Virus alert! If you received an email about "BBQ weekend" invitation, it was NOT sent by me. Don't open the link in the email.

We are thrilled to issue the call for applications (global.upenn.edu/future-of-us...) for our fourth fellowship cohort, made possible by generous support from @carnegie.org and the Henry Luce Foundation. Applications are due March 17.

Excited to give a talk on brokerage in feminist movments next week at the Center for Korean Studies. I will also be exploring the implications of networked leadership on algormithmically curated and creator-centric platforms based on my book project. korea.sas.upenn.edu/events/broke...

Six years ago today, Wuhan started its 76-day lockdown. So close yet so far

Our volume “The Digitalisation of Memory Practices in China: Contesting the Curating State” with fantastic chapters about the intersection of digital technologies & memory politics in China is freely accessible. It introduces new ways to study heritage and memory struggles in authoritarian states.

While big tech and market forces get much of the blame for the decline of news media, Professor Barbie Zelizer makes the bold claim in her new book that problematic journalistic practices that became entrenched during the Cold War are responsible for the current issues facing journalism:

An IAMCR-sponsored online launch of East Asian Media Culture on Jan 29. Registration required: iamcr.org/webinars/eas... @cdcspenn.bsky.social

23rd China Internet Conference, June 22-23, 2026 @ China Institute, Univ of Alberta. Cara Wallis & I'll give keynotes. My topic is “Of earthy flavor and AI flavor: On distinguishing flavors in an age of cyber artificiality and uncertainty." Nice funding for students www.ualberta.ca/en/china-ins...

We are thrilled to announce the Fellows of the Transpacific and Asian Dialogue on China, a new initiative designed to contribute to policy deliberations across the Asia-Pacific region over the novel & complex challenges posed by China’s rise. Read more at: global.upenn.edu/future-of-us...

As media institutions lose their funding, Dean Sarah Banet-Weiser invited professors @victorpickard.bsky.social and Duncan Watts (@csspenn.bsky.social) to discuss the role of journalism in our democracy. Listen to Annenberg Conversations on your favorite podcast app, or visit our website.

I'm happy to see that the Modern Chinese Literature and Culture blog at Ohio State U picked up and re-posted this essay by @asc.upenn.edu u.osu.edu/mclc/2025/12...

Grateful to our awesome in-house writer Hailey Reissman for writing up this story. Just in time to mark the sixth anniversary of the COVID outbreak

The latest research publications from Arts & Sciences includes Hardeep Dhillon of History writing about immigration, Xin Sun of Biology on nitrite accumulation in marine oxygen minimum zones, and Guobin Yang of Sociology and Communication on genre borrowing in Chinese digital culture. @upenn.edu

Glad to see @sas.upenn.edu Omnia’s new Research Roundup captures my recent article on genre borrowing practices in Chinese digital culture, together with two other fascinating projects by @sas.upenn.edu faculty omnia.sas.upenn.edu/story/resear... @cdcspenn.bsky.social

I had a lot of fun talking about my @ucpress.bsky.social book on this @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social podcast! Thanks to Megan Finn for letting me chat about Silicon Valley, activism, and the book on mutual aid I'm writing now. 🎧 in your fave podcast app or here: newbooksnetwork.com/appropriate-...

Our position statement rejecting the use of GenAI for reflexive qualitative research can be found here papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Getting up early to catch the AI bird in Hong Kong. Conference info here: eduhknmsmcon.com

First day of #aoir2025! Glad to see non-English presentations (with English translation) and local histories on a panel about AI infrastructures

Excited to be hosting this symposium next April! Looking forward to a vibrant discourse on affect and activism 😎

In this piece on "genre borrowing" I study why netizens use Sima Qian's "arrayed biography" (列传) form to write biographies of Li Wenliang & how the narrative devices of this ancient genre align with the logic of digital culture. Open access! @asc.upenn.edu journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

#AoIR2025 is next week! Easiest programme to read on a mobile is on the Sched app: aoir2025ruptures.sched.com

Thank you Jeff for giving a fabulous talk! We were honored to host you!

Folks in Philly, don't miss @jwassers.bsky.social 's talk today at the Center for the Study of Contemporary China @sas.upenn.edu @upenn.edu cscc.sas.upenn.edu/events/2025/...

Excited to kick off my postdoc @cdcspenn.bsky.social @asc.upenn.edu with a colloquium on Monday, September 29th ✨ I’ll be sharing from my dissertation-to-book project titled, "Creator Logic-in-Practice: Political Content Creators and the Negotiation of Influence in the Post-Networked Era."

I have a chapter on Japan's TVer in this new volume on East Asian platforms and media, edited by Dal Yong Jin and Kyong Yoon. Lots of great work here by @guobin-yang.bsky.social, @hlynn5.bsky.social, @otomedoctor.bsky.social, and others. doi.org/10.4324/9781...

❓What Review Article topic are you most interested in seeing at Sociological Forum? Tell us more by commenting below! 1️⃣ Immigration/migration/asylum 2️⃣ Online qualitative research methods 3️⃣ Sociology of AI/technology 4️⃣ Academic Freedom 📊 Show results

“Good Vibes Only? How Affects and Emotions Are Mediated for Justice in Digital Culture” www.asc.upenn.edu/news-events/... @asc.upenn.edu @cdcspenn.bsky.social l

Paper alert: in one or our latest apers, #AndrewWirzburger writes about #reviewbombing on the game #platform #Steam, arguing that review bombing serves as a political tool while being problematized by Steam as social misconduct. Read more at journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Congratulations to Stephen Hartnett on the publication of his new book! msupress.org/978161186543...

CSCC @upenn.edu @sas.upenn.edu has a fantastic lineup of speakers for the fall semester, starting next week with Prof @yanlong-soc.bsky.social 's talk on her award-winning new book! cscc.sas.upenn.edu/events/2025/...

American journalism has serious problems. But how did we get here? @bzelizer.bsky.social’s new book 📚 How the Cold War Broke the News📚 uncovers the surprising roots of journalism’s decline and offers a plan to make it better. Pre-order now: bit.ly/4mqcr68

Here is my latest blog update guobin-yang.blogspot.com/2025/08/i-en...

Updates about some recent publications guobin-yang.blogspot.com/2025/07/july...

I spotted a few books! @linzhang.bsky.social @columbiaup.bsky.social #ica25

"Every chapter is a gem"! Lovely review by @guobin-yang.bsky.social of How Maoism was Made. "Weiner’s chapter... reveals the [early Maoist] state’s ethnopolitical anxieties and efforts to create ethnic minority categories." @aaronwmoore.bsky.social lareviewofbooks.org/article/two-...

In this review of two new books, I link to earlier report on Mao by @liyuan6.bsky.social & Xi by @eosnos.bsky.social lareviewofbooks.org/article/two-... @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social @asc.upenn.edu @jwassers.bsky.social

There is some talk about the revival of blogging. For starters, I've updated my Blogger site after almost three years! guobin-yang.blogspot.com

Amazing discovery! Thanks to a piece (www.hssonline.cn/homeNav?site...) I wrote for the Chinese journal Foreign Literature, I came upon a new publishing platform "HSS Online" launched by Foreign Language & Teaching Press in Beijing. It features instant AI translation of Chinese texts into English!

Exciting to have 2 interviews out this month with 2 great journals: one on Chinese internet culture in Spanish www.revistadelauniversidad.mx/articles/923... and the other on Communication as Translation in Chinese: cjjc.ruc.edu.cn/CN/Y2025/V47... @asc.upenn.edu @revistaunam.bsky.social

Starting now #UoWMEDIA50 @camri.bsky.social

#UoWMEDIA50 Conference keynote speakers are Payal Arora, @couldrynick.bsky.social, @linadencik.bsky.social and @guobin-yang.bsky.social camri.ac.uk/50-years-of-...

In January, I met @atasoyemrah.bsky.social at Warwick & we talked about our shared fascination w/dystopian fiction. This led to a productive back & forth on not just Orwell but also Huxley's relevance for the present. Glad to see it out in @uk.theconversation.com theconversation.com/nineteen-eig...

Guobin Yang, especialista en cultura digital, nos explica el panorama del internet en China: desde su origen en los años 90 hasta la actualidad, ¿en qué consiste la plataformización y el activismo en línea? www.revistadelauniversidad.mx/articles/923...

We are thrilled to announce the selection of our third fellowship cohort, seventeen truly outstanding next generation China scholars and analysts you can read more about here: global.upenn.edu/future-of-us...

This beautiful magazine published an interview with me discussing the internet and social media in China. The best part is that it's in Spanish, though I wish it had an English edition as well: www.revistadelauniversidad.mx/articles/923... @asc.upenn.edu @cdcspenn.bsky.social

Thanks!

#NewTalkAlert I'm thrilled to share that Prof @guobin-yang.bsky.social will be visiting Warwick AL to give a talk on #SocialMedia and #SocialRhythm. Talk will be hybrid. Please join us in person (room A0.23) or via MS Teams. Scan QR code for more. #LanguageCultureMatters

Have you joined our Facebook group yet? Our Facebook group is NEW and different from our original Facebook page. Join us there today! www.facebook.com/groups/17623...

THiS will hold its first Chinese Book Talk of 2025! On Apr. 22, 8:00–10:00 p.m. I’ll talk on my book, Authoritarian Absorption: The Transnational Remaking of Epidemic Politics in China (Oxford University Press, 2024). More info: www.thisoc.net/booktalk/boo...