Katrien Jacobs works as Associate Professor in Cultural Studies at Chinese University of Hong Kong.Katrien Jacobs is Associate Professor in Cultural Studies at the Chinese University and the Graduate Director for Cultural Studies. She has lectured and published widely about sexuality and gender in and around digital media, contemporary arts and media activism. She moved to Hong Kong in 2005 and devotes most of her research to contemporary Chinese, Japanese and trans-Asian arts and media platforms. She received two Hong Kong government-funded GRF grants; one to research the impact of Japanese animation cultures on social media and gender in Greater China (2010-2013), and one to research Chinese women’s cultural identities and affect around sexually explicit media (2014-2017). Jacobs has authored three books about Internet culture and sexuality and is currently working on “Tit-For-Tat Media,” a new book about political movements and their use of sexualized and hyper-cute social media and visual icons. Her first book Netporn: DIY Web Culture and Sexual Politics (Rowman and Littlefield, 2007) received critical claim amongst media scholars as a pioneering study of emerging web cultures that challenge government regulations and the aims of corporate expansionism. Her book People’s Pornography: Sex and Surveillance on the Chinese Internet (Intellect Books, 2012) was a pioneering study of mainland China’s immersion in new trends in sexually explicit media. It was widely commented on in academia and the news media. Full CVkjacobs@cuhk.edu.hk |

Hyper-Cute Visual Icons: Cheesy Art or Chique Propaganda?
I am starting a new research project on hyper-cute visual icons as they are utilized by contemporary activists on social media platforms such as Weibo, Twitter, WeChat, Bilibili, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. Socially engaged youth and netizens East and West largely belong to a generation of “digital natives” who have developed their literacies and social […]
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Women’s Pornographies
http://www.womenspornographies.com was funded by a General Research Fund Grant at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK 14404514). The site contains an archive of interviews with feminist and queer producers, entrepreneurs and sex activists in San Francisco and Hong Kong. The research has also led to a book entitled The Afterglow of Women’s Pornography and Post-Digital China(Palgrave Macmillan, 2015)
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Press
Here is an overview of interviews, book reviews, documentation of talks: SEPT 2019 Interviewed by Bloomberg Asia’s Josie Wong about the use of the meme Pepe the Frog in Hong Kong OCTOBER 2018 (In Dutch) Interviewed on the Belgian Radio “Interne Keuken” about Seks and far-right/alt-right activism, based on the lecture below. OCTOBER 2018 […]
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