Prof. Fan Yang, Professor of the Department of Media and Communication Studies at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, visited The Chinese University of Hong Kong for two months under the Visiting Scholar Scheme in Modern China Studies. The Institute of Chinese Studies was honoured to invite Prof. Yang to deliver a public lecture titled “From Mobile Phones to Drones: Shenzhen as a Media-Infrastructure Complex” on 16 January 2025 at the Activities Room of Art Museum East Wing. The lecture was conducted in English and attracted over 30 participants.

The lecture examined Shenzhen as a media-infrastructure complex that integrates digital and physical spaces while straddling the forces of globalization from “above” and “below”. Focusing on the production, circulation, and consumption of key technological objects that connect Shenzhen to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the world beyond, from mobile phones to drones, Prof. Yang explored the competing cultural visions generated therein that inform national and global futures.