[Commlist] CFP || Global Media and China_Special Issue_Games, Play and Fictional/Virtual Worlds in China

*Global Media and China CFP *
(Follow us at: https://twitter.com/GCHjournal 
<https://twitter.com/GCHjournal>)

**** NO PAYMENT FROM AUTHORS*
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*Special Issue: Games, Play and Fictional/Virtual Worlds in China*
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*Guest Editor: Dino Ge Zhang*, Visiting Assistant Professor of School of 
Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. (_dino.zhang /at/ cityu.edu.hk) 
<mailto:(dino.zhang /at/ cityu.edu.hk)>_*
*

*Time Schedule***

31 July 2023, deadline for submitting abstracts;

20 August 2023, sending invitations to submit to authors;

20 February 2024, full paper submission;

20 May 2024, peer review reports sent to authors;

20 July 2024, final paper submission to Global Media and China.

**

*Submission*

Please submit the abstract to (_dino.zhang /at/ cityu.edu.hk) 
<mailto:(dino.zhang /at/ cityu.edu.hk)>_

Description

This special issue of Global Media and China broadly speaking 
investigates the emergent and historical ludic practices, playthings, 
and virtual or fictional worlds in contemporary China. The special issue 
is first and foremost grounded in previous scholarly work in the fields 
of media and games studies—for instance, the political, cultural and 
socioeconomic history of PC-based MMOGs and Esports (Zhang, 2013; Zhang 
& Fung 2014; Szablewicz 2016; Chew 2019; for more recent rise of mobile 
games, see Adams 2022) as well as an intellectual history of Chinese 
game studies (Inwood 2022; Liboriussen & Martin 2016). However, the 
issue is especially inclusive towards newer or marginal hardware from 
mobile to handheld to retro consoles, software from pirate to indie to 
platforms, play forms from tabletop games to VR games, and emergent 
(sub)cultures and underground gaming communities, as well as alternative 
histories of play and games (e.g. gaming histories predates the rise of 
MMOs in the early 2000s), and fictional practices of worldbuilding in 
digital/online as well as physical/in-real-life (IRL) games in China 
from the metaverse to LARP (Live Action Role Playing) games.

Following the exemplary efforts by Marc Steinberg (2017) in representing 
media theory in Japan, this special issue is set against the 
universalist impulse of game studies and media theory. We encourage 
meticulous case studies from local and regional contexts, theories and 
history of play, games and worldbuilding situated and emergent in 
China’s own media ecology, and intellectual reflections or criticisms 
from anywhere in between. The issue therefore welcomes a broad range of 
contributions, exploring both historical and new play practices, digital 
and IRL fictional/virtual worlds from the perspectives of the industry, 
intellectual/artistic practices, and player communities.

The topics include but not limited to:

- Intellectual history of Chinese-language game studies including game 
criticism

- play practices, literary experiments and contemporary art

- Local game histories from pirate hardware, console hacking, to 
paraphernalia

- Indie games and games development in domestic and international markets

- Chinese gaming platforms including both hardware and software

- AR/VR games in China

- Metaverse and Worldbuilding in China

- Impact of mobile games on everyday life

- Localisation of tabletop and board game cultures

- National and regional Esports cultures

- Let’s Play videos, Vtubers, and videogame livestreams

- Gender politics in gaming, but not limited to digital games

- Fictional worldbuilding and fantasy worlds in LARP (Live Action Role 
Playing) such as Jubensha

*References:*

Adams, M. (2022). Tech Otakus Save the World?. British Journal of 
Chinese Studies, 12(2), 188-208.

Chew, M. M. (2019). A Critical Cultural History of Online Games in 
China, 1995–2015. Games and Culture, 14(3), 195–215.

Inwood, H. (2022). Towards Sinophone Game Studies. British Journal of 
Chinese Studies, 12(2), 1-10.

Liboriussen, B., & Martin, P. (2016). Special Issue: Games and Gaming in 
China. Games and Culture, 11(3), 227–232.

Steinberg, M. (2017). Media Theory in Japan. Duke University Press. s

Szablewicz, M. (2016). A Realm of Mere Representation? ‘“Live”’E-Sports 
Spectacles and the Crafting of China’s Digital Gaming Image. Games and 
Culture, 11(3), 256–274.

Zhang, L. (2013). Productive vs. Pathological: The Contested Space of 
Video Games in Post-Reform China (1980s –2012). International Journal of 
Communication, 7, 2391–2411.

Zhang, L., & Fung, A. (2013). Working as playing? Consumer labor, guild 
and the secondary industry of online gaming in China. New Media & 
Society, 16(1), 38–54.

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