Duncan Paterson (University of Freiburg), Dylan Suher (University of Hong Kong)

We are living in a world that has been greatly influenced by digital and Internet technologies in various aspects. Reading practices and studies of reading are no exception. In the 6th session of ReadChina's online lectures, Duncan Paterson (data manager of ReadChina) will address the value of new digital approaches (adopted by the ReadChina team) in the study of reading. He will then discuss the impact and potential insights from reading born-digital texts in contemporary China. The second speaker, Dylan Suher, will unfold his studies on “YY fiction” – a prominent genre in the Chinese Internet fiction. Not only will he investigate the outline, the origin and genealogy of YY fiction, he will also suggest a re-reading of the older, allegedly realist novel as a work of YY fiction. For both speakers, digital and Internet technologies offer more than a new field in (the studies of) reading, but can transform our overall perceptions on reading and on literary interpretation.