I gave a talk back in Feburary of 2012 about one of my partiicpants (@hanunyi) who made global news for throwing shoes at the man known for architecting internet censorship in China. I didn't get a chance to post my notes about it until last week on my updates page. Here's the vide of the talk - it's essentially condensed fieldnotes with analysis in one. For more details read my additional notes about the talk. Here is the Chinese version: ［中文版 － 带着镣铐跳舞］
Read MoreWhen doing fieldwork in a new city, one of the first things I do is try to bond with taxi drivers. They make the best informants and have such a rich sense of the city's informal and formal layers. They help me create what I call "consumption maps of the city. I buy a big street map and hang it up on my wall. Then I try to map the following onto it:
Read MoreWhen I was in Beijing, I met with a well known VC. She retired from her work in the US and now lives in China managing a fund. During our conversation about investing in start ups, she said something that really stood out to me.
Read MoreI felt off today. Everything was making me annoyed.
Read MoreOne of the people I've spending a lot of time in my fieldwork is Yang Jie. I wrote about her a few years ago when I met her on the street selling traditional Miao clothing and trinkets in Beijing.
I've been touring underground tunnels looking for a short-term rental. This is the room that I've decided to rent. The room includes an incredibly dilapidated twin bed and a wooden desk. To give you an idea of the size of this particular room, it's as big as a large walk-in American closet and smaller than a queen sized bed. These rooms cost 350RMB/month. Some rooms have a double-bed or a TV, and those cost a bit more.
Read MoreWelcome to my primary blogging home for the next year! I'll be sharing insights from my next year of research on how non-elite youth are using digital tools and interacting with the physical city through these tools. Instead of waiting to read my book or hearing a talk, I'll be giving you small bytes of my fieldwork several times a week for the next year from pictures of my daily travels to quotes from interviews and previews from my field notes.
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