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The Melon sci-fi conference: a stimulating clash of worlds

Posted on by Jason Li

Court drawing of an authors panel

The inaugural Melon science fiction conference took place on April 19-20 in Hong Kong. A modest, two-day event, it brought together writers, producers, lawyers and entrepreneurs who work in science fiction and its adjacent industries. One of the main draws of the conference was its mix of speakers from both Greater China and the West, a rare get together in…

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Upcoming science fiction conference featuring Chinese + Western authors & filmmakers

Posted on by Jason Li

Coming to Hong Kong April 19-20: Melon HK, a science fiction conference featuring writers, filmmakers, publishers and producers from China and the West.

Prominent speakers include a founder editor of io9, a (former) director of Penguin Random House, the first PhD graduate in author of the first PhD dissertation on…

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A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Online Harassment

Posted on by Jason Li

Last October, designer & researcher Caroline Sinders made a three week trip to Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Sydney to study their cultures of online harassment. Today, she shares some of her findings on Buzzfeed:

More generally, in Hong Kong, journalists told me that personal data is so widely accessible that most internet users don’t see or…

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Explaining why Twitter is worth less than its “Chinese clone”

Posted on by Jason Li
Weibo versus Twitter. Source: Aw Guo.
Weibo versus Twitter. Source: Aw Guo.

A few days ago, Tech In Asia published the provocatively titled article, Twitter is now worth less than its Chinese clone. Coming fresh off the heels of Twitter’s recently-failed acquisition talks, the article definitely resonated with many members of the tech community. But as many of us know,…

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Debunking Silicon Valley myths about WeChat’s conversational UI & other findings

Posted on by Jason Li

The Nielsen Norman Group recently wrapped up a great study involving 26 individuals in Beijing and Tangshan about their use of WeChat. Their report, WeChat: China’s Integrated Internet User Experience is well worth a read. But in case you’re pressed for time, we’ve written up our annotated highlights below.

Early on, Cheng and Nielsen (the authors of the article) point out…

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Hong Kong’s Animation-Comic-Games Convention 2016: Mostly a frenzy of shopping with a shrinking presence of local creators

Posted on by Jason Li

ACGHK1

It was business as usual at this year’s ACG (Animation-Comic-Game) Con in Hong Kong. Big international videogame and toy brands dominated, and attendees diligently lined up to shop for Japanese manga merch, to play test games in VR, or to marvel at finely-crafted toy figurines from Japan or the US. This 90% off gacha booth was, for example, swamped…

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