IL TECNO-DRAGONE: L’IMMAGINARIO TECNOLOGICO CINESE IERI, OGGI E DOMANI

This monograph explores the roots of the Chinese technological imaginary regarding digital technologies. It examines first the well-studied historical and cultural roots of the European (and then American) technological imaginaries, identifying the core nexus in the notion of the "technological sublime" and tracing its roots chiefly in Christian transcendence. It subsequently moves to examining the Chinese case by comparison, starting from the classical schools of philosophy and moving throughout history, identifying the peculiar, emotionally disinvested kind of framing Chinese culture tended to reserve to machines and technologies, until the turmoil started by the Opium War started a new phase. In this new phase, technology became the main tool for a transcendence of the Chinese nation-state and a restoration of its rightful place as a superpower; digital technology was subsumed by this élite discourse in the last quarter of the 20th century. To further investigate this notion book traces a history of Chinese informatics up to this day, with a particular focus on the little-studied period before 1980 and up to the internet maturity phase. In the last part, the book examines non-élite discourses by discussing the results of an empirical work done in Beijing about the narratives non-specialist people use to frame computer technology.