one of my supervisors, michael keane, has published a new book recently.

it’s called created in china: the great new leap forward.

i must admit that i haven’t read the book yet. however, as a student, colleague, and respectful fan of michael and his work, i have no doubt this book will masterfully guide us through the mysterious and massive land of contemporary chinese culture and industries relative to the idea of creativity, something many of us are still finding hard to even draw a rough sketch of in our heads.

i urge you to grab a copy.

i thank him for his wonderful contribution to our knowledge, and he clearly thanks upstairs for his great talent and smarts ;)

m/c journal ‘mobile‘
- edited by larissa hjorth and olivia khoo

Feature Article
“Approaching the Mobile Culture of East Asia”
- Jaz Hee-jeong Choi

Jaz Choi’s paper provides a wonderful introduction to the culture of mobile
technologies in East Asia, focusing largely on South Korea, China and
Japan. She problematises the rhetoric surrounding technological fetishism
and techno-orientalism in definitions of ‘mobile’ and ‘digital’ East Asia
and raises important questions regarding the transformation and future of
East Asia’s mobile cultures.

out now.

recently got an email from Fay Sudweeks saying that my proposal has been accepted:

Proposal title:
Living in Cyworld: Contextualisation of Cyworld Blogging in Korea
Jaz Hee-jeong Choi:
I am pleased to accept your paper for the IR7.0 conference to be held from 27-30 September, 2006.

i didn’t get the “call for papers” email till very late, so it was more like a last minute “let’s get it in and hope for the best” kind of thing; so the acceptance came as a rather pleasant surprise :)

more than anything though, i really appreciated the feedback from three different referees. as much as i enjoy receiving encouraging comments, i enjoy getting some critical responses to what i do. one of the issues raised was regarding my use of the term “multimedia blog system” to describe cyworld. i do think that the particular referee made a valid comment when she/he suggested that cyworld should be categoriesd as an online social networking site along with MySpace, Friendster, and the likes. however, it should be noted that cyworld was one of the sites that first introduced the notion of “blogging” to koreans, so the term “blogging” in the korean context has different connotations or definitions to how it is used in different parts of the world (or the western society, if i could naughtily generalise a little). many koreans in general consider cyworld a blog system.

back to the feedback appreciation, i also welcome feedbacks on the personal level as well. i want my friends and family to openly give some feedback on how i am as a person. i don’t take negative feedback as a blatant attack (or try not to - sometimes it takes a bit of patience or a couple of sleepless nights in misery. but i get there eventually), but people don’t seem to feel comfortable offering or receiving non-positive feedback. doesn’t matter if they’re asian or not, but especially we asians are not very good at such exchanges, as we have a high contextual communication culture (apparently… yeah, actually, difinitely, although it’s changing). well, i’ve learnt my lesson over the years, and i tend to be not as direct now in expressing anything that’s not completely positive, but i have no hesitation in saying positive things. showing appreciation and love is not only a fantastically enjoyable activity, it is liberating.
genuinely.

anyway, if anyone’s interested, here are the AOIR conference details:

Internet Research 7.0: Internet Convergences
Hilton Hotel, Brisbane
September 27 - 30, 2006
website: http://conferences.aoir.org/index.php?cf=5