Xiaohongshu and the Digital Infrastructure of Global China

Taking place at the intersection of media studies, global China studies, and critical infrastructure studies, this talk uses experiences from China, Germany, the UK, and the US to understand and consider how the social media service, Xiaohongshu, functions as a form of transnational connective infrastructure which supports the global mobility of Chinese capital while operating across digital territories.

As the literature on infrastructure studies highlights, infrastructure becomes particularly visible during infrastructural breakdowns, and as Chinese citizens become disconnected from China’s digital infrastructure Xiaohongshu becomes an essential tool for navigating and understanding the world. Xiaohongshu helps Chinese actors operate and connect globally, influences how they experience the world, and enables new connections to be made.

Xiaohongshu’s effects are particularly visible in the cultural industries, where users share, discuss, and support businesses that offer experiences that resonate with Chinese consumers. At the same time, Xiaohongshu helps Chinese capital become active globally, it supports Chinese capital investment, and it helps investors triangulate sites for investment. During this process, Xiaohongshu both supports global mobility and individual attempts to stay global.

This, we argue, also makes Xiaohongshu an infrastructure of displacement, with Xiaohongshu users supporting ventures that displace existing space users through new cultural geographies of Chineseness.

The analysis that this method builds off uses wanghong (internet fame) as a methodological starting point for understanding global China, and the talk elaborates on this methodological starting point.

Carwyn Morris (presenter) is a Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at SOAS University of London.

Yuchen Chen is an Assistant Professor at CUNY Baruch, New York.

The MCI is a listed building and therefore does not have any lifts. Please note that you must use the stairs in order to access the venue and the toilets.

The organisers will be taking photos during this event. If you prefer not to be included in any photos, kindly inform the organisers before the event starts.

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Host or Publisher The Manchester China Institute