Digital parenting burdens in China: Online Homework, Parent Chats and Punch-in Culture

Book talk by digital communication scholar and honorary professor Sun Sun Lim.

Digital Parenting Burdens in China is the first English language book to explore the impact of digitalisation on family life in China, including the phenomenon of ‘punch-in culture’ and its implications for family wellbeing. Drawing on 90 interviews with parents from both before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, we provide rich vignettes of family life in urban Chinese households in Beijing and Hangzhou to demonstrate how parents appropriate technology as they raise their children, steer them towards the social aspirations of academic achievement, and navigate the rocky terrains of children’s home-based learning during the pandemic lockdowns. Empirically grounded and theoretically informed, these vivid accounts offer valuable insights into understanding how family life around is shifting in the face of digitalisation not only in China, but globally. 

About Sun Sun Lim

Sun Sun Lim is Vice President, Partnerships & Engagement and Lee Kong Chian Professor of Communication and Technology at Singapore Management University. She has researched extensively the social impact of technology, focusing on technology domestication, future of work and AI ethics. She has over 100 academic publications including Transcendent Parenting: Raising Children in the Digital Age (Oxford University Press, 2020) and articles in flagship journals including Nature, Journal of Computer Mediated Communication and Big Data and Society. She was a Nominated Member of the 13th Parliament of Singapore and an honoree of the Top 50 Asia Women Tech Leaders 2024. She is also Fellow of the International Communication Association and Singapore Computer Society.

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