FCCC Online Talk: The Assemblage of Social Death: Digital Vigilantism and Cancel Culture in China by Qian Huang

Online visibility has been increasingly weaponized to cause individuals’ “social death” (unrepairable damage to one’s reputation within a community/society) when perceived transgression or offense is committed. This trend is illustrated by the rising phenomenon of digital vigilantism and “cancel culture” across different cultural contexts.  Focusing on Chinese empirical cases, Qian will present this topic based on her finished NWO Ph.D. project and more recent research. She will draw on various case studies to map out the dynamics among main actors/stakeholders and the public discourses about this phenomenon in China.

About the Speaker: Dr. Qian Huang is an assistant professor at the Centre for Media and Journalism Studies at University of Groningen. She obtained her PhD in October 2022 from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Her research expertise includes digital vigilantism, creative labour, and youth digital culture. She is currently working on projects studying how cultural workers and general citizens negotiate their identities and manage their visibility in daily production practices in contemporary surveillance culture and influencer culture, especially in transnational contexts.