Abstract:
Shenzhen, the first Special Economic Zone established in 1980 in southern China, has transformed from a global electronics manufacturing hub and counterfeiting capital into a UNESCO City of Design and high-tech center of “intelligent” making within the span of four decades. This talk examines Shenzhen as a media-infrastructure complex that integrates digital and physical spaces while straddling the forces of globalizations from “above” and “below.” Focusing on the production, circulation, and consumption of key technological objects that connect Shenzhen to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the world beyond, from mobile phones to drones, Prof. Fan Yang explores the competing cultural visions generated therein that inform national and global futures.

Speaker:
Prof. Fan Yang is Professor in the Department of Media and Communication Studies and incoming Director of Asian Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), where she is affiliated with Global Studies and the Ph.D. program in Language, Literacy, and Culture. She is the author of Disorienting Politics: Chimerican Media and Transpacific Entanglements (2024) and Faked in China: Nation Branding, Counterfeit Culture, and Globalization (2016). An interdisciplinary scholar, Prof. Yang works at the intersection of cultural studies, transnational media studies, globalization, postcolonialism/postsocialism, and contemporary China. In 2023, she helped to launch the Mellon-funded Global Asias Initiative at UMBC.

Date: 16 January 2025 (Thursday)
Time: 4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. (4:00 p.m.: Tea Reception)
Venue: Activities Room, 2/F, Art Museum East Wing, CUHK
Language: English
Registration: Click here
Enquiry: 3943 0405/ This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.