1. Introduction: Mapping China’s Digital Gaming Culture

Due to rapid urbanization, many large universities have begun to build satellite campuses located on the outskirts of the cities. At the time of my visit Tongji University boasted four separate campuses, three of them located in the suburbs.

Huangshan, or Yellow Mountain, is a popular tourist destination in Anhui province, China, about 500 km from Shanghai.

The rail system in China is well developed, but the comfort and speed of trains vary greatly depending on what passengers can afford. Many cities and popular tourist destinations are now connected via high-speed trains. A high-speed train from Shanghai to Huangshan takes approximately 2.5–3.5 hours whereas the local train we boarded took 14 hours. Additionally, trains generally have four different levels of accommodation. Sleeper cars and seats are either “soft” or “hard.” In the same vein, soft seats are more spacious and plush, while hard seats are more narrow and bench-like, with three to a row as opposed to two.

In 2008 and again in 2010, Chinese citizens were shocked to discover that baby formula and powdered milk products were tainted with melamine, a form of chemical used in plastics. In 2008, six babies died and over 300,000 were made ill by use of the products. The ensuing investigation in 2008 found that one in five dairy suppliers was guilty of using the chemical. Despite a crackdown by authorities, more tainted milk product was discovered in 2010 (“China Dairy Products Found Tainted With Melamine,” BBC News, July 9, 2010).

In early 2010, parents and citizens were shaken by a spate of stabbings at elementary schools (see, for example, “Eight Children Stabbed To Death in China Primary School Attack,” The Telegraph, March 23, 2010). In most cases, the perpetrators were single adult men. Around the same time, a number of young factory workers jumped to their death from the roof of Foxconn’s Longhua factory in Shenzhen. Foxconn is an electronics manufacturer that produces, among other things, the Apple iPhone. In the ensuing debate about working conditions at the factories, many blamed the suicides on long working hours and the social isolation of the production lines (see, for example, Tania Branigan, “Tenth Apparent Suicide at Foxconn iPhone Factory in China,” The Guardian, May 27, 2010).

See Chan, “Chinese Hukou System”; since the early 1950s, the Chinese government has restricted the mobility of its citizens by requiring that households register their residence, tied to place of birth, with the government. One’s residence and employment status in turn determine one’s eligibility for services such as education and healthcare. Initially meant to stem the flow of villagers into the cities and prevent high urban unemployment rates, the de facto result of the hukou system has been to create a great urban-rural divide that persists to this day. In the 1980s, the Chinese government began to ease restrictions and allow rural residents to travel to the cities in search of work, but they continued to deny them permanent resident status and the benefits awarded to local citizens. Still, workers flooded the cities. Known as the floating population, these immense numbers of migrants and their willingness to work for low wages have been the cornerstone of China’s economic development, earning China the title of the “world’s factory.”

CNNIC, 43rd China Statistical Report; this number reflects those who play online PC games, and does not even take into account the number of people who play mobile games. As of 2019, CNNIC estimates 56.2% of Internet users play mobile games.

CNNIC, 2015 qingshaonian shangwang xingwei; note that this statistic applies to youth with Internet connectivity.

The Chinese term wangluo literally translates as “network” while the formal term for Internet in Chinese is hulianwang. However, in recent years wangluo has become the colloquial term for Internet and I will employ this colloquial usage throughout the book.

See Link, Madsen and Pickowicz, Unofficial China; Zha, China Pop; Barmé, In the Red; Link, Madsen, and Pickowicz, Popular China; Wang, Locating China.

Wang, “Guest Editor’s Introduction.”

Wang, 4.

The Chinese government uses a firewall to block access to sites deemed politically sensitive. In China, bloggers and activists jokingly refer to this as the “Great Firewall.”

See Nye, “Changing Nature of World Power”; the Chinese government has embraced the concept of soft power and, following on the heels of Japan and South Korea, has been working to expand its pop cultural influence abroad.

Wetherell, “Affect and Discourse,” 350.

Wetherell, 358.

Massey, “Spatial Construction of Youth Cultures,” 129.

Foucault, “Subject and Power,” 777.

In practice, the college entrance exam is not as equal as it seems. Wealthy families ensure success by hiring private tutors and paying extra fees to secure admission to competitive college prep high schools. Students with Shanghai and Beijing hukous also enjoy numerous advantages, while children of migrant workers are often barred from attending the schools in the cities in which they live.

Rosen, “Contemporary Chinese Youth,” 360.

Rosen, 364.

Boellstorff, Coming of Age in Second Life, 7; Though it is often characterized as a “game,” Second Life is better described as virtual world in which individuals create avatars and, through them, live out alternative lives.

Abu-Lughod, “Writing Against Culture,” 143.

Abu-Lughod, 148–149.

Gupta and Ferguson, “Beyond ‘Culture,’” 50.

Jurgenson, “Digital Dualism.”

Golub, “More on Coming of Age.”

Ito, “Network Localities”; Kelty, “Culture in, Culture Out,” 11; Coleman, “Ethnographic Approaches.”

Coleman, “Ethnographic Approaches,” 497.

Coleman, Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy; Phillips, Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.

See Coleman, “Ethnographic Approaches,” 2010.

Haraway, “Situated Knowledges.”

Abu-Lughod, “Writing Against Culture,” 141.

See Taylor, Jensen, and de Castell, “Cheerleaders/Booth Babes/Halo Hoes.”

This technique is one that has been adopted by other anthropologists, such as Vanessa Fong and, preceding her, Lila Abu-Lughod.

A machinima is an animated film created through the use of in-game graphics.