Author Archives: Yue Zhao

Yue is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University. She is interested in the intersection of technology and embodiment -- how our bodily ways of being with technologies take shape.
Female "memory expert" recalling entries from China’s Xinhua Dictionary during the 1989 Spring Festival Gala hosted by China Central Television.

A Feeling for Information: Technological Potentiality and Embodied Futures in Post-Socialist China

One sunny afternoon in March 2024, I walked into a flea market in Chengdu, China — a labyrinth of book stalls, shadowed corridors, and a handful of solitary customers. The vendors were largely absent, or perhaps stationed on stools in darkened corners, their faces illuminated by the glow of mobile screens. Each stall overflowed with dust: old magazines, documents, books, and well-worn notebooks that formed towers of forgotten knowledge. I pulled one volume after another from these stacks, hoping to find archival materials about a forgotten episode in the history of information technology in China. For a moment, I found myself yearning for some extraordinary sensory gift that would allow me to scan and locate relevant archival materials in this sea of information with greater precision and speed. (read more...)