Digital Media Book Talk

The book talk features two new books: (1) The Anthropology of Digital Practices (2)Internet Vulgarity in China.

The book talk features two new books: The Anthropology of Digital Practices (authored by John Postill, Routledge, 2024) and Internet Vulgarities in China (co-edited by Jian Xu and Dino Ge Zhang, Routledge, 2026). Following brief introductions to their books, the authors will engage in a dialogue on shared themes across the two works and respond to questions from the audience.

Speakers:

John Postill is an anthropologist specialising in the study of media, communication and socio-political change. He is a Senior Lecturer in Communication and former Vice-Chancellor’s Senior Research Fellow at RMIT University, Melbourne. To date he has conducted fieldwork in Malaysia, Indonesia, Spain and (online) in the Anglosphere and other regions. At present he is writing a book on digital media and culture wars in the Global South.

Dino Ge Zhang is a media anthropologist and Assistant Professor at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. His current research primarily focuses on socio-technical, aesthetic and affective dimensions of contemporary internet cultures/arts in the Sinophone world. He is the Founding Editor of the Bureau of Low Theory, a web database dedicated to internet culture and underground theory from China.

Jian Xu is Associate Professor in Communication, Deakin University. He researches Chinese digital media and celebrity studies using critical approaches. He is Editor-in-Chief of Communication Research and Practice and Series Editor of Asian Celebrity and Fandom Studies with Bloomsbury.