Tag: globalization

Ethnography of Tech

Chinese tech globalizing like the US, with drones and bikeshares leading the way

Posted on by An Xiao Mina

Photo of bike share in front of the Eiffel Tower

Dockless bikeshares in Europe predated the arrival of Chinese companies like Ofo and Mobike, at least in Berlin, but it was a recent trip in Shenzhen and Beijing that I saw their potential at scale. I am used to seeing Chinese tech phenomena remain just that, ie, limited to China. But the near omnipresence of these bikes in major cities — I…

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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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Why US trash ends up in China (not because labor is cheaper!)

Posted on by An Xiao Mina

From Susan Jake’s LARB review of Junkyard Planet by Adam Minter:

The reason most US trash flows to China is not, as is popularly believed, because of China’s low cost of labor and weak environmental protection (or, at least, not primarily). If it were, Minter says, we’d send our trash to Sudan, and Sudan wouldn’t be sending its…

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