ACLS China Studies fellowship awarded to Shaohua Guo
Shaohua Guo, 
Assistant Professor of Chinese, has been awarded a Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Program in China Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship, with additional funding from the NEH, for her current project “Liberalization of Cultural Space: Progressive Trends in China’s Digital Public.” Prof. Guo looks at the four most dynamic discursive spaces in the Chinese internet over the past two decades: bulletin board systems, blogs, microblogs akin to Twitter, and WeChat (a combination of WhatsApp and Facebook). By analyzing three prominent contemporary cultural modes – fun-seeking, trailblazing, and taboo-breaking – she contends that the entertainment-oriented online sphere has actually nurtured a diversified cultural public sphere that is open to constant contestation – including political debate that many outsiders overlook when they look over the Great Firewall. Prof. Guo will spend the first half of the year-long fellowship in China conducting field work and the last half completing her manuscript.
Shaohua Guo, 
Assistant Professor of Chinese, has been awarded a Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Program in China Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship, with additional funding from the NEH, for her current project “Liberalization of Cultural Space: Progressive Trends in China’s Digital Public.” Prof. Guo looks at the four most dynamic discursive spaces in the Chinese internet over the past two decades: bulletin board systems, blogs, microblogs akin to Twitter, and WeChat (a combination of WhatsApp and Facebook). By analyzing three prominent contemporary cultural modes – fun-seeking, trailblazing, and taboo-breaking – she contends that the entertainment-oriented online sphere has actually nurtured a diversified cultural public sphere that is open to constant contestation – including political debate that many outsiders overlook when they look over the Great Firewall. Prof. Guo will spend the first half of the year-long fellowship in China conducting field work and the last half completing her manuscript.