Events in 2023

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LUCC Events in 2023

To stay informed of all our upcoming events, please sign up to our mailing list at: china.centre@lancaster.ac.uk

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15 December 2023

The application of mindfulness training in Chinese secondary schools: an interview survey of mindfulness training instructors and school teachers

PhD Seminar Series

Speaker: Tingjun Wang, Education Research and LUCC

Time: 2-3pm, December 23

Place: County South B59 - refreshments provided, so please register at https://rb.gy/fxea4e

Mindfulness, considered as a learnable skill, has been introduced as an intervention within school context. Numerous existing studies about the application of mindfulness-based school programme are based on practitioners’ perspectives, whilst few studies focus on teachers’ reflection. Meanwhile, the implementation of mindfulness training as a school programme in Chinese secondary schools is at an initial stage, suggesting a potential benefit from additional recommendations to achieve better integration into the school context. This study explores teachers’ perspectives on the integration of mindfulness training as a school programme in Chinese secondary schools. Three professional mindfulness training instructors and two schoolteachers were invited to attend semi-structured interviews, in which two main areas were investigated: the evaluation of mindfulness training as a school programme and the requirement of integrating mindfulness training into the school context. Findings suggest that mindfulness training can be applied in Chinese secondary schools due to its positive effects on students’ mental health. However, there were some controversial arguments between instructors and schoolteachers on integrating mindfulness training into the school context. Based on the perspectives of participants, this study expects to suggest implications to facilitate the implementation of mindfulness training as a school programme.

21 November 2023

PhD Seminar

What Does Credit Mean? The Evolution of China's Social Credit System

Speaker: Pengfei Xu, University of Manchester

Time: 1-2pm, Tuesday November 21, 2023

Place: Fylde C34 - please register at: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/what-does-credit-mean-the-evolution-of-chinas-social-credit-system-tickets-748341729257

In 2014, the Chinese government officially promulgated the social credit system (SCS), which aims to encourage sincerity in Chinese society. Through the official document, the Chinese government wants to guide individual behaviour by quantifying value and virtue. This presentation will investigate how Chinese rulers’ writing and thinking about credit have developed over the years. By tracing its emergence and development, this presentation illuminates that credit has developed along three normative dimensions: a motive to produce homo economicus, an essential element for governing China, and a tool for political obedience in the hands of the CCP. This presentation demonstrates how credit is rooted in discourses and official practices that evolved through history. In the first part, the presentation focuses on how certain credit problems were described and shaped in the official material of the Chinese government. It then applies genealogy in the second part to explore historical antecedents of morality discourses in the history of Chinese governance. By putting moral practices into Chinese history, it points out that the requirement of civic morality in SCS fits the historical tradition of Chinese rulers. In the last part, by considering the contemporary socio-political context, it demonstrates that the scope of credit within the SCS is being extended, becoming a tool of social governance in other fields. These three dimensions are closely connected with what counts as credit within the social credit system. Among these three dimensions, this presentation historicises and problematises the ways credit is constructed.

Speaker bio: Pengfei Xu is a PhD Researcher in Politics, University of Manchester.

14 November 2023

Workshop

Sino-Foreign Research Collaboration: The Funding Landscape

Time: 14 November, 2023, 930am-130pm

Place: InfoLab C floor - places are limited, please register at https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4111439

According to Elsevier, China is the UK’s third biggest single-country partner for collaborative research, after the USA and Germany. Collaborative research output almost doubled over the five years from 2014 to 2018. However, China’s research and innovation landscape is hugely diverse and complex, with recognised challenges and risks inherent in engagement. This workshop is aimed to facilitate joint UK-China research and development programmes in Lancaster University by exploring opportunities and trends in funding opportunities for research on, in and with China. This includes the complexities and opportunities of China’s national and regional research and innovation funding agencies, along with trends in funding from UK funding agencies and further afield.

24 October 2023

PhD Seminar

Expressing resistance on Chinese social media during the anaphase of COVID-19: a discursive pragmatic approach

Speaker: Fangzhou Zhu

Time and place: County South D72, 12-1pm

Speaker bio: Fangzhou is a PhD candidate in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University. His research mainly focuses on applying corpus linguistics in teaching English as a foreign language and online discourse analyses. This presentation will be about exploring the shifting effect on the strategic resistance practice in the anaphase of the COVID-19 pandemic, in which Chinese netizens shaped a unique combination of strategy-making and purposes under the persistent anti-pandemic policy, the ever-evolving censorship and the distraction released by the government.

10 August 2023

Summer Session

Cultivating Dragon Eggs: Transcultural teaching and learning as transformational education

Time: 1pm-2.30pm, Thursday 10 August, 2023

Place: County South, B59 meeting room

Speakers: Dr. Chris Longman (Educational Development) and Dr. Lingxia Zhou (DeLC), Lancaster University

This session will explore how students’ educational expectations (based on their previous educational experiences and beliefs about what education is) may not match the expectations of UK Higher Education institutions such as Lancaster. The session will dig a little deeper than an approach which looks at providing new academic skills and language support - important though these things are - and focus on educational beliefs and values which students may have when they arrive to undertake undergraduate and postgraduate programmes at Lancaster.

We will explore how teachers can appreciate the influence of different educational perspectives on learning and classroom dynamics, and how to understand the opportunities and value such different perspectives can present, fostering greater transcultural understanding, and leading to the development of a more authentic ‘international classroom’. We will focus on East Asian and Chinese students as an example, though much or our exploration could apply to other international students and some categories of home students as well.

This session will not present results of a research project, but rather will be a forum for discussion and sharing ideas. The session will start with some personal reflections from Lingxia and Chris, and will then seek to explore the issues more broadly amongst attendees.

Dr. Chris Longman has nearly 40 years of educational experience in a variety of roles, almost always within an international context. Chris is currently an Educational Developer at Lancaster University, responsible for staff development with Lancaster’s international partners, including LUC@BJTU in China. Prior to working at Lancaster, he worked at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in Suzhou, China, and before that at the University of Exeter.

Dr Lingxia (Jocelin) Zhou is a Lecturer in Chinese and CI Teaching Lead at the Department of Languages and Cultures. She has more than 15 years of teaching experience in North America, UK and East Asia and is currently convening the entirety of the Chinese language modules at Lancaster. She taught at Princeton University, Waseda University and SOAS before joining Lancaster.

31 July 2023

Interdisciplinary Roundtable

Mapping China-Related Research Across Disciplines: Trajectories, Opportunities and Challenges

Time: 12pm-130pm, Monday July 31, 2023

Place: The event is invitation-only but if you have relevant experience or expertise, please express your interest by sending an email to: china.centre@lancaster.ac.uk online attendance via Teams is also available for those who wish to attend remotely.

Speakers:

Andrew Chubb, Director, LUCC
Yunyan Li, Research Lead, LUCC

A roundtable lunch mapping Lancaster’s research on, in and with China – broadly understood, encompassing the Sinophone world – and identifying future opportunities and challenges.

The roundtable will kick off with a brief introduction of the LU China Research Dashboard, a new resource that will visualise China-linked research across all disciplines of the university. Under development with generous support from the FASS Research Culture fund, the Dashboard is designed to help identify our existing strengths and support new opportunities for cross-disciplinary synergies and collaboration.

Discussion will then open up to consider the outlook for China-related research at Lancaster, including international collaboration across various disciplines, in an environment marked by challenges and uncertainties in global science.

22 June 2023

PhD Seminar Series

Global Aspirations and National Concerns: The Chinese Film Industry in the Last Decade

Speaker: Giorgio Ceccarelli, Ca’Foscari University of Venice & Lyon 3 Jean Moulin University

Time: 1-2pm, Thursday 22 June, 2023

Place: Charles Carter A17 - light refreshment provided for in-person attendees, please https://tinyurl.com/LUCC-Giorgio

The Chinese film industry has experienced remarkable growth and transformation over the past few decades, emerging as a prominent player on the global cinematic stage. The industry and the market witnessed and were influenced by the impact of the arrival of the three digital giants Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent and their digital resources and SVOD platforms. One of the objectives of the leadership is making Chine a global powerhouse also in the film business, hence allowing more private initiative so to expand its influence on the global cinematic stage through co-productions, international film festivals, and overseas market penetration. However, the focus on educational function and social benefits of cinema has never been abandoned, on the contrary, the centenary of the CCP saw a resurgence of mass-produced propaganda films, and the return to a nationalistic narration. By analyzing these dualistic forces, the presentation sheds light on the intricate dynamics shaping the Chinese film industry's trajectory over the past decade. It contributes to the broader discourse on globalization, national identity, and the evolving relationship between the global film industry and state power. Understanding this complex interplay is crucial for comprehending the current state and future prospects of Chinese cinema in the global arena.

Bio: Giorgio Ceccarelli is currently enrolled in a Joint PhD between Lyon 3 Jean Moulin University and Ca’Foscari University of Venice. His research revolves around the development of the Chinese film industry and the policies that are governing it.

22 May 2023

Exhibition Opening

Back to the Clouds — The Ritual of Pagoda

Artist: Hao Yang, LUCC / LICA;

Curator Yuhong Lei, LUCC / Education Research

Time: May 22, 4pm (Opening event), exhibition will run through May 22-27, 2023

Place: The Storey Gallery, Meeting House Lane, Lancaster LA1 1TH

18 May 2023

Research seminar

Transnational media production from the margins of ‘cultural China’

Speaker: Siao Yuong Fong (Rong)

Time: 1-230pm, Thursday 18 May, 2023

Place: FASS Meeting Room A008 (next to Margaret Fell Lecture Theatre) **LUNCH SERVED - RSVP ESSENTIAL BY 11 MAY to china.centre@lancaster.ac.uk**

Situated on the mercurial edge between existing dominant global hegemony of the West, and the rise of the PRC as a producer of mass culture, Singapore’s transnational media producers seeking work opportunities with the PRC occupy a unique position to observe how these geopolitical and sociocultural changes impact on localized creative work practices. As a young postcolonial nation-state and the most Westernized country in Southeast Asia with a majority ethnic Chinese population, Singapore finds itself caught in between the demands of Western and Chinese hegemony, while being an outsider to both. Often deemed by their mainland China counterparts as lacking in ‘Chineseness’, how do Singaporean producers imagine commonalities, differences, connections and disconnections in the practice of transnational media production? What are these producers’ concerns, strategies and tactics in overcoming obstacles in their sociocultural capital and networks?

Bio: Siao Yuong Fong (Rong) is Lecturer of Global Media and Inequality at the Sociology department, Lancaster University. Her first book Performing Fear in Television Production: Practices of an illiberal democracy (Amsterdam University Press, 2022) is an ethnographic study of authoritarian media production in Singapore. Her current research focuses on how the Southeast Asian Sinosphere experiences the global rise of China in the realms of media.

3 May 2023

Research seminar

Exploring Women’s Lived Experience with the Human Dignity Approach: A Case Study from Rural and Urban China

Speaker: Yunyan Li, LUMS

Time, 1-230pm, Wednesday 3 May, 2023

Place: Charles Carter A16 - *LUNCH SERVED - RSVP ESSENTIAL BY 26 APRIL to china.centre@lancaster.ac.uk **

Profound demographic and socio-economic transitions since the 1980s have reshaped the everyday lives of women with children in contemporary China, as has the interaction between China’s modernisation and the transformation of Confucianism. This research explores five interlinked dimensions of these women’s lived experiences: physical and psychological well-being, care relations, social integration, self-determination, and equal value. The empirical evidence reveals the rationale behind women’s different strategies, bringing to the fore how rural and urban women’s heterogeneous experiences are reconfigured by the interaction of social stratifications of gender, places and generations. The findings can inform policy initiatives to address institutional and spatial barriers facing women with children, promote the equal value of paid and unpaid care work, and fulfil women’s changing needs.

Speaker bio: Yunyan Li is Senior Research Associate in the Entrepreneurship and Strategy Department at Lancaster University Management School. Her work forcuses on how the recalibration of institutional arrangements in socio-economic reform and the welfare system in rural and urban China affect women’s lived experiences under the interaction between modernisation and transforming Confucianism.

20 March 2023

PhD Seminar Series

Securitisation and Subjectification: National Security Institutes’ Rhetoric towards Chinese International Scholars amidst International Technological Rivalry

Speaker: Eric de Roulet, University of British Columbia

Time: Monday, 20 March, 3pm-4pm

Place: Online via teams - register at https://tinyurl.com/LUCC-ERIC

14 March 2023

Research Seminar

Cross-Cultural Interaction: Constructional Priming in Mandarin and American English Interaction

Speaker: Vittorio Tantucci, Lancaster University

Time: 1-2pm, Tuesday 14 March

Place: FASS Meeting Room A008 (next to Margaret Fell Lecture Theatre) **LUNCH SERVED - RSVP ESSENTIAL BY 7 MARCH to china.centre@lancaster.ac.uk**

Resonance occurs dynamically when interlocutors creatively coconstruct utterances that are formally and phonetically similar to the utterance of a prior speaker. In this study, we argue that such similarity can inform the machine learning prediction of linguistic and cross-cultural diversity. We compared two sets of 1,000 exchanges involving (dis)-agreement from the two balanced Callhome corpora of naturalistic interaction in Mandarin Chinese and American English. We found a correlation of overt use of pragmatic markers with resonance, indicating that priming does not occur as an exclusively implicit mechanism (as it is commonly held in the experimental literature e.g. Bock 1986; Bock et al. 2007), but naturalistically underpins dialogic engagement and cooperation among interactants. The applied results of this study can lead to a novel turn in AI research of conversational interfaces (McTear et al. 2016; Klopfenstein et al. 2017), as they reveal the fundamental role played cross-linguistically by resonance as a form of engagement of human-to-human interaction and the importance to address this mechanism in machine-to-human communication.

Speaker bio: Dr Vittorio Tantucci is Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and Chinese Linguistics at Lancaster University. Tantucci's research combines synchronic, diachronic and developmental approaches in Pragmatics and Cognitive Linguistics. Tantucci is interested in diachronic phenomena of language change, such as grammaticalization, (inter-)subjectification, chunking, entrenchment, constructionalization and semasiology. Many aspects of his research are centred on both the structure and the usage of typologically different languages, such as Mandarin Chinese and other Sinitic languages, but also Germanic, Romance and other language families which I study from a cognitive and (intercultural-)pragmatic point of view.

13 March 2023

PhD Seminar Series

Fighting for International Communism? Chinese Youth in Burma in the Mao Era

Speaker: Ning Zhang, Oxford University.

Time: 13 March 2023, 1pm-230pm ** Light refreshments provided - please register at https://tinyurl.com/LUCC-ZHANGNING **

Place: Management School Lecture Theatre 5

8 March 2023

PhD Seminar Series

A Happy Excursion Against China's Digital Leviathan

Speaker: Hao Yang, LICA

Time 1-230pm, Wednesday 8 March

Place Charles Carter A17 - light refreshments provided, please register at tinyurl.com/LUCC-HAOYANG

8 February 2023

Research Forum

Xinjiang and Counter-Terrorism Discourse in China

Speakers:

Chi Zhang, University of St. Andrews
Beatrice Gallelli, Ca'Foscari University, Venice

Time: 1pm-2.45pm, Wednesday 8 Februrary, 2023

Place: Charles Carter A15 **LUNCH SERVED - RSVP ESSENTIAL BY 1 FEB to china.centre@lancaster.ac.uk**

Few issues have had as far-reaching impact on China's relations with the world - economic, technological, political - as Beijing's policies in the Muslim-majority Xinjiang Autonomous Region. From civil society outrage over "re-education camps" in 2018, to the imposition of Western sanctions against officials held responsible for mass human rights violations, to allegations of forced labour in supply chains, to the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights raising possible crimes against humanity in September 2022, the Xinjiang issue has driven decoupling, political tensions and a widenin chasm in perceptions between China and the West. Where have these policies come from? What lines of political thinking underpin them? How does China's own discourse about its Xinjiang policies relate to broader discourses in world politics? This unique forum brings together research from two leading experts on the subject, who will address the origins and future of the crisis.

Speaker bio: Chi Zhang is British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of St. Andrews, and the author of Legitimacy of China's Counter-Terrorism Approach: The Mass Line Ethos (Singapore: Palgrave MacMillan). Beatrice Gallelli is Assistant Professor in Chinese language and translation at Ca'Foscari University of Venice who has written on China's official discourse on Xinjiang.

24 January 2023

Research Seminar

Pure and True: The Everyday Politics of Ethnicity for China's Hui Muslims

Speaker: David Stroup, University of Manchester

Time: 1-2pm, Tuesday 24 January 2022

Place: FASS A008, Meeting Room 1 - next to Margaret Fell Lecture Theatre - **lunch provided, RSVP essential by 17 January: china.centre@lancaster.ac.uk

The Chinese Communist Party points to the Hui—China’s largest Muslim ethnic group—as a model ethnic minority and touts its harmonious relations with the group as an example of the Party’s great success in ethnic politics. The Hui number over ten million, but they lack a common homeland or a distinct language, and have long been partitioned by sect, class, region, and language. Despite these divisions, they still express a common ethnic identity. Why doesn’t conflict plague relationships between the Hui and the state? And how do they navigate their ethnicity in a political climate that is increasingly hostile to Muslims? Pure and True draws on interviews with ordinary urban Hui—cooks, entrepreneurs, imams, students, and retirees—to explore the conduct of ethnic politics within Hui communities in the cities of Jinan, Beijing, Xining, and Yinchuan and between Hui and the Chinese party-state. By examining the ways in which Hui maintain ethnic identity through daily practices, it illuminates China’s management of relations with its religious and ethnic minority communities. It finds that amid state-sponsored urbanization projects and in-country migration, the boundaries of Hui identity are contested primarily among groups of Hui rather than between Hui and the state. As a result, understandings of which daily habits should be considered “proper” or “correct” forms of Hui identity diverge along professional, class, regional, sectarian, and other lines. By channeling contentious politics toward internal boundaries, the state is able to manage ethnic politics and exert control.

Speaker bio: David R. Stroup is lecturer in Chinese politics at the University of Manchester.