Design Society Shenzhen: conservative curatorial at a cutting-edge institution

Posted on by Jason Li

After much fanfare, I had a chance to visit the two opening exhibitions at the new Design Society 设计互联 in Shenzhen – “China’s first design museum.” Freshly unveiled last December, Design Society is located at the newly-constructed Sea World Culture and Arts Center in Shekou, one of the most historically-progressive areas in Shenzhen. That it is…

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Melon Festival Year 2: emphasizing the science in science fiction

Posted on by Jason Li

The second Melon festival about “science fiction, innovation and the future” took place in Hong Kong on March 17 and was markedly more packed, slick and diverse than its predecessor. Festival organizers added a third set of speakers – scientists – to their roster this year on top of the previously-featured science fiction authors and…

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Chinese Comics Review

My Beloved Mother: A Comic Book Epic About Human-Android Discrimination

Posted on by Jason Li

My Beloved Mother covers

My Beloved Mother (机器妈妈) is a science fiction tale of dystopia about the frayed relationship between a boy and his android mother. Originally serialized in 漫友·动画100, the comic has won multiple awards, been re-published in Malay and English, and helped launch the career of its creator, Wang Xiao Yang. Today, we turn back to the clock to look at the…

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China Meme Report · Ethnography of Tech

Follow the Magpie, a rare stream of primary research about social media in China

Posted on by Jason Li

Christina Xu, Tricia Wang, and Pheona Chen just launched a new newsletter about the conversations and trends happening on the internet in China today and we should all subscribe now.

In their opening essay about the project, they write:

Our goal is to create something…

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Chinese Comics Review

Original Indie Comic Con in HK #3: A window into Hong Kong’s bustling indie illustration & manga scene

Posted on by Jason Li

Last Sunday heralded the third Original Indie Comic Con in HK (第三屆原創誌交流展). Hosted on the eighth floor of a co-working space in an industrial part of Kwun Tong, Hong Kong, the one-day convention was small but bustling, and showed off an often-overlooked side of Hong Kong, where the comics scene has long been derided as being in…

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Virtual China

The Virtual China Archives: blogging from heady 2006-2008 days of the Chinese internet

Posted on by Jason Li

Screenshot of Virtual China from April 2006

88 Bar began life as a blog for one of the Institute for the Future’s research programs. This was back in 2006, and our blog was called Virtual China. With it, Lyn and I set out to document our “exploration of virtual experiences and environments in and about China.” Many of our posts had an excited “look…

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