Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻♀️
@chenchenzhang.net
migrant & researcher interested in politics and other things. based @durham.ac.uk
currently: digital narratives, postcolonial nationalism, the global right, China stuff. neurodiversity-affirming parenting. she/her. 不必等待炬火.
https://chenchenzhang.net
currently: digital narratives, postcolonial nationalism, the global right, China stuff. neurodiversity-affirming parenting. she/her. 不必等待炬火.
https://chenchenzhang.net
Pinned
Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻♀️
@chenchenzhang.net
· Nov 24
🚨new open-access article!🚨
what do drastically different representations of the Paris Olympic opening ceremony on Chinese social media tell us about competing narratives of civilization & transversal alignment in digital reactionary politics?
academic.oup.com/isagsq/artic...
what do drastically different representations of the Paris Olympic opening ceremony on Chinese social media tell us about competing narratives of civilization & transversal alignment in digital reactionary politics?
academic.oup.com/isagsq/artic...
Xmas is the time when you're reminded once again of what a horrible film Love Actually is.
December 26, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Xmas is the time when you're reminded once again of what a horrible film Love Actually is.
Reposted by Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻♀️
UPDATE: We may see the first time English is displaced as the most popular language among Bluesky posters as soon as Americans head to sleep tonight.
Japanese users were close to achieving that feat at 7 am Eastern Time, and their activity is increasing at an exponential pace. This is remarkable.
Japanese users were close to achieving that feat at 7 am Eastern Time, and their activity is increasing at an exponential pace. This is remarkable.
December 25, 2025 at 3:43 AM
UPDATE: We may see the first time English is displaced as the most popular language among Bluesky posters as soon as Americans head to sleep tonight.
Japanese users were close to achieving that feat at 7 am Eastern Time, and their activity is increasing at an exponential pace. This is remarkable.
Japanese users were close to achieving that feat at 7 am Eastern Time, and their activity is increasing at an exponential pace. This is remarkable.
An unemployment crisis has created fertile ground for companies to step in with opaque systems built on WhatsApp groups, middlemen, and bargain-basement wages. restofworld.org/2025/kenya-c...
The hidden Kenyan workers training China’s AI models
An unemployment crisis has created fertile ground for companies to step in with opaque systems built on WhatsApp groups, middlemen, and bargain-basement wages.
restofworld.org
December 22, 2025 at 3:10 PM
An unemployment crisis has created fertile ground for companies to step in with opaque systems built on WhatsApp groups, middlemen, and bargain-basement wages. restofworld.org/2025/kenya-c...
Full article: Civilizationism in the European Union beyond the far right: a morphological approach www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Civilizationism in the European Union beyond the far right: a morphological approach
Both far-right and liberal EU elites increasingly speak about the need to defend European civilization. However, research on far-right ‘civilizationism’ is more advanced because the term remains th...
www.tandfonline.com
December 22, 2025 at 12:24 PM
Full article: Civilizationism in the European Union beyond the far right: a morphological approach www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
oh my, will it really be 2026 soon? COVID was like last year and we're entering the second half of the 2020s??
December 20, 2025 at 3:41 PM
oh my, will it really be 2026 soon? COVID was like last year and we're entering the second half of the 2020s??
ghost stories for Christmas? I translated another of my old blog post - mum's ghost stories. It turns out they were about girls who died wronged, killed by poverty and patriarchy, and whose misfortunes cast long shadows in the hearts of the girls who survived
chenchenzhang.net/2025/12/20/m...
chenchenzhang.net/2025/12/20/m...
My mother’s ghost stories
When I began to listen carefully to my mother’s ghost stories, I found out that they were all about girls who died wronged, killed by poverty and patriarchy, and whose misfortunes cast long s…
chenchenzhang.net
December 20, 2025 at 10:42 AM
ghost stories for Christmas? I translated another of my old blog post - mum's ghost stories. It turns out they were about girls who died wronged, killed by poverty and patriarchy, and whose misfortunes cast long shadows in the hearts of the girls who survived
chenchenzhang.net/2025/12/20/m...
chenchenzhang.net/2025/12/20/m...
Reposted by Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻♀️
“The shackling of prisoners while in hospital, even when using toilet facilities, is something I have never seen before in my medical career.” The treatment of five hunger strikers has prompted more than 800 health workers to speak out. Read more:
‘The British state will let them rot in a prison and die’: The Palestine Action supporters on hunger strike
Five people being held on remand are in a critical state, after protesting prison conditions. The government has chosen not to engage
www.prospectmagazine.co.uk
December 20, 2025 at 7:07 AM
“The shackling of prisoners while in hospital, even when using toilet facilities, is something I have never seen before in my medical career.” The treatment of five hunger strikers has prompted more than 800 health workers to speak out. Read more:
Reposted by Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻♀️
14 two-year postdocs for academics of any nationality who cannot continue their research due to US politics. Do share if you know of such.
Post-doc positions:
"Academic freedom is under pressure today. This requires rescue havens of free research. ... [we] invite early career researchers, whose work is restricted due to political pressure in the USA..."
uni-freiburg.de/frias/call-f...
"Academic freedom is under pressure today. This requires rescue havens of free research. ... [we] invite early career researchers, whose work is restricted due to political pressure in the USA..."
uni-freiburg.de/frias/call-f...
Call for Applications: Early Career Rescue Fellowship – Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies
uni-freiburg.de
December 19, 2025 at 5:19 PM
14 two-year postdocs for academics of any nationality who cannot continue their research due to US politics. Do share if you know of such.
oh yes, AI slop not only ruins writing, but also reading. "When you spend enough time around A.I.-generated text, you start to develop a novel form of paranoia." too much stuff feels like AI written; you can't help noticing and you can't prove either.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/m...
Why Does A.I. Write Like … That?
www.nytimes.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:24 PM
oh yes, AI slop not only ruins writing, but also reading. "When you spend enough time around A.I.-generated text, you start to develop a novel form of paranoia." too much stuff feels like AI written; you can't help noticing and you can't prove either.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/m...
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/m...
"refusing is actually the more hopeful, expansive vision of the future than the one that is telling us that the future is already settled and decided".
"This promise of an AI future, is really just a collective anxiety that wealthy people have about how well they're gonna be able to control us in the future."
- @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit.
Incredible words.
Listen to all of it!
- @tressiemcphd.bsky.social with an absolute mic drop moment about AI bullshit.
Incredible words.
Listen to all of it!
December 19, 2025 at 4:33 PM
"refusing is actually the more hopeful, expansive vision of the future than the one that is telling us that the future is already settled and decided".
I can't stress enough how weird this book is. written by a couple, there's an entire chapter on "nighttime hierarchies" that supposedly "add color and joy" to life.
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Just Hierarchy
A trenchant defense of hierarchy in different spheres of our lives, from the personal to the political
press.princeton.edu
December 19, 2025 at 2:30 PM
I can't stress enough how weird this book is. written by a couple, there's an entire chapter on "nighttime hierarchies" that supposedly "add color and joy" to life.
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Reposted by Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻♀️
Help us send 2,000 books to readers who are incarcerated this winter through our Books Not Bars program
Books Not Bars For The Holidays
Haymarket Books is committed to making our books available for free to people who are incarcerated.
In an effort to support those inside who are dealing with the immense violence of the prison syste...
haymarketbooks.app.neoncrm.com
December 18, 2025 at 11:23 PM
Help us send 2,000 books to readers who are incarcerated this winter through our Books Not Bars program
"re-civilization is undertaken by integrating aspects of one’s ancestral civilization with ultramodern innovations in both government & technology... perhaps the West & China could re-civilize together". the postliberals will surely be welcomed by Beijing
americanaffairsjournal.org/2025/11/the-...
americanaffairsjournal.org/2025/11/the-...
The Era of Re-Civilization? - American Affairs Journal
Westerners who hope for re-civilization often have a nostalgic view of what it might look like. They often seem to assume that modern developments, both technological and governmental, will simply van...
americanaffairsjournal.org
December 18, 2025 at 4:10 PM
"re-civilization is undertaken by integrating aspects of one’s ancestral civilization with ultramodern innovations in both government & technology... perhaps the West & China could re-civilize together". the postliberals will surely be welcomed by Beijing
americanaffairsjournal.org/2025/11/the-...
americanaffairsjournal.org/2025/11/the-...
Reposted by Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻♀️
Ireland has one of the world's highest concentrations of data centers. The expansion has reshaped the grid & deepened fossil fuel use. As the EU pushes to triple data center capacity, Ireland offers a warning, writes Louis Boyd-Madsen. Read our investigation with @algorithmwatch.org:
What Ireland’s Data Center Crisis Means for the EU’s AI Sovereignty Plans | TechPolicy.Press
Louis Boyd-Madsen traces how a model of unregulated digital growth has outpaced energy planning in Ireland, and why it matters for the EU’s AI ambitions.
www.techpolicy.press
December 18, 2025 at 11:44 AM
Ireland has one of the world's highest concentrations of data centers. The expansion has reshaped the grid & deepened fossil fuel use. As the EU pushes to triple data center capacity, Ireland offers a warning, writes Louis Boyd-Madsen. Read our investigation with @algorithmwatch.org:
Reposted by Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻♀️
"some will love this". who?
WOW! Major change being tested on Facebook
Some will love this. Many will HATE it!
Facebook is testing limiting the number a links people can share without a Meta Verified subscription
Some users will be limited to sharing just TWO links per month in organic posts, without a Mera Verified account
Some will love this. Many will HATE it!
Facebook is testing limiting the number a links people can share without a Meta Verified subscription
Some users will be limited to sharing just TWO links per month in organic posts, without a Mera Verified account
December 17, 2025 at 1:20 PM
"some will love this". who?
brilliant new paper. also thinking of all the X & Instagram influencers that go "there's no homelessness in China"
‘There’s no place like no home’: Progressive displacement and silent unmaking of homeless spaces in urban China - Jin Zhu, Jinwei Hao, 2025
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
‘There’s no place like no home’: Progressive displacement and silent unmaking of homeless spaces in urban China - Jin Zhu, Jinwei Hao, 2025
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
journals.sagepub.com
December 17, 2025 at 1:19 PM
brilliant new paper. also thinking of all the X & Instagram influencers that go "there's no homelessness in China"
‘There’s no place like no home’: Progressive displacement and silent unmaking of homeless spaces in urban China - Jin Zhu, Jinwei Hao, 2025
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
‘There’s no place like no home’: Progressive displacement and silent unmaking of homeless spaces in urban China - Jin Zhu, Jinwei Hao, 2025
journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Reposted by Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻♀️
in the same spirit
December 17, 2025 at 9:27 AM
in the same spirit
stumbled upon another Very Short Introduction that made me feel much more sympathetic with that French academic's reaction
December 16, 2025 at 9:55 AM
stumbled upon another Very Short Introduction that made me feel much more sympathetic with that French academic's reaction
love love Italian food. and as with all great food, it's "a saga of hunger, improvisation, migration, industrialisation and sheer survival instinct".
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
The myth of traditional Italian cuisine has seduced the world. The truth is very different | Alberto Grandi
The comforting tourist-brochure idea of what Italian food looks like obscures a story shaped by hunger, migration and innovation, says Alberto Grandi, author and professor of food history
www.theguardian.com
December 15, 2025 at 7:40 AM
love love Italian food. and as with all great food, it's "a saga of hunger, improvisation, migration, industrialisation and sheer survival instinct".
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻♀️
His name is Ahmad Al-Ahmad and we can all choose to highlight him instead of the murderers who committed a massacre
bsky.app/profile/impl...
bsky.app/profile/impl...
7News Australia reports that the hero who jumped and disarmed one of the terrorist shooters
His name is Ahmed el-Ahmed
A 43 year old married father of two
He owns a fruit shop in Sutherland
No experience with guns
He was walking past
He has two bullets in his arm
His name is Ahmed el-Ahmed
A 43 year old married father of two
He owns a fruit shop in Sutherland
No experience with guns
He was walking past
He has two bullets in his arm
December 14, 2025 at 2:41 PM
His name is Ahmad Al-Ahmad and we can all choose to highlight him instead of the murderers who committed a massacre
bsky.app/profile/impl...
bsky.app/profile/impl...
one thing that hanzi users like to do which probably looks funny and incomprehensible to non hanzi users is, mid conversation we'd begin to do this "air writing" trying to explain zi we're talking about (you can't spell it, and when it's not common radicals). and it works!
December 14, 2025 at 3:08 PM
one thing that hanzi users like to do which probably looks funny and incomprehensible to non hanzi users is, mid conversation we'd begin to do this "air writing" trying to explain zi we're talking about (you can't spell it, and when it's not common radicals). and it works!
Reposted by Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻♀️
In particular this part from around 14 minutes in, where he drove up to Dabancheng, the largest detention facility we're aware of and the site of a new prison large enough to hold 10,000 people. This is the first film I'm aware of of this place.
youtu.be/cI8bJO-to8I?...
youtu.be/cI8bJO-to8I?...
寻找新疆集中营 - 城乡随拍[5/8]
YouTube video by guanguan
youtu.be
December 13, 2025 at 3:27 PM
In particular this part from around 14 minutes in, where he drove up to Dabancheng, the largest detention facility we're aware of and the site of a new prison large enough to hold 10,000 people. This is the first film I'm aware of of this place.
youtu.be/cI8bJO-to8I?...
youtu.be/cI8bJO-to8I?...
Reposted by Chenchen Zhang 🤦🏻♀️
In late 2020 a Chinese man called Guan Heng travelled to Xinjiang with our BuzzFeed map of detention facilities to provide ground truth for our work - he provided the first corroborating evidence for many sites.
He escaped to the US - then ICE detained him.
www.wsj.com/world/china/...
He escaped to the US - then ICE detained him.
www.wsj.com/world/china/...
ICE Holding Chinese Man Who Documented Uyghur Camps
Heng Guan is awaiting an immigration hearing on Monday that could lead to his removal from the U.S. and ultimately land him back in China, according to his lawyer and a New York-based activist group.
www.wsj.com
December 13, 2025 at 3:17 PM
In late 2020 a Chinese man called Guan Heng travelled to Xinjiang with our BuzzFeed map of detention facilities to provide ground truth for our work - he provided the first corroborating evidence for many sites.
He escaped to the US - then ICE detained him.
www.wsj.com/world/china/...
He escaped to the US - then ICE detained him.
www.wsj.com/world/china/...