Generative AI, intimacy and subjectivity
Why can a conversation with an artificial agent feel intimate? I study recognition, attachment, and the sense of being understood by AI.
Communication and Media Researcher
I study what happens when AI and platforms enter everyday life.
My research follows the relationships people build with AI, the rituals they carry onto digital platforms, and the ways short video changes how knowledge is shared.
Communication, culture, and everyday digital life.
What I study
How does a medium change an experience?
That question takes me from conversations with AI companions to Lunar New Year posts on WeChat, cat memes, and short educational videos.
Digital religion and ritual
I look at what becomes of a ritual when it moves onto WeChat: what gets shortened, what circulates, and who is there to witness it.
Visual communication and platform culture
A cat meme looks trivial until millions of people recognize the same feeling in it. I study how images gather emotion and cultural meaning as they travel.
Nano-learning and short-form media
My doctoral research asked a practical question: what makes someone want to learn from a short video, and then pass that knowledge on?
Academic outputs
Publications and theses
From Whiskers to Myth: Affective Semiotics and Cultural Reproduction in Cat Memes
Visual Communication Quarterly
This essay asks why familiar cat images can carry shared feelings and, through repetition, begin to work like contemporary myths.
The Phenomenon of Individuation in Jungian Psychology and Personality Tests
Ricerca Psicoanalitica, 36(2), 437–456
The article compares Jung's idea of individuation with the way contemporary personality tests describe and sort the self.
The Duality of Archetypes in Tarot Cards
International Journal of Psychoanalysis and Education: Subject, Action & Society, 5(1)
The article reads tarot images through Jungian archetypes and considers why the same symbol can hold opposing meanings.
Enhancing Knowledge Transfer in Nano-Learning Through User Motivation and Satisfaction
International Journal of Environmental Sciences, 11(3), 301–325
A quantitative study of how content, visual presentation, motivation, experience, and satisfaction shape knowledge transfer in short-form learning.
Designing for Diversity: How Culture Shapes Nano-Learning in China and Europe
Universal Journal of Educational Research, 4(3), 277–291
A comparison of nano-learning design in China and Europe, with attention to visual density, interaction, assessment, and learner autonomy.
Perspective of User Motivation and Satisfaction as Key Drivers of Knowledge Transfer in Nano-Learning
Modern Academic Development and Promotion Journal, 4(3), 554–566
The article considers motivation and satisfaction as the main links between short-form learning and knowledge-sharing behaviour.
Chumaxian and the Construction of Subjectivity in Northeast Chinese Fox-Spirit Worship
Journal for the Study of Religious Experience
How spiritual mediation and relationships with non-human agents contribute to the formation of subjectivity in Northeast China.
Evolution and the Role of Media in E-Learning
IIARP International Conference · Bhubaneswar, India
A paper on how changes in media technology have affected educational delivery, participation, and access to knowledge.
The Impact and Perspectives of the Nano-Learning with the Short Videos towards Chinese Young Adults
Doctor of Communication Arts (Communication) · Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University
A PLS-SEM study of how short-video content and visual presentation affect motivation, experience, satisfaction, knowledge transfer, and learning engagement.
日中における男性アイドルグループ文化の発展・継続性に関する比較研究——UNIQと嵐を事例として
Graduate School of Comparative Culture Studies · Otemae University
A comparative study of male idol culture, fandom, media industries, and group continuity in Japan and China through the cases of Arashi and UNIQ.
Work in progress
Questions I am working on now
Simulated Completion
Can AI make us feel understood or capable before the slower work of learning, recognition, and relationship has taken place?
Digital Caishen
What happens to Lunar New Year prosperity rituals when a blessing, deity, or wish is posted and forwarded on WeChat?
AI Companion Culture
How do people describe a bond with an AI companion, and when does that bond begin to affect how they understand themselves?
About
Wanting He
I am interested in what digital technologies do to ordinary social life, especially the ways people seek recognition, form attachments, practise belief, and learn.
My research uses conceptual analysis, digital ethnography, visual and textual analysis, survey research, and structural equation modelling. I choose the method that best fits the question.
Beyond research
Outside formal research, I read about astrology, Chinese divination, mysticism, and religious symbolism. I also enjoy learning languages, story-driven games, fragrance, jewellery, and the small aesthetic choices of daily life.
Education
Academic training
Doctor of Communication Arts (Communication)
Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University · Bangkok, Thailand
Dissertation: The Impact and Perspectives of Nano-Learning with Short Videos among Chinese Young AdultsMaster's degree, Comparative Culture Studies
Otemae University · Osaka, Japan
Thesis on the development and continuity of male idol group culture in Japan and ChinaBA in Broadcasting and Hosting Arts
Sichuan University of Media and Communications · Chengdu, China
Contact
Get in touch
You can email me about research, conference invitations, or a possible collaboration.
s65584946023@ssru.ac.th ↗