Researching Urban-digital Life in China

Abstract

In this ThinkChina Lecture, Dr Carwyn Morris from Leiden University, will discuss researching:

• (i) activism,
• (ii) migration,
• (iii) governance,
• (iv) secrecy, and
• (v) internet celebrity

in contemporary China, with a focus on how these subjects manifest in urban-digital environments and as hybrid phenomena. During the talk Carwyn will discuss different types of hybrid fieldwork, the role of temporality in hybrid fieldwork, and how he takes a ‘spatial’ approach to digital relations in order to find new avenues of enquiry. Carwyn will discuss in more detail how he conducted hybrid fieldwork in Beijing, how he extended the findings from that work to think about mobility and materiality in different ways, how one can explore ongoing issues such as the Sitong Qiao incident from outside of China, and how one can theorise from China to understand imaginaries around Europe, by conducting application walkthroughs on Xiaohongshu.

For this lecture you will need a smartphone and the application Xiaohongshu (RED). Feel free to install Xiaohongshu beforehand, but if possible do not register for the service yet.

Speaker’s bio

Carwyn Morris is a University Lecturer in China Studies. His research examines the spatialization of digital relations, including digital displacement, digital territorialization projects, digital mobilities, and internet celebrity (wanghong) urbanisms.

He explores how contentious politics, migration, mobility, food, governance, territory, and wanghong are hybrid phenomena that take place across ‘digital’ and ‘physical’ spaces. His work has appeared in Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Mobility, Made in China, and The China Quarterly.

Read more about the event here