This summer, Berkeley Center for Chinese Studies’ summer research grant provided support for my research project on Chinese digital governance, allowing for a multi-day trip to the Big Data facilities across the Yangtze Delta region in Nanjing, Wuxi, and Hangzhou.
The fieldwork in Nanjing spanned across data governance infrastructure at municipal and sub-municipal level since 2023 (e.g. Jiangning/Qixia District Urban Digital Governance Center); data visualization and exhibition facilities and more “innovative” industry-oriented initiatives founded less than a year (Yangtze River Delta Data Element Roadshow Center, AI CITY Innovation Empowerment Center). At Wuxi, the research centered around the Big Data Center and the Big Data Group at the Wuxi Economic Development Zone. Fieldwork includes the Big Data Group components (e.g. Big Data Operation Co. and Lingxi Internet Co., which runs the city’s digital governance APP), data financialization initiatives (e.g. New Urban Computing Center, Data Asset Service Platform) and the Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer. At Hangzhou, visits included facilities under the Hangzhou Big Data Management Service Center and Big Data trading centers by provincial and municipal governments as well as Zhejiang University.
Throughout the visits interviews were arranged with retired and current bureaucrats from municipal and district level as well as in state-owned enterprise concerning governmental investment (municipal level) and development projects (mostly district level). At Wuxi, additional interviews were conducted with those digitally involved during the COVID-era governing infrastructures which latter would become the basis of current regularized version.
Further work in relation to the data infrastructures in the Southwest region is under planning with the help from UNDER THE CLOUD working group members. Part of the work will be presented at MLA Annual Conference 2025 under the title, “The Funeray of Big Data.”
- Zina Wang
Department of Rhetoric