港大中文學院

2018/2019 School of Chinese Research Seminar

The Enterprising Self: Disability and Digital Entrepreneurship in China

Dr Haiqing Yu
(RMIT University, Australia)

地點 Venue: Room 730, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus
時間 Time: October 4 (Thursday), 4:30-6pm
演講語言 Language: English

Abstract:
This article examines the rise of the digital economy and its impact on disability entrepreneurship in China. In particular, it analyses the neoliberal logic that underscores the promotion of disability e-entrepreneurs represented by Mr. Cheongsam. Building on Aihwa Ong (2006)’s formulation of “neoliberalism as exception” and “exception to neoliberalism” and following Hentyle Yapp (2017)’s argument on “disability as exception,” it argues that disability has not only been treated as exception in China’s postsocialist trajectories of development both within and without, but also as a new form of exceptionality in digital transactions among the Chinese state, China’s digital champions, individual digital entrepreneurs, and average citizens. The framework of disability as exception and exceptionality opens up our critical enquiries about the invisible human infrastructure that underpins digital transactions in China.

Dr Haiqing Yu is Associate Professor and Vice-Chancellor’s Principal Research Fellow in the Digital Ethnography Research Centre, School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Australia. She researches the sociopolitical and economic impact of China’s digital media, communication, and culture on China, Australia and the Asia Pacific; and is currently working on projects related to China’s digital expansion in Asia, Chinese-language digital/social media in Australia, and digital economies of disability.

ALL ARE WELCOME!

Poster:
http://web.chinese.hku.hk/poster/20181004.pdf
http://www.hku.hk/chinese