China Media Centre 2013 Spring Seminar
ONLINE GAMING ADDICTS’ WAR
Understanding Online Youth Discourse in China
Speaker: Dr Yuntao Zhang
Chair: Professor Hugo de Burgh
Date: Tuesday 5th March 2013
Time: 1:30pm-3pm
Venue: A7.3, Harrow Campus, University of Westminster
OPEN TO ALL
Abstract
In this seminar, I will explore the attitudes of young Chinese netizens towards the state through a case study of the online ‘e’gao’ film (machinema), ‘Online Gaming Addicts’ War’. The ‘Online Gaming Addicts’ War’ – was an ironic but none the less provocative response to the Chinese government’s online censorship policies and broader issues of political corruption. It demonstrates the post-80s generation’s grass-roots spontaneity and defiance of authority, as expressed in the emergence of this ‘spoofing’ subculture. The talk aims to understand how spoofing culture discourses emerged and developed within the contradictory cultural context of the new market economy and the continuing authoritarian state. It concludes with some reflections on the implications of this case for the broader issue of political change in China.
Dr. Yuntao Zhang is lecturer in Cultural and Media Studies in the School of Arts and Humanities, Nottingham Trent University, UK. She is the author of The Origins of the Modern Chinese Press (2007: Routledge) and of several other articles on Chinese media and culture. She is currently researching into the cultural dimensions of new media technologies and practices in contemporary China.
More about China Media Centre and seminars see http://chinamediacentre.org. If you have any queries about CMC events, please contact Hong Li at hong.li@my.westminster.ac.uk