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…

Continue readingThe Free Lunch case for inefficient, redundant design

An infamous Chinese hacker becomes a “security professional”?

Posted on by Tricia Wang
image: iDefense
image: iDefense

Up until now, Wicked Rose has been infamous for one thing, being a prolific hacker. He exploited Microsoft Office security holes in the US Defense Department and obtained sensitive data for over two years before being discovered.

But it appears that Wiked Rose is exploring a new career path.

Investigative reporter, …

Continue readingAn infamous Chinese hacker becomes a “security professional”?

The First Wankathon in China: First Masturbation Contest for World’s Aid Day in China

Posted on by Tricia Wang

Walkathons are boring, wankathons are not. Who wants to watch people  walk when you can watch people masturbate? The first Masturbation Contest for World’s Aid Day took place in Shenzhen. The Shanghaiist has a set of wonderful pictures of men without pants, floppy dildos, dolls with orfices to stick fingers or penises into, and personal cum buckets. (Shanghaiist’s removed the…

Continue readingThe First Wankathon in China: First Masturbation Contest for World’s Aid Day in China

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…

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

Announcing the 88 Bot! (aka Group Retweet Bot)

Posted on by An Xiao Mina

Over here at 88 Bar, a number of us are tweeting about China, Chinese-related things, and just interesting topics in general.  And while we recognize the value of maintaining a strong social media presence, our @88_bartenders Twitter account admittedly hasn’t received as much attention as it should.  After a bit of brainstorming, we realized we needed a new member to our team —…

Continue readingAnnouncing the 88 Bot! (aka Group Retweet Bot)

Where are all the creative Chinese people? hanging out in hacker spaces apparently

Posted on by Tricia Wang

Finally we get some sense of history to hackerspaces outside of the West from Silvia Lintner and David Li in their latest co-authored article in Interactions, Created in China.

In September 2010, China’s first hackerspace opened its doors in Shanghai under the name XinCheJian (literal translation: new workshop, or new factory). Only a year…

Continue readingWhere are all the creative Chinese people? hanging out in hacker spaces apparently

The Human Flesh Searching Chinese explained in Jessi Levine’s Tea Leaf Nation/The Atlantic article

Posted on by Tricia Wang

Yang-Dacai
Image from Tea Leaf Nation: Shaanxi Safety Supervision Bureau chief Yang Dacai became suddenly famous, with netizens rushing to caricature him.

A few weeks ago I was interviewed along with citizen reporter, Tufu Wugan aka “The Butcher”,  in Jessi Levine’s What a “Human Flesh Search” Is, And How It’s Changing China.

…

Continue readingThe Human Flesh Searching Chinese explained in Jessi Levine’s Tea Leaf Nation/The Atlantic article