<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This article presents a semiological understanding of mediation to trace the mutations in everyday communication in China through the development of computerized media. The guiding line of the history invites to write circles around the idea that computerized media have intensely redistributed the powers of writing and reading. This article offers several entry points into the material reality of computerized media. By ‘rewriting history’ it wishes to establish writing as a new category of interpretation for the study of computerized media. Ultimately, it calls for a renewed analysis of computerized media capitalism to enrich the political economic approach of communication in China and beyond.</jats:p>