Date: 

• Monday 27 October 2025, 9am-6pm HKT

Location: Hybrid

• In person: Social Sciences Chamber, 11/F., The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus The University of Hong Kong (REGISTER)

• Online via Zoom (REGISTER)

Join us for a dynamic symposium exploring the transformative impact of decentralised technologies—such as blockchain, DeFi, DAOs, and cryptocurrencies—on global Chinese communities. This event will examine how these communities are reimagining networks, identities, and cultural practices through decentralisation, often challenging Western-centric narratives and fostering innovative, community-based models rooted in Chinese cultural and political contexts. Topics include grassroots experimentation, state-aligned visions of decentralisation, and the development of infrastructure, from mining operations to digital currencies, that underpin these technologies’ social and economic dimensions.

Bringing together leading scholars from STS, media, communication, and cultural studies, this symposium aims to deepen understanding of how decentralised systems intersect with Chinese transnational communication, societal organization, and historical traditions of decentralisation and explore their innovations and tensions. Participants will explore the ideological, infrastructural, and everyday practices shaping decentralised ecosystems, highlighting Chinese contributions to technological innovation and cultural transformation. This event offers a rich platform for discussing the role of decentralised technologies in shaping new publics, media systems, and transnational networks within Chinese contexts and beyond.

Symposium programme

View the programme (including agenda, conference abstracts and speaker biography)

Keynote speakers

• Ellie Rennie — RMIT University/ADM+S

• Janet Roitman — RMIT University/ADM+S

• Nicholas Loubere — Lund University

• Wang Jing — NYU Shanghai

Additional speakers

• Andrew Mak — Web3 Harbour

• BTB — Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong

• Fan Jia — City University of Hong Kong

• Gallam Jialin Zhang — Hong Kong Shue Yan University

• Helena Hang Rong — NYU Shanghai

• Holy Hoi Ki Shum — Hong Kong Shue Yan University

• Hou Jiaxi — RMIT University/ADM+S

• Huang Sunquan — China Academy of Art

• Liu Yahao — Beijing Normal University

• Mahdi Yousefi — Hainan Normal University

• Rao Yichen — Utrecht University

• Tom McDonald — The University of Hong Kong

• Violeta Camarasa San Juan — Chinese University of Hong Kong

• Yao Qicheng — The University of Chicago

• Yu Haiqing — RMIT University/ADM+S

• Yuan Yuhang — Beijing Normal University

• Zelin Li - Web3 Harbour

• Zhang Qikai — Fudan University

Co-organisers

• Department of Sociology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

• ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making + Society, Australia

Conference funding

• Faculty of Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong – Faculty Strategic Research Theme “Culture, Equity & Community Development” Internal Seed Grant Scheme

• ARC Centre of Excellence in Automated Decision-Making + Society, Australia

• Partially supported by a General Research Fund grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (“Value, policy and infrastructure: Hong Kong’s Web3 visions and experimental futures”; Project No. 17609024).

Enquiries

• socievent@hku.hk