In the current research on media and communication, Western internet companies (e.g. Google Facebook) are typically described as digital platforms, yet these actors increasingly rely infrastructural properties to expand maintain their market power. Through case study of Chinese social application, WeChat, we argue that WeChat is an example a non-Western service owes its success first platformization then infrastructuralization platform model. Moreover, our findings show model in China shaped...

The relative novelty of digital ethnography as a research methodology, along with the challenges that it moves to classical understandings fieldwork, participation and representation, results in repertoire professional illusions through which ethnographers justify their work when confronted disciplinary culture anthropology. This essay is based on author’s reflexive experience researching media use China, updates Gary Alan Fine’s 1993 article “Ten Lies Ethnography” by identifying three lies...

This special issue collects the confessions of five digital ethnographers laying bare their methodological failures, disciplinary posturing, and ethical dilemmas. The articles are meant to serve as a counseling stations for fellow researchers who approaching media ethnographically. On one hand, this issue’s contributors acknowledge rich variety articulations reflected in lexicon “buzzword ethnography”. other, they evidence how doing ethnographic research about, on, through is most often...

The Mandarin Chinese term biaoqing, or ‘expression’, categorizes genres of visual content ranging from emoticons and emoji to stickers custom images. This article is grounded on ethnographic research approaches biaoqing in terms their circulation across digital media platforms. By formulating a comprehensive typology genres, I foreground the situated socio-technical specificities circulation: creative play with typographical compositions, affective repurposing graphical emoticons, platformed...

This article is a report on research project that collected detailed information articles, book chapters, books, and so on, published by academics the Chinese Internet between 1990 early 2013. The findings of meta-review 20 years research, as gleaned from quantitative qualitative analysis body publications, are presented discussed in this report. It engages with conclusions drawn previous meta-studies, seeks to shed critical, self-reflexive light onto main discursive formations their field....

This article traces the history of machine-readable data encoding standards and argues that QR code has become an infrastructural gateway. Through analysis patents, corporate documents advertising, ethnographic observations, interviews with professionals, I describe global making argue convergence standards, mobile computing, machine vision algorithms, platform ecosystems led to emergence a new component computational infrastructures which functions as gateway between different actors,...

This data paper documents a dataset that captures cultural attitudes towards machine vision technologies as they are expressed in art, games and narratives. The includes records of 500 creative works (including 77 digital games, 190 artworks 233 movies, novels other narratives) use or represent like facial recognition, deepfakes, augmented reality. is divided into three main tables, relating to the works, specific situations each work involving technologies, characters interact with...

In the People’s Republic of China, development information infrastructures has been a cardinal component national modernization project for more than four decades. While most discussions digital infrastructure in country focus on ‘Chinese internet,' framed by architectures control like Great Firewall and governmental initiatives Internet Plus, this special issue contends that China’s extends from physical cables laid under urban streets to ideological capture surveillance systems, smart home...

In China, deepfakes are commonly known as huanlian, which literally means “changing faces.” Huanlian content, including face-swapped images and video reenactments, has been circulating in China since at least 2018, first through amateur users experimenting with machine learning models then the popularization of audiovisual synthesis technologies offered by digital platforms. Informed a wealth interdisciplinary research on media manipulation, this article aims historicizing, contextualizing,...

<ns3:p>This article proposes a new method for tracing and examining agency in heterogeneous assemblages, focusing on the role of machine vision technologies creative works. We introduce concept “machine situation” define it as moment which come into play make difference to course events. By taking situations unit analysis, we identify moments at take part actions without reducing them either tools or protagonists, instead allowing more complex agential entanglements between human non-human...

The history of the internet in China is often narrated from standpoint infrastructural development, commercial growth, and social change—a framework that foregrounds governmental policies, corporate decisions, large-scale public debates. And yet, parallel to these processes, widespread adoption its domestication by hundreds millions Chinese users have resulted a long digital folklore: everyday, vernacular practices responding this new communication medium through creativity invention. By...

Advancements in generative artificial intelligence have led to a rapid proliferation of machine learning models capable synthesizing text, images, sounds, and other kinds content. While the increasing realism synthetic content stokes fears about misinformation triggers debates around intellectual property, are adopted across creative industries media seep into cultural production. Qualitative research social human sciences has dedicated comparatively little attention this category learning,...

Zipai, literally ‘self-shot’, is the Chinese word for ‘selfie’, and it indicates both action product of taking a picture oneself. This paper presents an account “ways working” through which authors – media anthropologist performance artist negotiated collaborative approach to zipai. The essay begins with discussion contemporary practices self-representation on digital media, arguing that zipai uploaded by users online platforms can be understood as locational relational self-portraits,...

The development of generative artificial intelligence sustains a proliferation machine learning models capable synthesizing text, images, sounds, and other kinds content. While the increasing realism synthetic content stokes fears about misinformation triggers debates around intellectual property, are adopted across creative industries, media is already becoming an integral component cultural products. Qualitative research in social human sciences has dedicated comparatively little attention...

Fig. 1: "Xiao Ming (little Ming) and xiao meng sprout/cutie)", satirical take on a popular Chinese textbook character. Shared online Introduction: Cuteness, Online Vernaculars, Digital FolkloreThis short essay presents some preliminary materials for discussion of the social circulation contemporary vernacular terms among digital media users. In particular, I present word (萌, literally "sprout", recently adopted as slang term "cute") case in point contextual analysis elements folklore their...

Click to increase image sizeClick decrease size Gabriele de SetaDepartment of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, KongE-mail: gabriele.deseta@connect.polyu.hk© 2014, Seta

There is Internet in China, and China on the Internet. Starting with little more than these simple assumptions about information technologies a national context, 2014 I traveled to differe...