March 2023 – What a wonderful news! The European Research Council has awarded me an advanced grant for the project ‘Resilient Cultures – Music, Art, and Cinema in Mainland China and Hong Kong’ (RESCUE). From the press release:
‘Resilient Cultures’
The cultural sector in Mainland China and Hong Kong is changing rapidly, largely due to processes of digitisation and platformisation. Platforms such as WeChat, Douban, Douyin/TikTok, Xiaohongshu and Weibo enable new forms of culture and create new audiences. In ‘Resilient Cultures – Music, Art, and Cinema in Mainland China and Hong Kong’ (RESCUE) De Kloet will investigate the resilience of pop music, contemporary art and queer cinema in a rapidly changing cultural, technological and (geo)political context.
Within RESCUE, De Kloet will set up a network of scholars, cultural practitioners and NGOs in Mainland China, Hong Kong, East Asia and Europe. To increase the social impact of the project, there will be several workshops, a podcast series, performances, outreach activities at major music festivals, participatory art projects, film screenings and an exhibition.
The research findings will testify to the polyphony, diversity and vitality of cultural productions in Mainland China and Hong Kong. In addition, De Kloet hopes that they will also inspire and lead to connections with other places in the world.
