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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China Meme Report

Has the Grass Mud Horse been defanged?

Posted on by An Xiao Mina
The Grass Mud Horse （草泥马） emoji in Sina Weibo appears alongside other harmless puns like the “Spirit Horse” （神马）, a pun for “What”, and jiong （囧）, a character that looks like a sad face.

A few years ago, I observed a curious addition to the emoji set on Sina Weibo: a Grass Mud Horse. It was a little confusing to…

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Ethnography of Tech

VR malls, mobile payments and tuhao-themed parties (#cxinchina 2016 edition)

Posted on by xuhulk

Editor’s note: Below is a selection of our favorite Instagram posts that  Christina published during her 2016 trip to Beijing, Chengdu & Shanghai to research technology, youth culture and trends.

 

Technology

There are VR kiosks in almost every mid-high end mall I’ve been into in Beijing and Shanghai, as well…

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Chinese Comics Review

Evading Hong Kong’s self-censors: Ah To’s absurd yet poignant comics about life and politics

Posted on by Jason Li

Fuck It Suck It Up book release gif

It was nearing the end of May. With less than two months to go before the Hong Kong Book Fair 2016, Ah To’s book still hadn’t yet hit the presses. In fact, it was looking like the book might not be published at all. Talks had broken down between the author-illustrator and his unnamed, major Hong Kong publisher. Despite a promising start,…

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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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Starting Up in Shenzhen

How the internet is making hardware startups as fast as software in Shenzhen

Posted on by An Xiao Mina

china-gif-2

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from ‘Created’ in China: Shenzhen is making hardware like Silicon Valley makes apps, written by An Xiao Mina and originally published on Fusion.

China is amidst a massive transition from a country primarily of manufacturers to one of makers. Lei Gao is part of this new generation…

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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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