Short Biography

Yi Lu is a historian of modern China. His teaching and research interests focus on the history of information, material culture, and digital humanities. At its core, his work explores how information technologies – from paper archives to AI tools – change what knowledge is, how it is made and used, and to whom it belongs. More specifically, he focuses on China's twentieth century, during which propaganda, censorship, and secrecy served as key instruments of bureaucratic governance and social control. He is currently Assistant Professor of History at Dartmouth College, where he is completing first book project, The Dustbin of History: Making History in Modern China

Project

History of Big Data: Connecting China and the World

Once hailed as a democratizing force, the Internet initially promised an unfettered exchange of information and ideas across borders. This innovation, originating in the United States, embodied liberal values such as transparency and freedom of speech. In stark contrast stands China, which, through its Great Firewall and strict online censorship, exemplifies a restrictive model that prioritizes sovereign control over individual privacy and liberties.

This binary perspective is increasingly outdated. From TikTok bans to classification government data to the emergence of global tech giants, we see that security risks, economic development, and political competition have created fundamental challenges for all countries, irrespective of their regime type. Moreover, concerns about misinformation and the ethical ramifications of artificial intelligence highlight our collective struggle to manage the vast amounts of data that now underpin nearly every aspect of human activity worldwide. In this evolving context, terms like "free flow" and "sovereignty" have become politicized, igniting heated debates around the implications of digitalization and intensifying geopolitical tensions.

The political evolution of the Internet is occurring against a backdrop of shifting international relations, rapid technological advancements, and increasing political polarization and fragmentation. This project seeks to contribute to a critical history of big data by placing contemporary anxieties and excitement surrounding big data in China within a long-term historical framework. It will explore this history through three interconnected strands:

1. The evolution of extensive data collection systems by successive Chinese governments, leveraging institutions such as the personal dossier system, household registration, and more.
2. The initiatives of businesses to collect and utilize data in ways that exert control over markets, workers, and users.
3. The interplay between data and various scientific disciplines.

Overall, this project will examine recent regulatory developments in China as significant global turning points that are reshaping the transition between these paradigms. It will focus on regulatory frameworks and institutional changes both within China and on a global scale. By employing legal, institutional, and case-based analyses, the project will elucidate these shifts and provide a comparative assessment of existing models for the cross-border flow of data, ideas, and technologies between China and the rest of the world.