Self As Enterprise: Disability and E-entrepreneurship in China

This chapter examines the rise of the digital economy and its impact on disability entrepreneurship in China. In particular, it analyzes the neoliberal logic that underscores the promotion of disability e-entrepreneurs represented by Mr. Cheongsam. Following Aihwa Ong and Hentle Yapp’s elaboration of exceptionalism, I argue that disability has been treated as exception in China’s postsocialist trajectories of development both within and without. It has recently emerged as a new form of exceptionality in digital transactions among the Chinese state, China’s digital champions, individual digital entrepreneurs, and average citizens. The framework of disability as exception and exceptionality therefore opens up our critical enquiries about the invisible human infrastructure that underpins digital transactions in China.