03/10/2019 (Thursday) 13:00-14:00 E21B-G002
U Can U BB: Critical Regionality and Digital Media in a Chinese Online Talk Show
This talk analyzes the Chinese online talk show U Can U BB, or Qipa Shuo, as an exemplar in the rise of digital media production in Asia. Situating the show in regional exchanges of capital and talent facilitated by information and communication technology (ICT) and the rapidly expanding Chinese online video industry, the talk examines how networked digital media gives rise to a regional approach in cultural production, creating representations that transcend national boundaries to draw on shared regional histories and cultural imaginaries. I critically engage with such an emerging digital regionalism from two perspectives. Firstly, I foreground the potential of these transregional interactions and movements in putting forward a framework of regionality, which marks out a decolonial turn in knowledge production that challenges Euro-American centrism. Secondly, I also consider the unevenness of technological and economic development within this regionalism. In particular, I examine the trend of re-sinicization in the rise of China as a new regional center for digital media production and how the country’s official ideologies and conditions of censorship exert fundamental influences on regionalized cultural representations. In short, this talk investigates and critically reflects on emerging forms of interconnected media and knowledge production in digital Asia.
Dr. Lin SONG holds a Ph.D. in Gender Studies from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He researches and teaches in gender and sexuality especially in relation to media, popular, and digital cultures in contemporary China and East Asia.