Article
In April 2005 thousands of people poured onto the streets of China for the anti-Japanese protests that shook Asia. They were bound by nationalist anger but also by a more mundane fact – they are China’s cellphone and computer generation. For several weeks as the protests grew larger and more unruly, China banned almost all coverage in the state media. It hardly mattered. An underground conversation was raging via e-mail, text message and instant online messaging that inflamed public opinion and served as an organizing tool for protesters.