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China has been stereotypically perceived as a place of backwardness. However, the 21st century has been a transitional period for China to express its cultural power. This book explores how digital technology, in particular virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), is playing a role in China’s rejuvenation, especially in relation to cultural displays, performances and art exhibitions.
It examines how audiences, both in China and globally, respond to Digital China through digital immersive art. Drawing on the author's anthropological research and empirical studies on stakeholders and audience reception, this book provides a comprehensive understanding of transformative power of digital technology and its impact on cultural experience in contemporary China.
The ‘reform of the cultural system’ over the past two decades in China has fostered a techno-cultural imaginary mixed with the celebration of Chinese civilisation and advanced by digital technology and entrepreneurs. Such a hybrid imaginary influences how people view and consume digital immersive art. Much digital immersive art within China is thus viewed within the framework of modernisation, as the case studies in this book will show. Outside China, however, the dominant narrative of techno-orientalism prevails, constructing a different image of Digital China, a technocratic state.
“A critical book that contributes to our understanding of the development of digital immersive arts in China in tandem with the nation’s cultural policy. Zhao argues that while emerging forms of immersive arts have become an extension of China’s global cultural presence and soft power, they also highlight the contradictions and tensions that arise as these arts increasingly serve state propaganda.” —Anthony Fung, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
List of Figures; List of Tables; 1. Introduction: The Digital Sublime; 2. Understanding Digital Immersive Art; 3. Cultural Presence and the Rise of Digital China; 4. A Multi-perspectival Approach; 5. Dynamics of Digital Immersive Art in China’s Creative Industries; 6. Generating Cultural Presence in Digital Immersive Art; 7. Playfulness as the Illusionary Experience of Cultural Presence; 8. Digital Immersive Art and the Problem of China’s Soft Power; 9. Chinese Modernisation and the Futurist Arts; References; Index