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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How the V&A Museum is collecting & preserving WeChat for the 100-year future

Posted on by Jason Li

The following is an excerpt from the Brendan Cormier (V&A)’s article on How We Collected WeChat:

During our filming at the WeChat campus, the design team pulled us aside and handed us a phone. They had come up with a possible solution for the acquisition. On the phone was the WeChat app. We poked around on it, and asked…

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Starting Up in Shenzhen

On “discovering” Shenzhen and the 459 car brands in China

Posted on by Tricia Wang

Editor’s note: Below are select excerpts from a panel discussion between Tricia Wang, David Li and Philipp Grefer held at NEXT Conference 2017:

Philipp Grefer: 88Rising is a YouTube channel looking for good Asian culture – better than K-Pop. They have found several people who have had some success. We have a Chinese rapper starting to be noticed…

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Give your support to this collection of next-generation recipes from the Chinese diaspora

Posted on by Jason Li

From The Illustrated Wok‘s Kickstarter page:

Thanks to a customer base that is increasingly savvy about diverse regional cuisines, Chinese food in the West is finally outgrowing its reputation as cheap takeout. We’re seeing the rise of chefs who approach Chinese cooking with the spirit of curiosity and experimentation while staying respectful…

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Starting Up in Shenzhen

Photo Essay: Fidget Spinners, AR Guns and Panda Cams in Shenzhen

Posted on by An Xiao Mina

Editor’s note: Below is a select excerpt of An Xiao Mina’s Instagram posts from her recent trip to China.

Shenzhen, world epicenter of fidget spinners

At the world epicenter of fidget spinners. I see them in my head, spinning spinning spinning in Berlin, New York, Manila, suddenly viral, suddenly memetic.

…

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