Abstract

Building on research conducted in China, Europe, and North America, this talk explores the idea of 网红 (wanghong) as a method for understanding a globalising China. It examines how wanghong offers insights into the ways Chinese capital, culture, companies, and technologies move, engage, invest, and consume globally. Through Xiaohongshu, the talk demonstrates that wanghong is more than just an online phenomenon: its spatially relational nature reveals a variety of “gaps” that Chinese capital, culture, and technologies are able to occupy and engage with. At the same time, a focus on wanghong shows that a globalising China is more than just capital, companies, and technology.

Bio

Dr. Carwyn Morris is Senior Lecturer in Digital Society and Geography at SOAS University of London. His research is concerned with the relationship between digital spaces and the city, and he has conducted research on wanghong, digital territory, migration, Xiaohongshu, investment, and digital mobility. He is the PI of CHINA.EU, a European Research Council Horizon project exploring the impact of Chinese capital, aesthetics, and technology in European cities.