Zhuhai, China, 19–20 August, 2025
The Department of Communication at Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University (BNBU) is pleased to announce the Interactive Narratives Conference 2025 (INC2025), to be held in Zhuhai, China, from 19–20 August, 2025. Co-sponsored by IAMCR, the conference will examine Narrative Convergence: Technology and Culture, exploring how emerging media forms intersect with cultural identity, technological innovation, and storytelling practices. Emphasising interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspectives, INC2025 invites critical engagement with the evolving landscape of interactive narratives in China and beyond.
INC2025 - Narrative Convergence: Technology and Culture
Submit extended abstracts to incbnbu@gmail.com
The central theme is Narrative Convergence: Technology and Culture. We aim to explore the intersections of media technologies, cultural representations, and artificial intelligence, and examine their impact on digital storytelling.
In the past decade, China’s video game industry has become a transformative force within the global digital landscape. From the rise of esports to pioneering innovations in game design and publishing, China’s contributions are reshaping how interactive media intersects with technology, cultural heritage, and narrative experimentation. Building on critical discussions of gaming’s socio-cultural impact, this conference invites scholars, practitioners, and creatives to interrogate China’s evolving role in digital culture through the lens of interactive storytelling.
We also warmly welcome submissions that explore these themes in diverse global contexts. We encourage sharing insights from various regions, fostering a rich, comparative dialogue on how technology and culture intersect in interactive narratives worldwide.
Zhuhai, a city at the crossroads of China’s tech ambitions and cultural soft power in the Greater Bay Area, has a history of cultural exchanges that dates back thousands of years, serving as an ideal intersection for this conference. Emerging technologies and cultures from different regions collide here, and innovations abound. Hosted in Zhuhai and organized by BNBU, this conference aims to foster critical conversations about games as sites of global negotiation: where local traditions, media technologies, and hybrid identities converge.
We seek contributions that explore how interactive narratives negotiate tensions between tradition and modernity, human and artificial intelligence, and localized creativity and globalized markets. How do interactive narratives reimagine the classics through cutting-edge technology and cultural authenticity, redefine China’s position in transnational media ecosystems? What might Chinese game design, with its unique fusion of historical narratives and AI-driven innovation, reveal about the future of storytelling, identity, and player engagement?
Special Panel: Black Myth: Wukong
There will be a special panel focusing on Black Myth: Wukong, analyzing its narrative strategies, cultural representations, technological innovations, and its significance in the context of both global and local gaming cultures. Papers exploring various dimensions of this groundbreaking title, including its use of traditional myths, historical reinterpretations, technical storytelling methods, and its impact on Chinese game development and international reception, are highly encouraged.
Topics
Submissions may explore, but are not limited to, the following areas:
- AI and Procedural Storytelling
- AI-driven narrative design and player agency
- Ethical implications of AI in culturally specific contexts
- Localized vs. globalized AI frameworks in Chinese narratives
- Cultural Heritage and Historical Adaptation
- Reinterpretations of classical literature, mythology, or history
- Tensions between cultural preservation and innovation in interactive media
- Case studies on mythopoeia, visual aesthetics, and gameplay mechanics
- Media, Identity, and Globalization
- Interactive narratives for soft power and cultural diplomacy
- Representation of Chinese identity in global gaming markets
- Comparative analyses of video games from different regions
- Creative Practices and Industry Dynamics
- Grassroots innovation (fan creations, like mods, fan fiction, cosplay) and indie game development
- Policy impacts on narrative design
- Esports, streaming, and participatory storytelling
- Humanity and Societal Impact
- Narratives of escapism, addiction, and mental health
- Games as fields for negotiating modernity and tradition
- Community-driven storytelling and fan cultures
- Special Panel: Black Myth: Wukong
- Cultural authenticity and mythopoeia
- Local industry impact and global reception
- Player communities and participatory culture
Submission Guidelines
For this conference, we welcome extended abstracts, with a suggested length of 600 to 1000 words, including a title page and main text. Only key references should be included.
Extended abstracts must clearly articulate the contribution of the work to the field of interactive narrative, highlighting interactive narrative as cultural, technical, and social phenomena. Submissions may describe completed work, work in progress, or research proposals.
Please submit extended abstracts to incbnbu@gmail.com
All submissions will be peer-reviewed. The title page should include the full list of authors including names, contact information and affiliations of each. Please ensure any identifying information is removed from the main text of extended abstracts.
Authors cannot submit more than two extended abstracts. No author’s name should appear on more than two abstracts.
Languages
This conference accepts submissions in English only.
Deadlines and Key Dates
- Submission deadline: 20 July 2025 (23:59 UTC+8)
- Announcement of results: 1 August 2025
- Conference dates: 19 - 20 August 2025
Conference Hosts
In a groundbreaking full-scale collaboration in higher education between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University (BNBU) was established in 2005. Situated in Zhuhai City within the thriving Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, BNBU stands as the first modern university in the Chinese mainland to champion a liberal arts education. BNBU is committed to enriching the higher education landscape and fostering students who possess professional acumen, whole-person development, a deep understanding of China and a global outlook.