Innovating the humanities, reimagining the future: empirical evidence from virtual reality practice in China

The influence of digital technologies on culture and the liberal arts is a global phenomenon. To contribute a non-Western perspective to such debates, this article considers the uptake of virtual reality technology in Chinese humanities education via the policy lens of a higher education reform called New Humanities Education, which was issued by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China in 2018. The paper draws on the concept of a ‘techno-cultural imaginary’ to show how the humanities and STEM fields have merged and have contributed to the task of national rejuvenation in the past decade. Drawing on interviews with virtual reality practitioners in universities and industry, the results indicate two ideological shifts in humanities education in China: The first is a shift from praising scholar-officials (shi) to praising academic entrepreneurs; and the second is from valuing knowledge to valuing power. The article argues that those being cultivated and nurtured in the contemporary Chinese humanities education system are expected to become pragmatic problem-solvers rather than critical thinkers.