Call for papers "digital identities in china"

CFP: Digital Identities in China, a special issue of Chinese Literature and Thought Today (CLTT)*
Guest-edited by Dr. Paul J. D’Ambrosio

From award winning science fiction writers to the most unified social credit system in the world and from expansive use of digital identification cards to pervasive applications of artificial intelligence in everyday life, China is at the forefront of many digital frontiers. As ever increasing reliance on digital technologies shape our experiences and mediate our interactions, reflections on how our ways of understanding ourselves, others, and the world need to transform accordingly.

Many Western analyses criticize shifts to profile-based conceptions and frameworks as lacking “authenticity.” Digitalized identities—including those curated on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok—are appallingly antithetical to the self-narratives that appeal to creating or discovering an inner self.

Chinese literature and philosophy offer rich resources for questioning the absolute centrality of authenticity when reflecting on digital identities. They thus provide exciting resources for and examples of how shifts to digital identities can be engaged with, reflected on, and theorized about. In this special issue we invite authors to explore digital identities in China from the perspective of Chinese literature, philosophy, or other related avenues. Comparative or more Chinese centered approaches are equally welcome, as are new research proposals or English translations of previously published papers (in Chinese).

Our preference is for an engaging, accessible discussion style that also retains research rigor.

The timetable is as follows:

-Send a 250-word abstract and a short bio to Dr. Dr. Paul J. D’Ambrosio (pauljdambrosio@hotmail.com) by July 30, 2022
-Notification of acceptance of abstracts will be sent out by August 15, 2022
-Full papers (up to 9,000 words) are due on February 28, 2023
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*Chinese Literature and Thought Today (CLTT) is a peer-reviewed journal published by Routledge. CLTT represents the merger of two forerunners of Chinese humanities scholarly publication, Contemporary Chinese Thought and Chinese Literature Today.