Abstract

Amid the sweeping wave of digital technology across the globe, rural culture in China is undergoing a profound paradigm shift. This lecture seeks to reveal that the core driver of this transformation is not technology itself, but rather the unprecedented agentic practice of Chinese farmers as cultural subjects. Actively employing digital media, they are transforming millennia-deep local knowledge systems, emotional structures, and aesthetic experiences into vibrant cultural texts for the contemporary era. The lecture will delve into the core mechanisms of rural cultural reproduction in the digital age: the activation of subjects, the fluidity of texts, the crossing of fields, and the negotiation of meanings. Building on this analysis, it will further reflect on future possibilities: Can we—and how can we—construct a “digital rural public sphere” that embodies subjectivity, interactivity, and cultural depth? Such a sphere would enable Chinese rural culture to preserve its vital roots while breathing new life into global dialogues.

Speaker Bio

Yan XIAO is a Ph.D. candidate at Tsinghua University and a 2025-2026 visiting student at Harvard FAS CAMLab.

Event Information

• Free and open to the public
• February 20th (Friday)
• 12:00 – 1:30 PM ET
• This is an in-person event.

Please note

Advanced RSVP required.
The event will be conducted in English.