelia Green, Donell Holloway, Kylie Stevenson, Tama Leaver and Leslie Haddon (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Digital Media and Children, (pp. 539-548). New York: Routledge.
- Shim, A., Yecies, B., Ren, X., Wang, D. (2020). Cultural intermediation and the basis of trust among webtoon and webnovel communities. Information, Communication and Society, 23(6), 833-848. [More Information]
2019
- Yecies, B., Ren, X., Shim, A., Wang, D. (2019). Banking on Cultural Intermediaries across Webtoon, Webnovel and Video-Sharing Platforms in Asia's Digital Creative Economy. 20th Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers AoIR2019, Chicago, USA: Association of Internet Researchers. [More Information]
- Flew, T., Ren, X., Wang, Y. (2019). Creative industries in China: the digital turn. In Stuart Cunningham and Terry Flew (Eds.), A Research Agenda for Creative Industries, (pp. 168-178). Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing. [More Information]
- Ren, X. (2019). From Open Knowledge Sharing to Semi-closed Grouping: The Evolution of Academic Social Media in China. 20th Annual Conference of the Association of Internet Researchers AoIR2019, Chicago, USA: Association of Internet Researchers. [More Information]
show 3 more
2018
- Ren, X. (2018). Australia Publishing Market. In Terry Flew (Eds.), Cultural Markets in Australia. Beijing, China: China Commerce and Trade Press.
- Montgomery, L., Ren, X. (2018). Understanding Open Knowledge in China: A Chinese Approach to Openness? Cultural Science, 10(1), 17-26. [More Information]
2017
- Ren, X. (2017). Electronic schoolbag and mobile learning in China: Design principles and educational innovations. In Angela MurphyHelen FarleyLaurel Evelyn DysonHazel Jones (Eds.), Mobile Learning in Higher Education in the Asia-Pacific Region, (pp. 69-87). Singapore: Springer. [More Information]
2016
- Ren, X. (2016). Between sustaining and disruptive innovation: China's digital publishing industry in the age of mobile Internet. In Michael Keane (Eds.), Handbook of Cultural and Creative Industries in China, (pp. 377-395). United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing. [More Information]
- Ren, X. (2016). Copyright, media and modernization in China: A historical review, 1890-2015. Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture, 7(3), 311-326. [More Information]
- Ren, X. (2016). Disruptive Innovation in the Chinese Ebook Industry. In Daria Berg and Giorgio Strafella (Eds.), KODEX 6 (2016): Transforming Book Culture in China, 1600–2016, (pp. 241-256). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. [More Information]
2015
- Ren, X., Montgomery, L. (2015). Open access and soft power: Chinese voices in international scholarship. Media, Culture and Society, 37(3), 394-408. [More Information]
- Ren, X. (2015). Quality assessment and certification in open scholarly publishing and inspiration for MOOC credentialing. In Shirley Reushle, Amy Antonio, Mike Keppell (Eds.), Open Learning and Formal Credentialing in Higher Education: Curriculum Models and Institutional Policies, (pp. 245-262). USA: IGI Global. [More Information]
- Montgomery, L., Ren, X. (2015). The changing role of copyright in China's emergent media economy. In Gary D. Rawnsley and Ming-yeh T. Rawnsley (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Chinese Media, (pp. 315-329). London: Routledge. [More Information]
show 1 more
2014
- Ren, X. (2014). Creative Users, Social Networking, and New Models of Publishing. Cultural Science, 7(1), 58-67. [More Information]
2013
- Ren, X. (2013). Beyond online preprints: Formalization of open initiatives in China. Learned Publishing, 26(3), 197-205. [More Information]
- Ren, X. (2013). Beyond open access: Open publishing and the future of digital scholarship. 30st Annual Conference of the Australian Society for Computers in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE 2013), Sydney: ASCILITE. [More Information]
2012
- Ren, X., Montgomery, L. (2012). Chinese online literature: Creative consumers and evolving business models. Arts Marketing: An International Journal, 2(2), 118-130. [More Information]
Selected Grants
2022
- The What Australia Means to Me Project, Flew T, Ren X, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/FASS External Engagement Fund 2022