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Chineseness on Web3: Hong Kong and mainland Chinese collaboration in shaping contemporary Chinese culture and creativity
Author(s)
Date Issued
2025
Citation
Shim, H. H. K., & Zhang, G. J. (27 Oct 2025). Chineseness on Web3: Hong Kong and mainland Chinese collaboration in shaping contemporary Chinese culture and creativity. Symposium on ‘Decentralised Technologies and Global Chinese Communities’, Social Sciences Chamber, 11/F., The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus The University of Hong Kong & Zoom.
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
In recent years, the Beijing Government and the HKSAR Government have implemented
cultural policy initiatives to promote and deepen cooperation between Hong Kong and the mainland in cultural and technological development. China’s 14th Five-Year Plan aims to strengthen the mainland’s collaboration with Hong Kong and Macao in innovation and technology and to pursue high-quality development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The Hong Kong Cultural and Creative Industries Development Agency (CCIDA) states on its webpage that it would fund various Hong Kong creative sectors to organise exhibitions, exchange activities, and more in other Greater Bay Area cities or to co-organise different projects with them. These policy initiatives clearly highlight the authorities’ emphasis on techno-cultural collaboration between Hong Kong and the mainland.
This paper explores the collaboration between Hong Kong and Mainland China to redefine ‘Chineseness’ through cultural and creative development on Web3. Existing research often confines itself to studying digital art and culture in either Hong Kong or mainland China exclusively (e.g., Jin & Liu, 2022; Ng & Hu, 2024; Snels, 2022; Shum, 2024). Even when examining cultural exhibitions across different Chinese regions, the focus remains on separate contexts rather than on their collaborative relationships (Zhang & Liu, 2024). This paper provides a unique transboundary perspective on how the convergence of contemporary culture, technology, identity, and nationhood in Hong Kong and mainland China is reshaping Chineseness through Web3 technologies.
The use of the label ‘Chineseness’ occurs so frequently that its status remains untheorised and taken for granted. Chow (2000) argued that Chineseness is something opposed to Western hegemony and that it is used to establish cultural integrity in defence. The decolonised world needs to shift towards a new ethnicist stance by utilising cultural differences. Chow further argued that the examination of Chineseness cannot be confined to mainland China. The heterogeneous, ununified China presents an alternative force for China Studies. Drawing on semi-structured individual interviews and cultural artefact analysis, this paper examines several collaborative cultural productions between Hong Kong and mainland China using blockchain technology to understand ‘Chineseness’ on Web3 platforms. The concept of Chineseness in this paper is viewed on two levels: 1) the projection of contemporary Chinese culture, and 2) the Chinese creative labour studies through techno-cultural collaboration between Hong Kong and mainland Chinese practitioners on Web3.
The main contribution of this paper is to expand the Western ideological understanding of Web3 infrastructure beyond focusing solely on democratisation or decentralisation. By adopting a transboundary perspective of Hong Kong and mainland China, we examine how the decentralised Web3 technology provides a socio-cultural platform for the Chinese diaspora’s creative practitioners to reestablish their cultural collaborative efforts and reshape people’s perceptions of Chinese culture.
This paper explores the collaboration between Hong Kong and Mainland China to redefine ‘Chineseness’ through cultural and creative development on Web3. Existing research often confines itself to studying digital art and culture in either Hong Kong or mainland China exclusively (e.g., Jin & Liu, 2022; Ng & Hu, 2024; Snels, 2022; Shum, 2024). Even when examining cultural exhibitions across different Chinese regions, the focus remains on separate contexts rather than on their collaborative relationships (Zhang & Liu, 2024). This paper provides a unique transboundary perspective on how the convergence of contemporary culture, technology, identity, and nationhood in Hong Kong and mainland China is reshaping Chineseness through Web3 technologies.
The use of the label ‘Chineseness’ occurs so frequently that its status remains untheorised and taken for granted. Chow (2000) argued that Chineseness is something opposed to Western hegemony and that it is used to establish cultural integrity in defence. The decolonised world needs to shift towards a new ethnicist stance by utilising cultural differences. Chow further argued that the examination of Chineseness cannot be confined to mainland China. The heterogeneous, ununified China presents an alternative force for China Studies. Drawing on semi-structured individual interviews and cultural artefact analysis, this paper examines several collaborative cultural productions between Hong Kong and mainland China using blockchain technology to understand ‘Chineseness’ on Web3 platforms. The concept of Chineseness in this paper is viewed on two levels: 1) the projection of contemporary Chinese culture, and 2) the Chinese creative labour studies through techno-cultural collaboration between Hong Kong and mainland Chinese practitioners on Web3.
The main contribution of this paper is to expand the Western ideological understanding of Web3 infrastructure beyond focusing solely on democratisation or decentralisation. By adopting a transboundary perspective of Hong Kong and mainland China, we examine how the decentralised Web3 technology provides a socio-cultural platform for the Chinese diaspora’s creative practitioners to reestablish their cultural collaborative efforts and reshape people’s perceptions of Chinese culture.
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