Author: denton.2@osu.edu

Peach networks

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Source: China Media Project (5/13/25)
Plucking China’s “Peach Networks”
A state television exposé last month claimed to unmask exploitative dating apps, but it also exposed how cyclical media campaigns serve official narratives in China’s tightly controlled information landscape.
By Dalia Parete

Perhaps you’ve never heard of “peach networks.” But this term, which refers to shadowy dating apps allegedly facilitating illegal prostitution, trended briefly in China late last month when the country’s state broadcaster ran a consumer investigation of what it characterized as a growing phenomenon — dating apps that cross the line into sexual exploitation.

The phrase “peach networks,” or taose shejiao (桃色社交), first appeared on April 20, featured in an episode of “Finance Investigation” (财经调查), a program released on China Central Television in March 2024 that runs documentary-style investigations into consumer issues, business misconduct, and market violations. Such soft targets — not dealing, at least directly, with government negligence or corruption — fall into a shrinking area of permitted coverage in a media industry that has been heavily restrained over the past decade.

In this case, the report alleged that apps it referred to as “peach networks” were disguising themselves as legitimate social networking sites while engaging in illegal activities. On some of these platforms, men were permitted to sign up without any identity verification, while women were put through intensive identity checks. Once registered, male users were bombarded with messages from female profiles, and prompted to purchase virtual currency to reply. According to the CCTV program’s investigation, many of the initial interactions for which men spent their credits were in fact with automated chatbots rather than real women, the process engineered to draw chiefly male users deeper into the platform to pay more money.

In the Chinese language, the term “peach-colored,” or taose (桃色), has historically denoted sexual or erotic themes — the peach fruit, owing to its curvy shape and soft pink color, being likened to the human body. When paired with “social networking,” or shejiao (社交), the result is a composite phrase suggesting the apps in question provide sexual services or content, which in China is tightly controlled. Continue reading Peach networks →

SWCAS 2025 panel–cfp

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Call for Presenters: Panel on “Feminism, Technologies, and Transmediality in Postsocialist China”
54th Annual Conference of the SouthWest Conference on Asian Studies (SWCAS), 2025

We invite proposals for our panel titled “Feminism, Technologies, and Transmediality in Postsocialist China,” to be presented at the upcoming 54th Annual SWCAS Conference. The panel currently includes two presenters and is seeking two additional presenters and one discussant to join the conversation.

After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Chinese feminism experienced a revival as a new generation of female intellectuals, writers, artists, and digital media users emerged to reflect on their newly acquired identities during the transitional period from a state-established revolutionary era to a postsocialist, neoliberal-oriented one shaped by shifting political and economic conditions. Accompanying this new wave of female artistic production and social intervention were China’s rapid globalization, advances in science and technology, and the emergence of diverse media forms and practices.

By examining how female artists and intellectuals negotiate their social roles within this evolving ecology of productive relations, technological developments, and global media industries, this panel explores the dynamic intersections of feminist expression, technological influence and critique, and transmedial practices in Chinese media since the postsocialist transition. We welcome proposals that examine: Continue reading SWCAS 2025 panel–cfp →

On the Edge review

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MCLC Resource Center is pleased to announce publication of Shaoling Ma’s review of On the Edge: Feeling Precarious in China, by Margaret Hillenbrand. The review appears below and at its online home: https://u.osu.edu/mclc/book-reviews/shaoling-ma/. This review is a leftover from Jason McGrath’s tenure as our media studies book editor. My thanks to Jason for ushering this review to publication.

Kirk Denton, MCLC

On the Edge:
Feeling Precarious in China

By Margaret Hillenbrand

Reviewed by Shaoling Ma

MCLC Resource Center Publication (Copyright May, 2025)

Margaret Hillenbrand. On the Edge: Feeling Precarious in China New York: Columbia University Press, 2023. ??? pages, ISBN 9780231212151 (Paperback)/ ISBN 9780231212144 (Hardback)/ ISBN 9780231559232 (E-book)

On the Edge: Feeling Precarious in China scrutinizes the role that contemporary cultural forms play in rousing feelings of precarity among the underclass—marginalized rural and urban Chinese populations subject to internal expulsion or what the book terms “zombie citizenship”—and its less disenfranchised counterparts. Rooted in cultural studies but with an ambitious interdisciplinary arc spanning sociology, art history, anthropology, political economy, and the law, Margaret Hillenbrand conceives of performance art, visual art about waste, workers’ poetry, suicidal protests, and short video and livestreaming apps as “factious forms,” which stage and vivify class strife at a time when the Chinese ruling party has banished class as part of its political lexicon. On the Edge extends existing scholarship on the well-acknowledged problems of inequality and migrant labor in the People’s Republic of China by excoriating the less perceptible threats of social descent and civic jeopardy confronting cultural workers, online platform employees, unemployed university graduates, tech workers, and other people not usually associated with the underclass. This book decisively rectifies China’s absence from influential discourses of precarity over the last two decades; more subtly, it marshals resurging discussions in China studies and beyond on the increasingly troubled relation between aesthetics and politics under late capitalism. It is the stakes of cultural production that are most salient in Hillenbrand’s searing study: do aesthetic practices that reincite class as a political category assume or reject their own commodification? In other words, are the cultural practices in Hillenbrand’s consideration independent from the material determinations from which they emerge? Continue reading On the Edge review →

Cold Window Newsletter no. 6

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Source:  The Cold Window Newsletter 6 (2025)
By Andrew Rule

Welcome back to the Cold Window Newsletter! In this issue: a first foray into the world of Chinese internet literature, kicking off a column that will be running through several issues of this newsletter throughout 2025; and short fiction from the margins of Southern China.

A note on numbering: this is the third issue of the newsletter published on Paper Republic, but it is the sixth full-length issue overall. I’ve also begun writing shorter features between main issues that will not be cross-posted here, so if you want to receive the interim feature that will be coming out later this month, make sure to visit the newsletter’s main page on Substack.

Guide: Thirteen ways of looking at Chinese internet literature (1-2)

When we write about Chinese fiction in English, we have a tendency to draw a clear line between translated literary fiction (serious, challenging, widely acclaimed but little read) and translated popular fiction (addictive, commercial, devoured in private by millions but rarely acknowledged by the literary establishment). Despite the warmth and open-mindedness of readers on the literary fiction side, and despite the explosive growth of translation websites and fan communities on the popular fiction side, this divide has persisted. But, in my view, as long as you’re only reading work from one side of the divide, you’re missing out on a huge swath of the creativity, diversity, and insight that Chinese fiction can offer. Continue reading Cold Window Newsletter no. 6 →

Challenges for Chinese Women

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The new book Challenges for Chinese Women in the Early Twenty-First Century is scheduled for October 2025 publication. Full TOC and more info already published:

https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/14359

I have a chapter in the book, “The Party-State and the Forced Confessions: Similarities and Differences in the Treatment of Men and Women” which includes discussion of how both Chinese and Uyghur men and women are subjected to the CCPs coerced confession method.

Sincerely,

Magnus Fiskesjö

Non-human celebrities–cfp

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Non-Human Celebrities in Digital East Asia
Special Issue of Celebrity Studies–Call for Papers

We are seeking proposals for articles to be included in a special issue on non-human celebrities in East Asia. Celebrity Studies has expressed interest in publishing the special issue.

This proposed special issue explores the phenomenon of non-human celebrities in East Asia in the digital age. Non-human celebrities refer to prominent figures that are not human beings but have nonetheless achieved celebrity status in media, culture, and public life. These include animals, fictional characters, mascots, computer-generated personalities, and even personified objects. With the advent of AI-generated figures, some virtual entities are now designed to be virtually indistinguishable from real humans in both appearance and behaviour, further complicating ontological distinctions and challenging the very definition of celebrity.

While existing scholarship has addressed some of these figures, key gaps remain. As John Blewitt (2013) observes, non-human celebrities, particularly animal stars, are “a human construct,” and their popularity often reflects human desires, anxieties, or ideals. This perspective becomes even more relevant in the context of today’s platform-driven media environments, which amplify the visibility and marketability of non-human figures. However, most studies to date have taken a predominantly anthropocentric and Western-centric view. There is thus a need to reconceptualise non-human celebrities from a posthuman perspective, while also examining how the phenomenon is shaped by the specific cultural, technological, and social conditions of non-Western contexts. Continue reading Non-human celebrities–cfp →

The trade conflict Xi has been waiting for

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Source: NYT (5/10/25)
This Is the Trade Conflict Xi Jinping Has Been Waiting For
For years, the leader of China has planned to make the world dependent on its exports and know-how. But the strategy has costs for his own country.
By David Pierson, Reporting from Hong Kong

When the Trump administration put huge tariffs on Chinese goods, Xi Jinping was able to go on the offensive. Credit…Eric Lee/The New York Times

Xi Jinping has been preparing for this moment for years.

In April 2020, long before President Trump launched a trade war that would shake the global economy, China’s top leader held a meeting with senior Communist Party officials and laid out his vision for turning the tables on the United States in a confrontation.

Tensions between his government and the first Trump administration had been simmering over an earlier round of tariffs and technology restrictions. Things got worse after the emergence of Covid, which ground global trade to a halt and exposed how much the United States, and the rest of the world, needed China for everything from surgical masks to pain medicines.

Faced with Washington’s concerns about the trade imbalance, China could have opened its economy to more foreign companies, as it had pledged to do decades ago. It could have bought more American airplanes, crude oil and soybeans, as its officials had promised Mr. Trump during trade talks. It could have stopped subsidizing factories and state-owned companies that made steel and solar panels so cheaply that many American manufacturers went out of business.

Instead, Mr. Xi chose an aggressive course of action. Continue reading The trade conflict Xi has been waiting for →

Creativity and Climate Crisis

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International Conference-Creativity and Climate Crisis: Asian Media and Arts in the Anthropocene
Date: 19-20 May 2025 (Mon-Tue)
Day 1 / 10:00-16:00
Day 2/ 15:00-19:30
Venue: YIA LT2, Yasumoto International Academic Park, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Registration link

Extreme weather, pollution, water crises, and the loss of lives and biodiversity are some of the greatest challenges of our time. In both urban and rural Asia, extreme climate conditions and regional disparities have created increased climate vulnerability and inequalities. This interdisciplinary conference invites papers and discussions that examine media, elemental/infrastructural, and creative responses that help make sense of these challenges. How do media and arts in Asia engage new methods, materials, and practices to address current environmental changes? How do media technologies, art forms, and social actions create new meanings arising from these challenges? What are the “ecological affect” or “climate unconscious” that are structuring our feelings, emotions, practices, and actions?

Co-convenors:
Wu Ka-ming (CUHK)
Tan Jia (CUHK)

Speakers: Continue reading Creativity and Climate Crisis →

Routledge series–call for proposals

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Routledge Series on Contemporary Asian Societies: Call for Proposal Submissions

EASt (Université libre de Bruxelles, Centre for East Asian Studies) is calling for book proposal submissions to publish in its Routledge series on Contemporary Asian Societies! Created in 2018, the series aims at providing an original and distinctive contribution to current debates on evolutions shaping societies, cultures, politics and media across Northeast and Southeast Asia.

Currently, EASt’s Routledge Collection consists of six books: four edited volumes and two monographs, including EASt members and external collaborators. Another volume is under preparation.nWe now invite proposals for books and are open to submissions for single-authored, multi-authored, and edited volumes.

Please contact the series directors Vanessa Frangville (vanessa.frangville@ulb.be) and Frederik Ponjaert (frederik.ponjaert@ulb.be) for more information or to submit your proposal, and check our website.

Wars in Film and Films During Wartime–cfp

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Call for Papers [CHINESE VERSION BELOW]
The Sixth International Conference on the Film Histories of Taiwan and Asia Cinema, 2025
Wars in Films and Films during Wartime
Date: August 23-24, 2025
Venue: College of Communication, National Chengchi University

The theme of this year’s conference is “Wars in films and films during war time.” As one of the most enduring subjects in film history, war not only reflects historical realities but also functions as a potent medium of cultural expression. This conference seeks to examine the multifaceted relationship between war and cinema, and how these two forces have shaped and informed one another across different historical, cultural, and geopolitical contexts. We welcome submissions of research papers on related topics and invite distinguished scholars to deliver keynote addresses that further enrich the discussion.

Sample Topics:

  1. Narrative and Visual Style of War Films:
    How are wars in Asia portrayed on screen? How do narrative structures, visual styles, and cinematic techniques shape audience understanding of war?

  2. War and National Identity:
    How do Asian and Taiwan films construct, reinforce, or question national, racial, and political identities during wartime? What ideological roles do war films play across different industries, countries, or historical periods in Asia?

  3. Representation of History and Memory:
    As a tool of historical narration, how does cinema re-present the history of war? What are the functions and limitations of film in reconstructing historical memory? Continue reading Wars in Film and Films During Wartime–cfp →

BACS Best Doctoral Thesis Award 2025 — nominations

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2025 BACS Prize for Best Doctoral Thesis on China
Calls for Nominations:

The British Association of Chinese Studies invites nominations for the Best Doctoral Thesis Prize on China for 2025. Self-nominations are invited. To enter the competition:

  • A candidate must be a member of the British Association of Chinese Studies. If you are not a member and wish to be eligible, please find details on how to join BACS here: http://bacsuk.org.uk/about-us/membership
  • A candidate must have successfully passed their thesis at any point between 1st January 2024 and 31st December 2024.
  • The candidate must have completed their doctorate at a UK higher education institution OR else be based in the UK at the time of submitting their application.
  • Candidates can have completed their thesis on China in any disciplinary or interdisciplinary (e.g. area studies, development studies, gender studies, social policy studies, media studies) department and with reference to any time period.
  • Candidates should be available to attend the BACS annual conference.

To enter the prize competition, candidates need to email the following documents to the Administrative Chair of the BACS Doctoral Thesis Prize Panel, Chris Berry, (chris.berry@kcl.ac.uk) by 31 May 2025: Continue reading BACS Best Doctoral Thesis Award 2025 — nominations →

U of Warsaw postdoc

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Postdoctoral Position “China’s Multiple Pasts: Museums, Colonial History, and Decoloniality in Southeast Asia” (project no: 2024/53/B/HS3/01498) University of Warsaw, Faculty of History.

The dean of the Faculty of History with the consent of the Rector of the University of Warsaw, announces a competition for the position of postdoctoral researcher in the field of history in the Department of History of the 20th Century, Faculty of History, University of Warsaw in NCN OPUS-27 research project ‘China’s Multiple Pasts: Museums, Colonial History, and Decoloniality in Southeast Asia’.

This project strives to examine if and how Overseas Chinese history museums in Southeast Asia offer alternative representations of the past to those found in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). By juxtaposing the nationalist representations embedded in the PRC’s memorialization of Chinese diaspora and those shown in museums in Southeast Asia, this project will analyse the diversity of discourses on China’s past, retrieve the agency of different communities funding the museums, and problematize the application of decolonial theories in museums based outside the Western episteme.

The appointment will begin in October 2025.

The successful candidate must hold a Ph.D. by the time of appointment, and is a specialist in Chinese Overseas Chinese studies, preferably with a focus on museum and/or heritage studies. Knowledge of Thai/Malay/ Indonesian will be an asset. Continue reading U of Warsaw postdoc →

Southern Encounters workshop

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Dear MCLC members,

Please see the information below about a one-day conference to be held at the University of Oxford China Centre on June 6th, 2025. This event is in-person only. To register, please contact Margaret Hillenbrand (margaret.hillenbrand@chinese.ox.ac.uk).

Best wishes,

Margaret Hillenbrand

Southern Encounters: Nanyang and New Cultural Regionalities in Chinese Studies

This conference brings together papers that rethink how the “South” is conventionally being approached and articulated in Chinese Studies. Bringing a diverse set of southern encounters into dialogue with existing discourses about Nanyang, China’s Southwest and the Sinophone South, this workshop seeks to explore newer ways of conceptualizing cultural regionalities in Chinese Studies.

Apocalypse from the Borderland: Fengwu, Routes, and the Topopoetics of Tong Mo’s Southwest Narrative
Jannis Chen Ji Zhou (Asst. Prof, Chinese University of Hong Kong)

An Exotic Turn: The Emergence of Nanyang-as-Other in Hong Kong Cinema
Yeo Min Hui (Asst. Prof, Nanyang Technological University)

Caught between Homelands: Wang Xiaoping and the Anti-bildungsroman
Jessica Tan Li Wen (Asst. Prof, Lingnan University)

Enacting a Global Contemporary: Wang Anyi and Regional Intimacies in the Sinophone South
Chan Cheow Thia (Asst. Prof, National University of Singapore) Continue reading Southern Encounters workshop →

The terrible secrets of Taiwan’s Stasi files

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Source: The Economist (5/1/25)
The terrible secrets of Taiwan’s Stasi files
Researchers have unearthed the surveillance records of Taiwan’s former dictatorship. But the revelations inside could tear society apart
By Alice Su

PHOTOGRAPHS: An Rong Xu

During the 1980s a young intellectual called Yang Bi-chuan used to give illicit history lectures in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. Charismatic and fearless, with a frizz of unruly hair, Yang was only in his 30s, but had already served seven years in prison for angering the authoritarian government that ruled the island. A voracious reader and self-taught historian, he referred to himself as the Taiwanese Trotsky.

At that time, nobody was teaching the Taiwanese their own history. The lush, sub-tropical island, which sits 130km off the coast of China, was run by the exiled Chinese Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang (KMT). When Taiwan was mentioned in KMT-run schools and universities, it was merely as a footnote in the glorious 5,000-year-long history of China. Students at the National Taiwan University invited Yang to come to their classrooms after the day’s official lessons were over to fill in the gaps.

Taiwaneseness is a complicated concept. Some islanders are from indigenous ethnic groups, but most are descended from Han Chinese immigrants from the province of Fujian, who first arrived in the 16th century. The island has been colonised by various empires: the Dutch, the Spanish, the Qing dynasty, the Japanese. Yang talked about the distinctly Taiwanese sense of identity that was forged by enduring and resisting these waves of occupation. Dozens of students would gather to listen. Continue reading The terrible secrets of Taiwan’s Stasi files →

Lyrical Experiments in Sinophone Verse

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The volume Lyrical Experiments in Sinophone Verse: Time, Space, Bodies, and Things, edited by Justyna Jaguścik, Joanna Krenz, and Andrea Riemenschnitter (Amsterdam University Press, 2025) is now available in open access via the press website.

The 1919 May Fourth movement was the breeding ground for experiments by authors inspired by new world literary trends. Under Mao Zedong, folk songs accompanied political campaigns such as the Great Leap Forward. Misty Poetry of the 1980s contributed to the humanistic discourse of the post-Mao reform era. The most recent stage in Chinese poetry resonates with contemporary concerns, such as technological innovation, environmental degradation, socio-political transformations, and the return of geopolitical Cold War divisions. In search of creative responses to the crisis, poets frequently revisit the past while holding on to their poetic language of self-reflection and social critique. This volume identifies three foci in contemporary poetry discourses: formal crossovers, multiple realities, and liquid boundaries. These three themes often intersect within texts from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan discussed in the book.

Contributors (in alphabetical order): Nick Admussen, Dean Anthony Brink, Simona Gallo, Justyna Jaguścik, Joanna Krenz, Andrea Lingenfelter, Liansu Meng, Andrea Riemenschnitter, Chris Song,  Maghiel van Crevel, Victor Vuilleumier, Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik, Mary Shuk Han Wong, Zhiyi Yang, Michelle Yeh.

Contents: Continue reading Lyrical Experiments in Sinophone Verse →