Boredom, Shanzhai, and Digitisation in the Time of Creative China

Jeroen de Kloet is Professor at the Department of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and affiliated to the School of Music and Recording Arts, Communication University of China. De Kloet’s publications cover Chinese popular music and youth cultures. His ERC project concerns creative practices in China. Chow Yiu Fai is Associate Professor at the Department of Humanities and Creative Writing, Hong Kong Baptist University. His current projects concern creative labour, creative practices and single women. Chow is also an award-winning creative writer in lyrics and prose. Lena Scheen is Assistant Professor of Global China Studies at NYU Shanghai. Scheen’s research explores the social and cultural impact of China’s fast urbanisation, focusing on Shanghai and storytelling.

• Introduction I. Jeroen de Kloet, Yiu Fai Chow, and Lena Scheen We Must Create II. Eitan Wilf 'Creative China' and Its Potential to Problematise Western-modern-romantic Ideologies of Creativity Section 1: Boredom Essays 1.1: Anneke Coppoolse Create No More! Clutter and Boredom, a Hong Kong Prospective 1.2: Wen Cuiyan Combating the Boredom of Traditional Performing Art? The Case of Muk-jyu-go Interlocuting 1.3: Esther Peeren You Must (Not) Be Bored! Boredom and Creativity in Global Capitalism 1.4: Christoph Lindner Boredom and Creativity in the Era of Accelerated Living Notes from the field 1.5: Laura Vermeeren Evaporating Ennui - Water Calligraphy in Beijing 1.6: Li Hao Male Cinderella on the Small Screen in Mainland China In Dialogue 1.7: Yin Shan Lo, Kingsley Ng, and Kung Chi Shing 'Performativity' in the Age of Banality Section 2: Shanzhai Essays 2.1: Anthony Fung and Yiyi Yin New Productive Culture: Shanzhai or Second Degree of Creation? 2.2: Louis Ho Creative 'Shanzhai Labour'? - Leung Mei-ping's 'Made in Hong Kong/Shenzhen' 2.3: Xiao Yuefan Maoism and Disruptive Creativity: Shanzhai - an Alternative Perspective Interlocuting 2.4: Lena Scheen 'Isn't that funny?': The Unsettling Effect of Shanzhai Products 2.5: Stefan Landsberger Shanzhai = Creativity, Creativity = Shanzhai Notes from the field 2.6: Feng Fan Bringing the Chinese Dream to the U.S.A.: A Curatorial Practice in Art Education 2.7: Arjen Nauta 'Banal Creativity': What Does It Mean to be Creative for Hunan TV Practitioners? In Dialogue 2.8: Yin Shan Lo, Dai Dai, and Deng Chunru Two Side of SZ (Shanzhai & Shenzhen) Section 3: Digitisation Essays 3.1: Michael Keane Creativity, Affordances, and Chinese Traditional Culture Interlocuting 3.2: Chen Siyu Digital Payment, Vernacular Creativity, and Governmentality 3.3: Zeng Guohua Shopping 'Natural' and 'Local' Food as Everyday Resistance: Digitisation, Platformisation, and Online Retail of Rural Products Notes from the field 3.4: Liwen Deng Participatory Art On-off a Digital Platform - a Mobius Strip: On Cyber Nails in Curated Nails 3.5: Rowan Perry On-going Digitisation and Independence Chinese Documentary: A Field Report from Beijing 2015-2016 In Dialogue 3.6: Yin Shan Lo, Janet Fong, and Isaac Leung Digitisation with (in/out) Borders Biography of Contributors Endnotes Index