Poshek Fu
Biographic Data
| ID | 617934 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Poshek Fu |
| GIVEN NAMES | Poshek |
| FAMILY NAME | Fu |
| SIGNATURE | FU P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Shanghai Jiao Tong University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8468-8484 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The local mediation of rural cultural governance
This paper examines how rural cultural revitalization in China is shaped through the local implementation of national policy, development agendas, and commercial investment. Rather than viewing national policy as a uniform force, it explores how policy goals related to cultural protection, public cultural services, and rural development are translated into local projects. The study combines critical discourse analysis of major national policy doc…
From planetary to state-embedded AI stacks
Existing research has characterised data annotation as invisible and precarious digital labour, typically outsourced through global crowd-work platforms. In China, rather than being outsourced through transnational crowd-work platforms, it has been re-territorialised into state-regulated infrastructures and increasingly integrated into conventional employment models. Drawing on multi-sited ethnography, this paper examines how the formalisation of…
From cultural to toxic capital
This article develops the concept of toxic capital to explain how antagonism, derision, and nationalist outrage are converted into value within China's platformised anime, comic, and game culture. Moving beyond celebratory accounts of participatory fandom and predominantly Anglophone discussions of fan toxicity, it examines the 2024 controversy surrounding The Game Awards (TGA) as a revealing case of conflict-driven cultural participation. Drawin…
How I love and hate my idol
This study investigates derisive fandom ( Ruzhui ), an ambivalent practice within Chinese fan culture, in which fans simultaneously deride idols while remaining deeply invested in them. Based on 1 year of participant observation and 28 in-depth interviews, this study explores how these derisive fans negotiate their identities, emotional attachments and moral standpoints in the context of a highly commercialized fan economy and the moral governanc…
The manufacturing of (Un)stability
This article examines how content moderation, often framed as precarious and invisible labor, has become a relatively stable occupation for many workers in China. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and 21 semi-structured interviews, we conceptualize this condition as the manufacturing of (un)stabilit y, a “ possible but improbable ” stability that is institutionally produced yet conditional and reversible amid technological, organizational, and poli…
Contested and captured
Negotiating Between Individualism and Techno-Nationalism
Over the past decade, the maker movement has gained prominence in China, garnering attention from policymakers, scholars, and practitioners. Although several studies have explored the movement’s macro-level impacts on the country’s economy and society, an adequate understanding of the individual makers’ lived experiences, practices, and ideologies remains elusive. This paper addresses this gap by examining how individual makers negotiate and resp…
Homeless food delivery riders and their transportal home in Shanghai's lockdown
This article draws on the concept of “transportal home” to examine the intersection of mobile media, mobility, and place-making among homeless food delivery workers in the Shanghai lockdown. Shanghai's lockdown lasted from February 28 to May 31, 2022, and was one of the strictest in China, resulting in thousands of food delivery riders being locked out of their homes, treated as potential carriers of the virus, and forced to sleep on the streets …
Health tracking media and the production of operational space
This article examines the production of operational space amidst the rise of self- and data-tracking media, through the case study of the Qantas Wellbeing App. We draw on the operational paradigm in media studies to envisage how the Qantas Wellbeing App is embedded in the social-material relations between its users and the app, and the broader data-platform economy. By conceptualising the Qantas Wellbeing App as an operational media, the inquiry …
Reconstructing makerspaces in China
In recent years, the makerspaces and so-called “mass innovation spaces” (MISs) in China have been under heavy scholarly investigation. However, despite the proliferation of MISs and growing interest in understanding this phenomenon, the definition of MIS has also been a concern in this field. Meanwhile, there has also been a tendency to link these reconstructed MISs with the development agenda of the local creative industries. What is an MIS, and…
Love your idol in a 'cleaned' way
In 2021, a top-down rectification movement called 'Clean Up' impinged on Chinese idol fandom culture. This movement triggered discussions about the transforming governance strategy over fandom and broader Chinese Internet users. This article explores the complexity and shift of governance on Chinese idol fans by examining the digital fandom fundraising platform Taoba. Drawing from the walkthrough analysis of xiufen (fans of idol competition shows…
The Cold War and Asian Cinemas
Trans-Pacific Cultural Connections
The University of Illinois has one of the largest international student populations from China in the United States. An u.s. -based journalist recently headlined it as the “University of China at Illinois” and the sobriquet has caught fire in China. Actually, the university has a long history of connection and engagement with China that stretches back to 1908–1909, at a time when the United States was not yet a significant global power in the Pac…
Cold War Politics and Hong Kong Mandarin Cinema
Mid-twentieth-century Hong Kong entertainment business has attracted increasing attention from scholars in recent years because of its importance in the cultural development of the city. It was a time during which the film industry was dominated by Mandarin-language production. Cantonese-language filmmaking was in steady decline. With new archival materials recently available, this essay argues that the “Mandarization” of Hong Kong film culture h…
Projecting ambivalence
Constructing Nationhood in Modern East Asia
A cutting-edge collection exploring identity-making in East AsiaThis is an interdisciplinary study of the cultural politics of nationalism and national identities in modern East Asia. Combining theoretical insights with empirical research, it explores the cultural dimensions of nationhood and identity-making in China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The essays address issues ranging from the complex relations between popular culture and nati…
The Cinema of Hong Kong
The Cinema of Hong Kong examines one of the most popular, dynamic, and important cinema traditions in the history of film. Providing an overview of major directors, genres, and stars, from its origins to the present, this volume examines Hong Kong cinema in historical, transnational, cultural and political contexts. Individual chapters focus on Hong Kong cinema before and during World War II, the cinema of the turbulent 1960s, its rise to world p…
The Ambiguity of Entertainment
Recently, Chinese cinema has become a major area of research in the American academy. This is a significant move toward a multicultural approach to film studies. But scholars have focused their research on the cinema of the 1980s and 1990s, the period in which famous auteurs like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige successfully incited widespread enthusiasm in the field for their exquisite films of transnational appeal. This temporally delimited focus has…
Shanghai on Strike
Love your idol in a 'cleaned' way
In 2021, a top-down rectification movement called 'Clean Up' impinged on Chinese idol fandom culture. This movement triggered discussions about the transforming governance strategy over fandom and broader Chinese Internet users. This article explores the complexity and shift of governance on Chinese idol fans by examining the digital fandom fundraising platform Taoba. Drawing from the walkthrough analysis of xiufen (fans of idol competition shows…
The Ambiguity of Entertainment
Recently, Chinese cinema has become a major area of research in the American academy. This is a significant move toward a multicultural approach to film studies. But scholars have focused their research on the cinema of the 1980s and 1990s, the period in which famous auteurs like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige successfully incited widespread enthusiasm in the field for their exquisite films of transnational appeal. This temporally delimited focus has…
Homeless food delivery riders and their transportal home in Shanghai's lockdown
This article draws on the concept of “transportal home” to examine the intersection of mobile media, mobility, and place-making among homeless food delivery workers in the Shanghai lockdown. Shanghai's lockdown lasted from February 28 to May 31, 2022, and was one of the strictest in China, resulting in thousands of food delivery riders being locked out of their homes, treated as potential carriers of the virus, and forced to sleep on the streets …
Health tracking media and the production of operational space
This article examines the production of operational space amidst the rise of self- and data-tracking media, through the case study of the Qantas Wellbeing App. We draw on the operational paradigm in media studies to envisage how the Qantas Wellbeing App is embedded in the social-material relations between its users and the app, and the broader data-platform economy. By conceptualising the Qantas Wellbeing App as an operational media, the inquiry …
Shanghai on Strike
The Ambiguity of Entertainment
Recently, Chinese cinema has become a major area of research in the American academy. This is a significant move toward a multicultural approach to film studies. But scholars have focused their research on the cinema of the 1980s and 1990s, the period in which famous auteurs like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige successfully incited widespread enthusiasm in the field for their exquisite films of transnational appeal. This temporally delimited focus has…
The Cinema of Hong Kong
The Cinema of Hong Kong examines one of the most popular, dynamic, and important cinema traditions in the history of film. Providing an overview of major directors, genres, and stars, from its origins to the present, this volume examines Hong Kong cinema in historical, transnational, cultural and political contexts. Individual chapters focus on Hong Kong cinema before and during World War II, the cinema of the turbulent 1960s, its rise to world p…
Constructing Nationhood in Modern East Asia
A cutting-edge collection exploring identity-making in East AsiaThis is an interdisciplinary study of the cultural politics of nationalism and national identities in modern East Asia. Combining theoretical insights with empirical research, it explores the cultural dimensions of nationhood and identity-making in China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The essays address issues ranging from the complex relations between popular culture and nati…
Projecting ambivalence
Cold War Politics and Hong Kong Mandarin Cinema
Mid-twentieth-century Hong Kong entertainment business has attracted increasing attention from scholars in recent years because of its importance in the cultural development of the city. It was a time during which the film industry was dominated by Mandarin-language production. Cantonese-language filmmaking was in steady decline. With new archival materials recently available, this essay argues that the “Mandarization” of Hong Kong film culture h…
Trans-Pacific Cultural Connections
The University of Illinois has one of the largest international student populations from China in the United States. An u.s. -based journalist recently headlined it as the “University of China at Illinois” and the sobriquet has caught fire in China. Actually, the university has a long history of connection and engagement with China that stretches back to 1908–1909, at a time when the United States was not yet a significant global power in the Pac…
The Cold War and Asian Cinemas
Reconstructing makerspaces in China
In recent years, the makerspaces and so-called “mass innovation spaces” (MISs) in China have been under heavy scholarly investigation. However, despite the proliferation of MISs and growing interest in understanding this phenomenon, the definition of MIS has also been a concern in this field. Meanwhile, there has also been a tendency to link these reconstructed MISs with the development agenda of the local creative industries. What is an MIS, and…
Love your idol in a 'cleaned' way
In 2021, a top-down rectification movement called 'Clean Up' impinged on Chinese idol fandom culture. This movement triggered discussions about the transforming governance strategy over fandom and broader Chinese Internet users. This article explores the complexity and shift of governance on Chinese idol fans by examining the digital fandom fundraising platform Taoba. Drawing from the walkthrough analysis of xiufen (fans of idol competition shows…
Homeless food delivery riders and their transportal home in Shanghai's lockdown
This article draws on the concept of “transportal home” to examine the intersection of mobile media, mobility, and place-making among homeless food delivery workers in the Shanghai lockdown. Shanghai's lockdown lasted from February 28 to May 31, 2022, and was one of the strictest in China, resulting in thousands of food delivery riders being locked out of their homes, treated as potential carriers of the virus, and forced to sleep on the streets …
Health tracking media and the production of operational space
This article examines the production of operational space amidst the rise of self- and data-tracking media, through the case study of the Qantas Wellbeing App. We draw on the operational paradigm in media studies to envisage how the Qantas Wellbeing App is embedded in the social-material relations between its users and the app, and the broader data-platform economy. By conceptualising the Qantas Wellbeing App as an operational media, the inquiry …
Negotiating Between Individualism and Techno-Nationalism
Over the past decade, the maker movement has gained prominence in China, garnering attention from policymakers, scholars, and practitioners. Although several studies have explored the movement’s macro-level impacts on the country’s economy and society, an adequate understanding of the individual makers’ lived experiences, practices, and ideologies remains elusive. This paper addresses this gap by examining how individual makers negotiate and resp…
Contested and captured
The local mediation of rural cultural governance
This paper examines how rural cultural revitalization in China is shaped through the local implementation of national policy, development agendas, and commercial investment. Rather than viewing national policy as a uniform force, it explores how policy goals related to cultural protection, public cultural services, and rural development are translated into local projects. The study combines critical discourse analysis of major national policy doc…
From planetary to state-embedded AI stacks
Existing research has characterised data annotation as invisible and precarious digital labour, typically outsourced through global crowd-work platforms. In China, rather than being outsourced through transnational crowd-work platforms, it has been re-territorialised into state-regulated infrastructures and increasingly integrated into conventional employment models. Drawing on multi-sited ethnography, this paper examines how the formalisation of…
From cultural to toxic capital
This article develops the concept of toxic capital to explain how antagonism, derision, and nationalist outrage are converted into value within China's platformised anime, comic, and game culture. Moving beyond celebratory accounts of participatory fandom and predominantly Anglophone discussions of fan toxicity, it examines the 2024 controversy surrounding The Game Awards (TGA) as a revealing case of conflict-driven cultural participation. Drawin…
How I love and hate my idol
This study investigates derisive fandom ( Ruzhui ), an ambivalent practice within Chinese fan culture, in which fans simultaneously deride idols while remaining deeply invested in them. Based on 1 year of participant observation and 28 in-depth interviews, this study explores how these derisive fans negotiate their identities, emotional attachments and moral standpoints in the context of a highly commercialized fan economy and the moral governanc…
The manufacturing of (Un)stability
This article examines how content moderation, often framed as precarious and invisible labor, has become a relatively stable occupation for many workers in China. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and 21 semi-structured interviews, we conceptualize this condition as the manufacturing of (un)stabilit y, a “ possible but improbable ” stability that is institutionally produced yet conditional and reversible amid technological, organizational, and poli…
Political science (10 works) · China (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Asian Culture and Media Studies (6 works) · History (6 works) · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance (5 works) · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics (5 works) · Corporate governance (4 works)