Shaohua Guo, Assistant Professor of Chinese
Summer 2020, Professor Shaohua Guo worked with two students to research the sociopolitical ramifications of livestreaming as an emerging form of digital entertainment in China. Livestreaming is a large and growing industry in China, and scholars have just begun to explore its sociopolitical implications. For the most part, this scholarship has focused on the performativity of those streaming and how streamers work to engage their audiences. Professor Guo explored how and why streaming has provoked controversy and created anxiety, while also fostering hope in society. Together with Harry Wolff Landau ’21 and Saraswati Vadnais ’22, Professor Guo researched and summarized recent scholarship on digital media in East Asia and the US, collected primary sources on streaming in both English and Chinese, and worked on translation for texts in Chinese. Professor Guo’s project furthers our understanding of the role of digital media in sociopolitical life and how diverse audiences engage with that media.