Papers by Ge Zhang
Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 2017
In the emerging scholarship on live-streaming sites, the role of gender has been relatively overl... more In the emerging scholarship on live-streaming sites, the role of gender has been relatively overlooked. This article aims to address this oversight by capturing the controversial rise of nüzhubo (Chinese for ‘female casters’) in the Chinese live-streaming platform, Douyu. Through ethnographic research on Douyu over 2 years, we have witnessed female performers who – motivated by both entrepreneurial spirit and creative agency – have embraced new forms of performative practices in, and around, video game commentary cultures. We begin with a brief contextualizing the gendered nature of media in the history of Chinese video sites and how theories around gender – especially gender performativity – might be adapted. While acknowledging the homogenizing effect of the term nüzhubo, we focus on two performers on Douyu – Hani9 and Nvliu – that are challenging conventional nüzhubo tropes. We argue for a situated notion of gender performativity that also engages with the platform-specific socia...
China Perspectives , 2019
Hanmai 喊麥, literally “shouting [at] a microphone,” first came to public attention and scrutiny as... more Hanmai 喊麥, literally “shouting [at] a microphone,” first came to public attention and scrutiny as a distinct sound gaining both popularity and notoriety in 2015, when livestreaming platforms such as YY (which launched as a voice chat client in 2008) were growing exponentially. Contemporary hanmai is therefore predominantly associated with livestreaming media. However, its origin can be traced much further back. The sound culture can be linked to the broader context of market reform
and the emergence of disco music in the 1990s, as well as to the evolution of Northeastern (Dongbei 東北) folk culture during the same period. Dongbei spoken word art has fundamentally shaped the lyrical structure and presentation of hanmai , while its lyrical content has shifted over time from a dance culture filled with hedonist desires in the late 1990s and early 2000s to a contemporary livestreaming culture of venting frustration due to unfulfilled desires. Moreover, socio-technologically speaking, hanmai culture started in the form of commercial sales of pirate mixtape CDs, then migrated to QQzone (Tencent’s version of personal webspace similar to Myspace) throughout the 2000s, re-invented itself via Internet subculture on early video portals such as Acfun as well as popular web fiction, and finally (re)emerged on YY as the contemporary reiteration of hanmai . This paper aims to map a genealogy of hanmai , including the divergences, parallels, and reiterations of this specific style of sound in Chinese society from the 1990s onwards.
Media International Australia, 2019
This article examines the ways the Australian property market is addressed among Chinese migrants... more This article examines the ways the Australian property market is addressed among Chinese migrants in Australia on and off WeChat, one of the most popular instant messenger apps installed on Smartphones. Specifically, we focus on how migrant media and real estate professionals’ narratives on real estate properties constitute and reproduce a transnational Chinese diasporic space between China and Australia. Although the latest wave of ‘property talk’ is relatively a new concept to the mainstream Australian societies due to the housing price boom since 2012, talking about land and property ownerships has always been integral part of Chinese diasporic culture. Yet, with the advent of digital media technologies, this cultural conversation is increasingly being delivered, processed and experienced through digital platforms such as that of WeChat. Drawing on observations on WeChat and interviews with Chinese media and real estate practitioners in Australia, we conceive that WeChat plays a vital role in forging and reproducing Chinese diasporic spaces in Australia by articulating the intersection of diasporic spatiality and mediasphere. We contend that WeChat’s affordances of the informational, interpersonal and instrumental have aided Chinese migrants and those Chinese real estate practitioners to co-constitute a social space of property talk that enables new social relations to be negotiated and social networks to be established and reinforced across China and Australia.
In the emerging scholarship on live-streaming sites, the role of gender has been relatively overl... more In the emerging scholarship on live-streaming sites, the role of gender has been relatively overlooked. This article aims to address this oversight by capturing the controversial rise of nüzhubo (Chinese for ‘female casters’) in the Chinese live-streaming platform, Douyu. Through ethnographic research on Douyu over 2 years, we have witnessed female performers who – motivated by both entrepreneurial spirit and creative agency – have embraced new forms of performative practices in, and around, video game commentary cultures. We begin with a brief contextualizing the gendered nature of media in the history of Chinese video sites and how theories around gender – especially gender performativity – might be adapted. While acknowledging the homogenizing effect of the term nüzhubo, we focus on two performers on Douyu – Hani9 and Nvliu – that are challenging conventional nüzhubo tropes. We argue for a situated notion of gender performativity that also engages with the platform-specific social, cultural and technical infrastructures – ‘platformativity’ to use Thomas Lamarre’s word.
This paper takes a particular angle that begins with the drastic decline of internet cafés in Chi... more This paper takes a particular angle that begins with the drastic decline of internet cafés in China and their receding yet still evolving presence. This project aims at delineating the history of internet cafés as urban spaces in relation to the different roles they played in various stages of Chinese modernity. The particularities of local development , as directed by trajectories of Chinese modernization, has led to a contempt for the 'low quality' of internet cafés, on the one hand, and a nostalgic sentimentalization of its ruination, on the other. Internet cafés are situated in the present moment of transition as a reflection of larger transformations of urban renewals and ideals of modernity. Drawn from both ethnographic research and existing literature on inter-net cafés, this paper theorizes the space that Chinese internet cafés have produced in the past 25 years.
Parallax is a visual displacement of an object due to different observational spots or along two ... more Parallax is a visual displacement of an object due to different observational spots or along two different lines of sight. In this article, the metaphorical object being observed and studied is the digital game. Imagine a parallel academic world to the one we comfortably dwell in, scholars are deriving their arguments from almost identical theoretical origins and arriving at similar conclusions, but corresponding to completely different audiences. Now the problem is that the two sides insist on their disparity in-between and never candidly intend to have a dialogue. The disparity is not necessarily a linguistic one but rather due to an intellectual indolence or even political reluctance. China seems to be always treated as an anthropological object to be studied especially in the bourgeoning field of game studies such as the once novel case of gold farmers (Nardi & Kow, 2010) while its own conclusions drawing from its empirical experiences, especially from its own academia are largely ignored or not adopted as a “serious” intellectual milieu. On the other hand, the Chinese academia, especially in the fields containing political controversies (e.g., videogames), often turn out to be, with elements of truth, policy-driven, ideologically apologist, and empirically unconvincing. However, instead of following the usual trajectory of this argument between the two sides, which often leads to a resentful complaint about Western academia’s ignorance of “Chinese characteristics”1 or Chinese academia’s intellectual incompetence, I intend to neither defend nor promote a national or culturally specific epistemology or methodology. This unconventional book review, instead of introducing and recommending the book to the readers who then decide whether to read it or not, aims at comparing the frontiers of game studies in simplified Chinese to the existing library of game studies in English.
Sleeping Dogs is an open-world role-playing game developed by United Front Games, a Canadian Stud... more Sleeping Dogs is an open-world role-playing game developed by United Front Games, a Canadian Studio based in Vancouver, in conjunction with Square Enix London Studios and released by Square Enix in 2012. The game features the city of Hong Kong and the society of Chinese Triads. While the game itself is mainly a representation of post-colonial Hong Kong targeting a transnational audience entrenched in similar gameplay mechanics of the genre, the native Hong Kong players react to these reconstructions of Hong Kong through their own gameplay and unique interpretations. The virtual city is not a static representation but a congruence of vigorous interactions between the originally designed space and gamic actions of the players. This paper seeks to explore the spatial and bodily practices of Sleeping Dogs players in the virtual terrain of Hong Kong through the lens of Lefebvre’s spatial theory.
Book Chapters by Ge Zhang
Microcelebrity around the globe: Approaches to cultures of internet fame, 2019
While in common English-language parlance speaking of “online celebrities” encourages the conflat... more While in common English-language parlance speaking of “online celebrities” encourages the conflation of new forms of famousness with existing discourses on mass media stardom and fandom, the Mandarin Chinese term wanghong, a shorthand term for wangluo hongren (literally “person popular on the internet”), frames the enticing shores of online celebrity through the peculiar lexical domain of a grassroots popularity. The figure of the wanghong has in recent years accompanied the development of social media platforms in China, becoming a profitable profession, an inspirational role model, a morally condemnable by-product of internet economies, and in general a widely debated social phenomenon among local users. Drawing on interviews with more and less successful local online celebrities and discussions with their audiences, this chapter offers an up-to-date portrayal of the various forms of wanghong currently vying for attention on Chinese social media platforms, illustrating how popularity is crafted along with narratives of professionalism and economic aspirations intimately connected to the sociotechnical contexts of contemporary China.
Online Courtship – Interpersonal Interactions Across Borders, 2015
In this chapter, pitched against these two frame-setting snippets about social expectations and ... more In this chapter, pitched against these two frame-setting snippets about social expectations and pressures around marriage, dating, matchmaking and relationships in general, we would like to present some observations regarding the use of locational social mobile applications in Mainland China. As it is true that China has undergone two decades of accelerated development of its communication infrastructure and IT industries, hosting by now the largest national population of Internet users, it is also the case that the fuzzy concept of "online dating" has diversified into a whole spectrum of services and practices - from traditional
matchmaking intermediaries gone online to the flourishing local ecology of social networking platforms, websites and mobile applications: through which Chinese digital media users negotiate their affective needs, desires and social pressures.
Photo Essays by Ge Zhang
Reviews by Ge Zhang
Media International Australia, 2018
Conference Presentations by Ge Zhang
Poster exhibited at the Beyond Research Conference, RMIT (2017)
The presentation will argue that rise of the E-sport has led to persistent transformations of gam... more The presentation will argue that rise of the E-sport has led to persistent transformations of gaming and media, which is crowding out other legitimate forms of gaming from the public perception and media discourses. First, it will briefly describe the growth of E-sport as media and entertainment phenomenon (Jin 2010; Taylor, TL, Seo, 2013). This spectacle is created through the stylization of e-sport events themselves and equally important through secondary texts (Szablewicz, 2015). Secondly, the talk will argue that media, old and new, become stakeholders in the narrative as they create the stories of unprecedented growth in terms of profit and viewer numbers. E-sport becomes the only acceptable type of gaming. The third section will draw on ethnographic data collected from 2013 to 2015 in China and demonstrate how the discourses on E-sport and their divergence from gaming impact the rhythms of play in the everyday life of the " youxi wanjia 游戏玩家 " (video game player) as well as the " dianjin xuanshou 电竞选手 " (E-sport Contestant). The vocabulary of E-sport titles has penetrated everyday language and the word 'gaming' or 'playing games' have been replaced. As videogame culture becomes marginalized, principals of obligation and professionalism devour 'play' beyond the point of mere 'contamination' (Caillois, 2001). As a result, video game players, who enjoy a variety of different games, are distancing themselves from the proponents of e-sport.
Final Proofs: Published version soon available at Conference Website http://mlab.cs.pu.edu.tw/ChineseDiGRA2016/
Although livestreaming has been technically possible for years, the recent surge in popularity wa... more Although livestreaming has been technically possible for years, the recent surge in popularity was primarily driven by the broadcasting of videogames. In the past two years, gaming-centric livestreaming platforms such as Twitch.tv (US based) and Douyu.tv (China based) took off as not merely novel media platforms but a ubiquitous everyday entertainment for millions among other media platforms such as YouTube and Netflix. Livestreaming converges liveness (live broadcasting) and participatory culture (social interactions) on an unprecedented level. This panel considers firstly, how livestreaming problematizes the concepts of liveness in contemporary contexts of broadcasting over wired and wireless internets compared to the televisual age. And secondly, the panel asks how livestreaming induces various forms of participatory culture which encourages the platform to be a space both of play and productive activities.
On December 14th 2012, the Chinese movie channel CCTV-6 aired the American movie V for Vendetta, ... more On December 14th 2012, the Chinese movie channel CCTV-6 aired the American movie V for Vendetta, a dystopian blockbuster narrating the fight for freedom in a fictive totalitarian Britain – a 2005 movie never screened before in China. Animated discussions buzzed on the major Chinese social networks and discussion boards: will the movie be really shown? How much of it will be censored?
Unexpectedly, CCTV-6 aired V for Vendetta without any cut, as thrilled users kept discussing the implications of the event all over the Internet. More expectedly, the censorship machinery activated during the screening itself, closing and cleaning up discussion boards and microblogs in the attempt of reducing the viral buzz.
In this essay we present snapshots of the discussions happening on Chinese websites and adopt the framework of critical theory to explain how mass cultural products are handed down through the mass media as tokens of illusory change.
"The emergence of indie games since late 1990s is gradually gaining grounds in the gaming industr... more "The emergence of indie games since late 1990s is gradually gaining grounds in the gaming industry as well as prestige among gamers. Against the tides of "revolutionary" transformations in game engines and AI improvement constantly advocated in industry rhetorics at promotions, advertisements and gaming conventions, indie games usually take a opposite direction abandoning the contemporary novel inventions and ceaseless pursuit of the "new": rather, they intend to re-adapt the nostalgic past such as the retro-style 8-bit graphics and popular genres such as platformers on the vintage consoles. This “retromanic” tailoring became almost the default aesthetic choice of indie developers and its re-adaptation represents somehow truly "novel" alternative to the cliqued mainstream narrative of progress. At the same time, many indie games have been dubbed under the celebrated "novel" genre- "serious games" or “games for social change”, which usually opposes the contemporary games obsession with killings, explosions and whatnot while seeks to address serious social issues through a playful learning process.
In an attempt to comment on the phenomenon of indie games as well as the academic rhetorics around it, I intend to reframe “retromania” and novelty of these indie games in conjunction to a larger cultural phenomenon- hisperism. As Jones (2013) remarks, "hipsterism, though, offered only a willfully weak reanimation of the signifiers used in previous shows of resistance and opposition, effectively forming a counterculture without the ‘counter’”. Similarly, many indie games usually possess a nostalgic salute to the "glorious" past as well as a cynical take on the present. However, fundamentally as games, many are shopworn genres with a re-branded aesthetic and political gloss. On the surface of narrative meaning, it may seem radical but at its core, the game is a conservative iteration of existing game genres. “Many of today's so-called "serious games" are in fact quite reactionary at the level of the algorithm, even if they cloak themselves in progressive political desires on the surface” (Galloway 2007). There is an evident segregation here: "at the realm of the material, nothing changes; at the realm of the ideal, there is only a semiotic change". If there is to be any truly novel changes, an alternative algorithm of play has to emerge, which requires not only the developers, but also the central actors, the players, to change."
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Papers by Ge Zhang
and the emergence of disco music in the 1990s, as well as to the evolution of Northeastern (Dongbei 東北) folk culture during the same period. Dongbei spoken word art has fundamentally shaped the lyrical structure and presentation of hanmai , while its lyrical content has shifted over time from a dance culture filled with hedonist desires in the late 1990s and early 2000s to a contemporary livestreaming culture of venting frustration due to unfulfilled desires. Moreover, socio-technologically speaking, hanmai culture started in the form of commercial sales of pirate mixtape CDs, then migrated to QQzone (Tencent’s version of personal webspace similar to Myspace) throughout the 2000s, re-invented itself via Internet subculture on early video portals such as Acfun as well as popular web fiction, and finally (re)emerged on YY as the contemporary reiteration of hanmai . This paper aims to map a genealogy of hanmai , including the divergences, parallels, and reiterations of this specific style of sound in Chinese society from the 1990s onwards.
Book Chapters by Ge Zhang
matchmaking intermediaries gone online to the flourishing local ecology of social networking platforms, websites and mobile applications: through which Chinese digital media users negotiate their affective needs, desires and social pressures.
Photo Essays by Ge Zhang
Reviews by Ge Zhang
Conference Presentations by Ge Zhang
Final Proofs: Published version soon available at Conference Website http://mlab.cs.pu.edu.tw/ChineseDiGRA2016/
Unexpectedly, CCTV-6 aired V for Vendetta without any cut, as thrilled users kept discussing the implications of the event all over the Internet. More expectedly, the censorship machinery activated during the screening itself, closing and cleaning up discussion boards and microblogs in the attempt of reducing the viral buzz.
In this essay we present snapshots of the discussions happening on Chinese websites and adopt the framework of critical theory to explain how mass cultural products are handed down through the mass media as tokens of illusory change.
In an attempt to comment on the phenomenon of indie games as well as the academic rhetorics around it, I intend to reframe “retromania” and novelty of these indie games in conjunction to a larger cultural phenomenon- hisperism. As Jones (2013) remarks, "hipsterism, though, offered only a willfully weak reanimation of the signifiers used in previous shows of resistance and opposition, effectively forming a counterculture without the ‘counter’”. Similarly, many indie games usually possess a nostalgic salute to the "glorious" past as well as a cynical take on the present. However, fundamentally as games, many are shopworn genres with a re-branded aesthetic and political gloss. On the surface of narrative meaning, it may seem radical but at its core, the game is a conservative iteration of existing game genres. “Many of today's so-called "serious games" are in fact quite reactionary at the level of the algorithm, even if they cloak themselves in progressive political desires on the surface” (Galloway 2007). There is an evident segregation here: "at the realm of the material, nothing changes; at the realm of the ideal, there is only a semiotic change". If there is to be any truly novel changes, an alternative algorithm of play has to emerge, which requires not only the developers, but also the central actors, the players, to change."
and the emergence of disco music in the 1990s, as well as to the evolution of Northeastern (Dongbei 東北) folk culture during the same period. Dongbei spoken word art has fundamentally shaped the lyrical structure and presentation of hanmai , while its lyrical content has shifted over time from a dance culture filled with hedonist desires in the late 1990s and early 2000s to a contemporary livestreaming culture of venting frustration due to unfulfilled desires. Moreover, socio-technologically speaking, hanmai culture started in the form of commercial sales of pirate mixtape CDs, then migrated to QQzone (Tencent’s version of personal webspace similar to Myspace) throughout the 2000s, re-invented itself via Internet subculture on early video portals such as Acfun as well as popular web fiction, and finally (re)emerged on YY as the contemporary reiteration of hanmai . This paper aims to map a genealogy of hanmai , including the divergences, parallels, and reiterations of this specific style of sound in Chinese society from the 1990s onwards.
matchmaking intermediaries gone online to the flourishing local ecology of social networking platforms, websites and mobile applications: through which Chinese digital media users negotiate their affective needs, desires and social pressures.
Final Proofs: Published version soon available at Conference Website http://mlab.cs.pu.edu.tw/ChineseDiGRA2016/
Unexpectedly, CCTV-6 aired V for Vendetta without any cut, as thrilled users kept discussing the implications of the event all over the Internet. More expectedly, the censorship machinery activated during the screening itself, closing and cleaning up discussion boards and microblogs in the attempt of reducing the viral buzz.
In this essay we present snapshots of the discussions happening on Chinese websites and adopt the framework of critical theory to explain how mass cultural products are handed down through the mass media as tokens of illusory change.
In an attempt to comment on the phenomenon of indie games as well as the academic rhetorics around it, I intend to reframe “retromania” and novelty of these indie games in conjunction to a larger cultural phenomenon- hisperism. As Jones (2013) remarks, "hipsterism, though, offered only a willfully weak reanimation of the signifiers used in previous shows of resistance and opposition, effectively forming a counterculture without the ‘counter’”. Similarly, many indie games usually possess a nostalgic salute to the "glorious" past as well as a cynical take on the present. However, fundamentally as games, many are shopworn genres with a re-branded aesthetic and political gloss. On the surface of narrative meaning, it may seem radical but at its core, the game is a conservative iteration of existing game genres. “Many of today's so-called "serious games" are in fact quite reactionary at the level of the algorithm, even if they cloak themselves in progressive political desires on the surface” (Galloway 2007). There is an evident segregation here: "at the realm of the material, nothing changes; at the realm of the ideal, there is only a semiotic change". If there is to be any truly novel changes, an alternative algorithm of play has to emerge, which requires not only the developers, but also the central actors, the players, to change."
Through in-depth interviews of native Hong Kong players and observation of forum discussions, this paper intends to understand their individual in-game performative practices and interpretations of the narratives and reconstructions of Hong Kong in the game in association with their everyday lives. This paper will discuss the game as a living space and a virtual museum of folk culture: players experience the space differently according to their individual practices; In addition, these folkloristic cultures include Cantonese vernacular oral traditions, street scenes such as vendors and back alleys, nightlife and so forth. The aim is not to assess the accuracy of representation per se but the reception (or subversion) of the game by the interpretative communities and their cultural expression in the actions of gameplay. Videogames in this sense are treated not as ruptures of the mundane existence for the gamers but expressions of everyday life. Beyond both celebrations and denunciations of virtuality and ‘play’, this paper argues that gaming experience is now part of the current paradigms of aesthetic and cultural conventions.
Tianyou, Celebrity Studies, DOI: 10.1080/19392397.2020.1783747