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Paper short abstract:

Digitised ethnographies open space for collaborative learning and provide an alternative to established modes of ethnographic storytelling. The Peng game is an interactive ethnography that uses original ethnographic material to chronicle one day in the life of Peng, a young Chinese migrant.

Paper long abstract:

Digitised ethnographies open new spaces of collaborative learning and provide an alternative to established modes of ethnographic storytelling and publication. The Long Day of Young Peng is an interactive storyline based on the open-source tool Twine that uses original ethnographic material (fieldnotes, interviews, pictures and videos elicited through a participatory approach) to chronicle one day in the life of Peng, a young Chinese migrant. In this interactive ethnography, the player is put in Peng’s shoes on his journey from his native village to Beijing in search of employment. Through interacting with other characters, the player relives Peng’s first day in Beijing and familiarises herself with topics in the scholarship of contemporary Chinese society.

How is anthropological storytelling challenged by this multimodal media form? What does interactivity do to ethnography? Digitised ethnographies cast a critical eye on how anthropologists traditionally address their audience and complicate the various hierarchies of ethnographic storytelling. The Peng game works similarly to photography in explaining content through context, yet interactivity forces players to inhabit an unstable environment which interrogates not just their comprehension but their ethical agency. Should I send remittances home or keep the money to myself? Is it reasonable to break the law to fulfil my aspirations? In this light, digitised ethnographies place players in a so-called “ethical gym” where seemingly ethical or unethical choices are experienced as separated from their consequences.