Category: Ethnography of Tech

Ethnography of Tech

Drawing inspiration from China’s subtitling and dating communities

Posted on by jinge

Editor’s note: Our very own Jin Ge recently spoke at The Conference by Media Evolution 2014 on how designers can draw inspiration from China’s subtitling and dating communities. You can watch the entire talk above.

Some of the highlights include:

  • How his team at IDEO learned that subtitling groups, who volunteer to…

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Ethnography of Tech

Coming of age in a culture of information paternalism in China

Posted on by Jason Li

Editor’s note: this is a summary of some of the ideas that are presented in Tricia’s recent talk the Berkman Center, Talking to Strangers: Chinese Youth and Social Media. The video of the full talk is now online, and we highly recommend watching it in its entirety.

Tricia’s research discusses how Chinese youth are experiencing their coming of…

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Ethnography of Tech

A new form of sociality among Chinese youth: the Elastic Self

Posted on by Tricia Wang

Editor’s note: our very own Tricia Wang will be giving a livestream presentation of her dissertation research this coming Tuesday. Here’s what it’s about.

The sudden availability of social media and open-market capitalism is creating new spaces in China that are shifting norms and behaviors in unexpected ways. This research investigates and explains the phenomena of semi-anonymous interactions among Chinese…

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Ethnography of Tech

Some initial thoughts about the popularity of QQ’s WeChat (aka Weixin)

Posted on by Tricia Wang
Shake it function (摇一摇)
Shake it function (摇一摇)

Excerpted from Bytes of China:

A few weeks ago, a conversation about the popularity of WeChat emerged on a tech mailing lists. Someone posted several reasons why they thought WeChat was more usable than Skype. They listed several technical reasons, such as ease of use, great mobile interface, and more efficient…

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Ethnography of Tech

Inspiration for the future of cars from resource-constrained vendors in China

Posted on by Tricia Wang
A father-son team work together in a workshop modifying three-wheeled vehicles in Guizhou, China.

China is now the largest car market. But many Western companies are discovering that simply transferring cars designed for Western users do not always appeal to Asian users. Point in case GM’s Cadillac, a car built for…

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Ethnography of Tech

The Free Lunch case for inefficient, redundant design

Posted on by Jason Li

In her talk for The Conference 2012, Designing for Trust: How China’s Free Lunch avoided The Curse of Kelvin (embedded above), Tricia Wang makes the case that the inefficient data entry and publishing sequence pictured below is the culturally appropriate and only effective solution available.

The case study she gives is of journalist Deng Fei’s Free Lunch project, which…

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Ethnography of Tech

Trust, social networks, and how the guy who threw his shoe at the Father of the Great Firewall got away

Posted on by Jason Li

Tricia Wang’s delightful talk at LIFT 12 touches upon a variety of subjects:

  • The full back story and epilogue of the person who threw his shoe at the Father of the Great Firewall. Fun fact she mentions: Because the scandal was censored within China and not a big deal, the shoe thrower was only chastised lightly by local…

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Ethnography of Tech

Chinese Chat Roulette–minus the naked bits

Posted on by Lyn Jeffery

I LOVE this: If you feel like chatting via text or voice with random strangers in mainland China, and you live anywhere in the world, download the free Tencent Weixin app for your iPhone or Android phone.  My latest favorite thing to do with a few minutes of boredom: check my Weixin for any “drift bottles” that have been thrown into the digital…

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