Kevin Ziyu Liu - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Kevin Ziyu Liu
Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 2024
This article examines the localization of digital governance technologies in inland China, with a... more This article examines the localization of digital governance technologies in inland China, with a focus on Guizhou Province, which houses China's first big data pilot zone. Despite the centralization efforts of the Xi Jinping administration, local agents are pivotal in policy implementation, particularly in regions far from political and economic hubs. Combining studies of policy implementation and concerns about the materiality of information technology, this research problematizes the localization process of digital governance. It introduces the analytical framework termed the "frame of locality" to emphasize the dynamic interplay between national digital governance policies and local socio-economic and cultural contexts, indicating that the resolution of implementation frictions in various ways is crucial for policy execution. With the case of Guizhou, the research uncovers an inherent contradiction: the local transformation of digital governance can be hindered by its own implementation processes, thus challenging the notion of re-centralizing social governance through digital technologies. This can both challenge centrally-designed sociotechnical visions and provide opportunities for more inclusive local resource allocation and for policymakers to reassess and adjust to local conditions. The study contributes to the broader understanding of China's digitization efforts by highlighting the significance of local contingent dynamics in accomplishing centrally planned objectives.
Journal of contemporary Asia, Feb 14, 2024
The research takes an infrastructural perspective and reveals how contingent alignments, includin... more The research takes an infrastructural perspective and reveals how contingent alignments, including the central state's initiatives, local government's role, and corporations like Apple and Alibaba, have come to negotiate, collaborate, and compromise in sustainable arrangements, and eventually bring about Guizhou Hub. The research shows that the grand strategies envisioned and supported by the central state are not enough; localising technological infrastructures requires key local leaders with business and political networks, and mechanisms of state-commercial complexes where intimate partnerships among governmental entities, state-owned enterprises, and private corporations are established, and mutual interests are achieved. This process is conditioned by a "frame of locality" and requires scholarly attention to a local perspective of infrastructural developments.
Global Media and China, 2019
Contemporary China owns over 750 million Internet users, and a short-video-sharing app named Kwai... more Contemporary China owns over 750 million Internet users, and a short-video-sharing app named Kwai has over 600 million users. From 2016 to 2017, when Kwai emerged as the largest short-video-sharing app and the fourth largest social media app in China, its major competitor Dou Yin was just released, and no other similar app could post a serious threat to Kwai. However, the emergence of Kwai to the mainstream public was tightly intertwined with a media discourse that established Kwai as a representation of rural China and low culture. Words like “vulgar,” “low,” “absurd,” and so forth were constantly used to describe Kwai and its users, and Kwai embodied a representativeness of rural and low culture that carries a taken-for-granted characteristic. This article unpacks Kwai’s controversial emergence and examines the power relations and cultural dynamics that were at play when Kwai was established by the mainstream media discourse a rural and culturally low. It interrogates the media discourse that constructs a regime of representation of Kwai, as well as how it contributes to the establishment of a regime of truth about Kwai, rural China, and rural Chinese. I unearth the seemingly natural condition of this representativeness and argue that Kwai’s controversial emergence from 2016 to 2017 signifies China’s rural–urban dichotomy, as well as a dominance of urban culture. I also indicate that we see a flow of this cultural dynamic from the physical world to the cyberspace, where the urban culture exercises the power to define and marginalize the rural.
The Political Economy of Communication, 2019
In order to demystify the complexities of the social media and surveillance systems in China, thi... more In order to demystify the complexities of the social media and surveillance systems in China, this article offers a case study of Tencent. It also discusses the historical context, political agendas, and cultural productions of the technological sublime that obscure the political-economic realities of China’s rapidly evolving internet industry. Tencent’s conglomeration is situated within the context of China’s social surveillance infrastructure as well as the historical development of science and technology. Tencent’s effort in content generation, comprehensive multi-platform connection strategy and ecosystem building encapsulates the construction of a commercial surveillance infrastructure that embodies a surveillance capitalism logic. In addition, this article examines the mutually constitutive relationships between the state and Tencent in the process of the latter’s conglomeration. In general, the technological sublime fabricated by various political and economic forces have hidden Tencent’s conglomeration, its entanglement with the state sector and the establishment of a commercial surveillance infrastructure. By demystifying this process, it is possible to depict contemporary China as a commercial-state surveillance complex, wherein the state and tech-giants like Tencent work hand-in-hand to engineer user behavior and public discourse.
Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 2024
This article examines the localization of digital governance technologies in inland China, with a... more This article examines the localization of digital governance technologies in inland China, with a focus on Guizhou Province, which houses China's first big data pilot zone. Despite the centralization efforts of the Xi Jinping administration, local agents are pivotal in policy implementation, particularly in regions far from political and economic hubs. Combining studies of policy implementation and concerns about the materiality of information technology, this research problematizes the localization process of digital governance. It introduces the analytical framework termed the "frame of locality" to emphasize the dynamic interplay between national digital governance policies and local socio-economic and cultural contexts, indicating that the resolution of implementation frictions in various ways is crucial for policy execution. With the case of Guizhou, the research uncovers an inherent contradiction: the local transformation of digital governance can be hindered by its own implementation processes, thus challenging the notion of re-centralizing social governance through digital technologies. This can both challenge centrally-designed sociotechnical visions and provide opportunities for more inclusive local resource allocation and for policymakers to reassess and adjust to local conditions. The study contributes to the broader understanding of China's digitization efforts by highlighting the significance of local contingent dynamics in accomplishing centrally planned objectives.
Journal of contemporary Asia, Feb 14, 2024
The research takes an infrastructural perspective and reveals how contingent alignments, includin... more The research takes an infrastructural perspective and reveals how contingent alignments, including the central state's initiatives, local government's role, and corporations like Apple and Alibaba, have come to negotiate, collaborate, and compromise in sustainable arrangements, and eventually bring about Guizhou Hub. The research shows that the grand strategies envisioned and supported by the central state are not enough; localising technological infrastructures requires key local leaders with business and political networks, and mechanisms of state-commercial complexes where intimate partnerships among governmental entities, state-owned enterprises, and private corporations are established, and mutual interests are achieved. This process is conditioned by a "frame of locality" and requires scholarly attention to a local perspective of infrastructural developments.
Global Media and China, 2019
Contemporary China owns over 750 million Internet users, and a short-video-sharing app named Kwai... more Contemporary China owns over 750 million Internet users, and a short-video-sharing app named Kwai has over 600 million users. From 2016 to 2017, when Kwai emerged as the largest short-video-sharing app and the fourth largest social media app in China, its major competitor Dou Yin was just released, and no other similar app could post a serious threat to Kwai. However, the emergence of Kwai to the mainstream public was tightly intertwined with a media discourse that established Kwai as a representation of rural China and low culture. Words like “vulgar,” “low,” “absurd,” and so forth were constantly used to describe Kwai and its users, and Kwai embodied a representativeness of rural and low culture that carries a taken-for-granted characteristic. This article unpacks Kwai’s controversial emergence and examines the power relations and cultural dynamics that were at play when Kwai was established by the mainstream media discourse a rural and culturally low. It interrogates the media discourse that constructs a regime of representation of Kwai, as well as how it contributes to the establishment of a regime of truth about Kwai, rural China, and rural Chinese. I unearth the seemingly natural condition of this representativeness and argue that Kwai’s controversial emergence from 2016 to 2017 signifies China’s rural–urban dichotomy, as well as a dominance of urban culture. I also indicate that we see a flow of this cultural dynamic from the physical world to the cyberspace, where the urban culture exercises the power to define and marginalize the rural.
The Political Economy of Communication, 2019
In order to demystify the complexities of the social media and surveillance systems in China, thi... more In order to demystify the complexities of the social media and surveillance systems in China, this article offers a case study of Tencent. It also discusses the historical context, political agendas, and cultural productions of the technological sublime that obscure the political-economic realities of China’s rapidly evolving internet industry. Tencent’s conglomeration is situated within the context of China’s social surveillance infrastructure as well as the historical development of science and technology. Tencent’s effort in content generation, comprehensive multi-platform connection strategy and ecosystem building encapsulates the construction of a commercial surveillance infrastructure that embodies a surveillance capitalism logic. In addition, this article examines the mutually constitutive relationships between the state and Tencent in the process of the latter’s conglomeration. In general, the technological sublime fabricated by various political and economic forces have hidden Tencent’s conglomeration, its entanglement with the state sector and the establishment of a commercial surveillance infrastructure. By demystifying this process, it is possible to depict contemporary China as a commercial-state surveillance complex, wherein the state and tech-giants like Tencent work hand-in-hand to engineer user behavior and public discourse.