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LRCCS Interdisciplinary Workshop | Projecting Orientalism: Imitation, Copycats and Reskins in Chinese Mobile Game Production

Yizhou Xu, Postdoc Fellow, U-M Digital Studies Institute
Monday, March 20, 2023
12:00-1:30 PM
Room 447 Weiser Hall Map
Yizhou Xu is a postdoctoral fellow at University of Michigan's Digital Studies Institute. His research looks at the globalization of the Chinese tech industry particularly at the intersections of state policy, labor practices, and digital platforms. Yizhou obtained his PhD in Media & Cultural Studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. His work has been published in Social Media + Society, Journal of Cultural Economy, and Communication and the Public. Prior to academia he was a documentarian and broadcast journalist based in Beijing working for news agencies including CBS News, NPR, and Swiss TV.

Please register at: https://myumi.ch/EP6M5

This talk dissects the political economy of the mobile game industry through the proliferation of games based on the themes of palace and court intrigue common in Chinese popular media. Based on his own ethnographic experiences working in the Chinese game industry, Dr. Xu looks at the often complicated and contentious production of imitation and copycat games in the app store and its orientalist depictions made for the West but produced by China. In doing so, this project highlights the imbricated convergence between Western dominance and China’s authoritarian past, all caught up within the imperial circuits of digital commodity exchange that is part of the global app economy.

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
Building: Weiser Hall
Event Type: Workshop / Seminar
Tags: Asia
Source: Happening @ Michigan from Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies