Wanghong (Internet Fame) and Speculative Investment Cycles: Human and spatial investment in the wanghong economy

Who: Dr Carwyn Morris

When: 5 May 2026, 2-3:30pm

Where: TLC039

Wanghong (Internet Fame) and Speculative Investment Cycles: Human and spatial investment in the wanghong economy

Abstract: Building on emerging research on wanghong, understood as a more-than-human form of fame emerging on the internet as it relates to China, this talk examines the ways in which wanghong functions as a form of speculative investment, for both humans and spatial environments. Scholarship on wanghong urbanism (Zhang et al., 2022) has highlighted how urban-digital feedback loops occur that drive the consumption and expansion of wanghong places, aesthetics, and practices across spatial environments. In its more human form, the internet famous person (influencer) invests labour in the idea of their fame and profit associated with it, while those who desire to be wanghong engage in speculative labour practices. To better understand this, we first propose a framework for understanding how wanghong-led speculative investment functions, the relationship to attention, and what role different forms of capital play in this process. We then use cases from across ethnographic fieldwork, desk-based analysis, and interviews to explore the core dimensions of this framework, examining wanghong across Xi'an, Quanzhou, Shanghai, Dusseldorf, Paris, New York, the human body, and the social network. We conclude with reflections on the methodological implications of analysing wanghong as a more-than-human phenomena, including questioning what wanghong tells us about a globalising China.

*This paper is co-authored and collaborative, and it also includes the work of Chuchu Fu, Yidan Li, Chensi Shen, Bingyi Wang, Jingyi Qin, Haihan Cai, and Hualin Cao.

Speaker: Dr Carwyn Morris is Senior Lecturer in Digital Society and Geography at SOAS University of London. His work examines how social and digital technologies shape the city and vice versa. He is Principal Investigator of CHINA.EU, an ERC Horizon Starting Grant project exploring the impact of Chinese capital, contemporary culture, and technology on European cities. He has written on digital territory, digital sovereignty, spatial governance, contentious politics, global China, and wanghong.