本研究以媒介考古学为研究路径，聚焦20世纪80年代在中国广为流行的“中华学习机”，通过对其开发背景、硬件形态与政策推广的多层次考察，探讨其在教育实践、社会关系与中国式现代化中的媒介作用。作为“媒介”，中华学习机在物质层面上嵌入了后发国家的教育技术实践方案，并在实践层面推动了计算机知识的普及与信息主体的塑造，同时在话语层面生产并强化了国家现代化的发展治理逻辑。进一步说，“学习”这一命名并非市场逻辑下纯粹的商业策略，而是对信息社会的挑战和现代性焦虑等多重社会情势的回应，它承载的是整合了信息未来主义、技术发展主义以及个人“素质”等理念的一整套社会发展方案。尽管在历史的多重张力下成为“失败媒介”，但其背后的技术政治与社会发展理念持续影响着中国社会。通过挖掘这一被遗忘的媒介技术，本研究丰富了中国数字媒介技术发展的历史叙述，也为理解转型时期的文化政治提供新的视角与框架。

This study adopts a media archaeology approach to investigate the “China Education Computer,” a microcomputer that gained widespread popularity in China during the 1980s. By examining its developmental background, hardware configuration, and policy-driven promotion, this paper analyzes the computer’s mediating role in educational practice, social relations, and the broader project of Chinese modernization. I argue that, as a medium, the “China Education Computer” materially embedded educational technology schemes tailored to late-developing countries; practically facilitated the dissemination of computer literacy and the formation of information subjects; and discursively produced and reinforced the governance logic of state-led modernization. The designation of “education (xuexi in Chinese)” was not merely a commercial tactic driven by market logic; rather, it functioned as an intervention into a broader socio-historical conjuncture shaped by the pressures of the emerging information society and the anxieties associated with modernity. In this sense, the “China Education Computer” embodied an expansive vision of social development that integrated information futurism, technological progressivism, and discourses of individual “quality” (suzhi). Although it ultimately became a “failed medium” amid complex historical tensions, the technological practices and developmental ideals it articulated have continued to shape the trajectory of Chinese society. By unearthing this neglected medium, the study not only enriches the historical narrative of Chinese digital media but also provides a nuanced perspective and analytical framework for understanding the cultural politics of a society in transition.