Beneath the headlines and half-truths, what is the Chinese internet really like? Equator's Samanth Subramanian speaks to Yi-Ling Liu, author of The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet, who reveals how life online in China actually operates – from the subtle, ever-shifting cycles of state oversight to the surprising spaces where creativity and subcultures thrive.

Increasingly, Yi-Ling is asked by people she meets in America: how should they deal with the constraints and diminishing freedoms of their own internet? The internet began as a utopian promise of a free, open and fair space, but for most of the world, it is now distorted by a handful of American tech giants, the tyranny of algorithms, and AI engines that spew out slop.

China's internet has faced different kinds of restrictions, imposed by the government. But it, too, was once more open, allowing new kinds of connections and identities to be forged online. The Wall Dancers profiles several people who blossomed online – including Kafe Hu, a hip-hop artist whose genre blossomed in China thanks to the internet – but who also then saw their lives curtailed by fresh censorship. Still, Yi-Ling says, the internet in China remains playful, vibrant and inventive, as people find ways to collaborate and bypass the state's restrictions. 

As governments and platforms reshape the boundaries of digital expression, what might the future of the internet look like? And who gets to decide? This episode invites you to rethink what you know about life online - both in China and beyond.

Read Have Money Daddy, an excerpt from Yi-Ling's book published exclusive in Equator.