Hi,

My name is Yedong Sh-Chen.

I study games, digital media, AI, and modern China.

I'm completing a Ph.D. at Harvard, and am getting a Professional Certificate in Game Design from MIT.

My dissertation, "Chinese Video Games: World, Object, and Artificial Intelligence," provides the first archive-based, transnational history of digital gaming in China and across the global Sinosphere, from the pixel era to the age of generative AI. It addresses key theoretical issues including world-building, artificial affect, AI ethics, and the politics of play, gender, and pleasure.

I'm also working on a side project to excavate the overlooked contributions of East Asian countries to the invention of computer graphics.

In my spare time, I help the Harvard-Yenching Library collect games.

I used to be a stage actor in China and off-Broadway.

Now I'm concerned about play and role-play in the age of generative AI.