School of Social and Political Science

Background

My thesis explores digital gaming among Chinese working adults who are overwhelmed by their precarious work but engage in online games every day. It examines experiences of solitude, spaciotemporality, intensity, and repetitiveness that emerge at the junction of their distinctive gaming practices and game affordances. It argues that gaming is an everyday technological means for these workers to manage their affective states and survive an otherwise unsustainable work life. Through the lens of work-play dynamics, this thesis reveals how gaming is deeply entrenched in the labour conditions of late capitalism, while providing a new framework for understanding people's intimate yet sometimes troubling relationship with media technology.

Teaching

Digital Technology and East Asia [guest lecture in Anthropology of East Asia] 6th March 2025

Social Anthropology 1B [tutor] 2024 – 2025 Spring

Dissertation Workshop (MA Social Anthropology)  [tutor] 2024 – 2025 Fall

Consumption, Exchange, Technology [tutor] 2023 – 2024 Spring

Anthropological Theories [tutor] 2023 – 2024 Fall

EUSA Teaching Award Nomination 2023-2024

Publication

Wang, Yaojing. (2024). "Ready player one: The world of online gamers who play multiplayer games alone" [Online]. The Sociological Review Magazine. https://doi.org/10.51428/tsr.jfkd8945

Conference Presentations 

Wang, Yaojing. "'There’s no Fun': Exploring the Duality of Fun among Chinese Working Adult Gamers". 24th July 2024, European Association of Social Anthropologist conference

Wang, Yaojing. "Tracing Iterative Concerns: A Method for Exploring Digital Experiences with Online Ethnography". 25th June 2024, The Royal Anthropological Institute conference

Other Research Outcomes

[Exhibition] "Gaming Anyplace Anytime: Space, Time and Mobile Life among Chinese Gamers”. (with remote contribution from Su, K. and Pan, C.) 5th - 6th April 2024, In ASA 2024: PeopleFest. At The University of Manchester.