Jadeposting

Jadeposting is an internet literary phenomenon that emerged in early 2021 within the Remilia Corporation ecosystem. The practice involves creating stream-of-consciousness text with distinctive neo-orientalist aesthetics, characterized by grammatically unusual structures, rapid sequences of nouns and adjectives, and references to Asian cultural elements. Jadeposting developed as a performative literary game within Hot Pot (group chat) before spreading to public Twitter timelines and influencing later Remilia art forms, including Chineseposting.

An example of Jadeposting by Street Don, 2021.

Origins

An example of Jadeposting by Charlotte Fang, 2021.

Jadeposting originated in the Hot Pot group chat, a Twitter groupchat that served as an incubator for many Remilia projects and aesthetic developments. According to Michael Dragovic, a contributor to Remilia, the practice began as "playful banter on naming holding corporations inspired by the ornamentation employed in Chinese company names, usually embellished with auspicious nomenclature, name's like 'Dragon Wealth Ventures, LLC' and 'Great Oceans Holdings Corporation'."

What began as back-and-forth exchanges creating increasingly elaborate corporate names evolved into a distinctive literary form as participants distilled the format into performative soliloquies without the corporate naming punchlines. Over time, these evolved into dense, rapid-fire sequences of words that created a poetic effect through their accumulated impact rather than through traditional grammatical structures.

Format and style

Jadeposting is characterized by several distinctive stylistic elements:

Grammatical structure

Jadeposting typically dispenses with standard English grammatical structures, instead presenting sequences of nouns, adjectives, and occasionally verbs with minimal connecting words. This creates a staccato rhythm and dense concentration of imagery without traditional sentence construction.

Neo-orientalist vocabulary

The vocabulary of Jadeposting often incorporates terms associated with East Asian cultures, particularly Chinese cultural references. Common words include "jade," "dragon," "golden," "heavenly," and "tiger." These are frequently combined with references to luxury, wealth, and success, creating what Dragovic describes as "an aura of ostentatiousness and importance."

Juxtaposition of concepts

Jadeposting frequently juxtaposes traditional Asian cultural references with contemporary elements, particularly those related to wealth, technology, and global capitalism. This creates what Charlotte Fang described in "Six Precepts" (2021) as "future orientalism, synthesis of ancient mysticism and insect capitalism."

Sensory overload

According to Dragovic, Jadeposting functions as "an imitation of sensory overload" and "a white noise of pointillism which only carries comprehensible meaning when experienced all at once." This approach mirrors the information-dense experience of participating in digital networks, with meaning emerging from the gestalt effect rather than from individual components.

Social dynamics

Jadeposting emerged as a social practice with specific dynamics that shaped its development and spread:

Competitive performance

Jadeposting was often practiced as what Dragovic describes as "ritualistic literary combat," with participants engaging in impromptu competitions to create the most effective or impressive posts. Success was measured by peer reactions, creating a feedback loop that encouraged continuous refinement and innovation within the form.

Winding Stream Party, Kubo Shunman (Japanese, 1757–1820).

The Winding Stream Party Analogy

Dragovic draws parallels between Jadeposting competitions and the historical Chinese "winding stream party" (曲水流觴, qūshuǐ-liú-shāng), a traditional custom where participants would compose poetry while cups of rice wine floated down a stream toward them. This connection positions Jadeposting within a longer tradition of spontaneous poetic composition as social performance.

Timeline propagation

While Jadeposting originated in the private Hot Pot group chat, it eventually "leaked out onto the timeline where the more intuitive of the uninitiated onlookers could join in to create their own Jade Posts and further evolve the art themselves." This transition from private to public practice allowed the form to spread beyond its original context while maintaining its distinctive characteristics.

Theoretical context

Jadeposting can be understood within several theoretical frameworks that inform its significance:

Information density

Dragovic positions Jadeposting as a literary response to the information density of digital networks, suggesting that it reflects "the deeper resonance of Jadeposting and its reflection of a blossoming culture carries the motif of sheer density of information presented by the contemporary network." This connects the practice to broader questions about human cognition in digital environments.

Neo-orientalism

The practice engages with what Remilia terms "Neo-Orientalism," a deliberately playful appropriation and reimagining of East Asian cultural signifiers. This approach positions China and broader East Asian cultural elements as sites of both aesthetic inspiration and future-oriented speculation.

Network spirituality

Jadeposting connects to Remilia's broader concept of "network spirituality," which explores how digital networks function as spiritual and social environments. The practice's combination of traditional spiritual imagery with contemporary technological and capitalist references reflects this integration of the digital and the transcendent.

Relationship to other art forms

FODKORP's pray2god (2021).

Jadeposting has both precedents and descendants in Remilia's artistic practices:

Visual parallels

Scearpo draws connections between Jadeposting and visual art by Remilia-affiliated artists, noting similarities to "the works of Mara Barl and FODKORP in the I Long For Network Spirituality collection." These works share an "infodense" aesthetic that creates meaning through overwhelming detail and juxtaposition.

Influence on Chineseposting

Jadeposting directly influenced the development of chineseposting, another Remilia-associated literary practice that emerged later in 2021. According to Dragovic, Chineseposting "mimics Jadeposting's motif of incoherent translation in the perspective of the actual native Chinese audience," creating a lineage between the two practices.

Post-authorship practices

Both Jadeposting and its related forms embody Remilia's commitment to post-authorship as described in their New Net Art Manifesto. The collaborative, freely shared nature of Jadeposting, with participants building upon each other's work without concern for attribution, exemplifies this approach to creativity as networked and collective rather than individual.

See also

• Remilia Corporation
• Charlotte Fang
• Chineseposting
• Network spirituality
• Hot Pot (group chat)