Dr. Yichen Rao is Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University. He holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology and Science and Technology Studies from The University of Hong Kong and has held research fellowships at MIT, University of Michigan, and the University of Vienna. From 2024 to 2027, he serves as the council member for the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S). He is also the board member of Sci-Tech Asia. 

Rao’s research and advisory fields include the social impacts of digital technologies and how to improve people’s digital wellbeing in culturally sustainable ways. He also studies the global impact of Chinese digital capitals.  His ethnographic fieldwork has examined China’s treatment camps for youth internet addiction, gaming, and e-sports industry, fintech platforms and Ponzi schemes, and data infrastructure. He has also studied digital debt collection and the cultural phenomenon of Animal Crossing during the pandemic. He is developing a research project on digital scams, particularly “pig-butchering scams”, in global China.

Research interests

• Chinese (global) digital capital
• Fin-tech
• Gaming
• Digital wellbeing
• Data infrastructure
• Scams
• Ponzi schemes