A prolonged journey: Mourning and digital resurrection in the Chinese context
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Universidad ORT Uruguay
DOI
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Abstract
En
1688-8626
1510-5091
10.18861/ic.2025.20.2
1510-5091
10.18861/ic.2025.20.2
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This paper examines the evolving dynamics of mourning practices within the Chinese context, emphasizing the role of AI-driven digital technologies in the resocialization of the deceased. Drawing on the concept of mediational performance (Bauman, 2004) as a key feature of vernacular authority, we explore how digital resurrection through chatbots and avatars mediates the relationship between the living and afterlife by re-socializing the departed. The advent of digital technologies introduces a paradigm shift, as the AI avatars replicate the deceased’s social roles, generating an uncanny presence that re-enchants mourning rituals. This re-enchantment is predicated on the sacrifice of the visage (the social role of the deceased person) ultimately producing the illusion of an authentic face. Such agency enables a digital resurrection of the deceased that, while providing an illusion of continuity, threatens the fluidity of cultural memory. In turn, this process shapes the dynamic interplay between past and present through algorithmic simulation, prompting a critical re-evaluation of how vernacular authority is constructed and legitimized.
Subject
mourning, digital resurrection, China, re-socialization, face, visage
Type
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
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10.18861/ic.2025.20.2.4112