Mapping Digital Game Culture in China

Dr. Marcella Szablewicz is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Pace University in New York City, where she teaches classes about digital media, popular culture, and moral panics about technology. She is a former recipient of a Fulbright scholarship and previously served as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Games and Culture and the Chinese Journal of Communication, and she has authored chapters in Online Society in China (2011) and China’s Contested Internet (2015). You may follow her on Twitter @MSzabs or on her website, www.feiyaowan.com.

“The book is a great contribution to the ever-expanding series of books on video games in general, and it is an important book for every researcher, since it helps broaden their horizons. After reading this book, you will see China differently.” (Mária Koscelníková, Acta Ludologica, Vol. 3 (1), 2020)

• 1. Introduction: Mapping China's Digital Gaming Culture.- 2. Internet Cafés: Nostalgia, Sociality, and Stigma.- 3. Spiritual Opium: The Internet Addiction Panic and the Spiritually Ailing Nation.- 4. Patriotic Leisure: Games, Esports, and the Discourse of Productivity.- 5. Carving out a Spiritual Homeland.- 6. "Losers" Acting "Gay": Internet Slang, Memes, and Affective Intensities.- 7. Conclusion: Mainstreaming and Marginalizing Digital Games.