The new Han Han magazine has arrived…. Although there’s not a single advertisment in the magazine, it is known as the most generous publication in China—paying  each of the authors 2000 RMB per 1000 words (as you can see from the picture above, that’s basically all of them). The magazine is a nice mixture of [...]

  Bonnie Nardi’s new book My Life as  Night Elf Priest about World of Warcraft is out by University of Michigan Press. You can look at the summary of her book and also download several of the chapters for free. The book gives a very detailed and positive account of what it means to be [...]

All summer long I have been writing my new book People’s Pornography: Sex and Surveillance on the Chinese Internet for Intellect Books. Excerpts and foreplay will follow on this blog until I finally reach academic fame or downfall. In either case, I have been very fortunate to work with Carrie Yang who has helped me researching and scrutinizing Chinese bloggers [...]

  A few days ago I managed to meet with Miss Ma. She is a tailor who makes costumes for the costume players who live around Communication University of Beijing. We were hoarded into a dark alley by one of her young mates and customers, named Woody. The smell upon entering the cabinet was fantastic [...]

I continue   my search for people’s virtual characters and end up following cosplay photographer Francesca. We meet at the old communist factory-turned-art-district “798″ where they have also preserved one of the old Chinese coal trains. Francesca uses this setting to take photos of her good friend Phoenix.  Phoenix here is doing the  girl character of the virtual singers from the voice [...]

I just arrived in Beijing at Renmin University where I will give a talk about animation fans and how they use alter egos and virtual siblings, or even entire imagined clans and families. I want to find out how and why they fantasize about alternative families and how they deal with pressures of the bio-family. But what are the first impressions [...]

Fantasy Families::::  Of Gothic Lolitas, Costume Players, doll players, and their virtual clans. And where I am located this time ? Look carefully on the lower left side of the family pic. Woofie!

Excerpt about love from my previous interview with Beijing costume player Francesa. Francesa’s photographs can be found at hybridre.deviantart.com/gallery F=Francesca, or Hybridre, Cosplayer and Photographer K=Katrien, Interviewer C=Carol, Translator/Interviewer C: Can I ask a question? Assuming that you and your lover are both cosplayers, when you cosplay two characters in love with each other, would [...]

I met with 15 students for a two-hour recorded session about Internet culture, social networks, pornography & censorship politics. We were probing and discussing ideas about the power of netizens and the government war on pornography. Many views and anecdotes were exchanged.  As much as Chinese people know how to cope wity with government surveillance, they also use the web to [...]

  I had lunch with my high spirited translators Mu and Carol. I moved on from fried duck and crispy duck skin to duck tongue preserved in egg-shaped jello. The jello-eggs  looked very beautiful but the tongue inside tasted a bit bony, even though my friends called it very ”smooth.”  I started my interviews and noticed that people are [...]