Tech-tonic shifts

Li Shuang's 2015 photo showing her walking around in New York's Times Square on a snowy Valentine's Day, wearing a huge sign on her back that says, "Marry Me for Chinese Citizenship", is a case in point. In it, Li turns a not-uncommon prejudice held against single Chinese women immigrants in the US — that they date American men with an eye on securing American citizenship — on its head.

While social media can start, spread and perpetuate xenophobia, it can also help people find empathy and community. Chen Zhe's twin series of images, The Bearable (2007-10) and Bees (2010-12), tells the story of how the artist found an online support group after she started posting pictures of the scars she had inflicted on herself.