LUCC News, April 2025
The April 2025 edition of LUCC's newsletter is out.
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LUCC News: April 2025
It’s been a busy Lent term for LUCC fellows, most recently with a packed-house roundtable with Dr. Tim Douglas leading a vibrant discussion of the ways in which science and languages depend on each other. It’s a topic ripe for further research, so please be in touch if you are interested in joining a future project on the topic.
We’ve also welcomed five new doctoral fellows working on diverse aspects of China ranging from law and politics to education and care. Read on below to meet them all.
LUCC is also fortunate to welcome Lirong Gao, a Masters of Translation student from the School of Global Affairs, currently doing a placement working on Chinese-English translation. Lirong is available to translate documents or other research materials – see details below.
Research Seminars
30 Apr 2025
Confucian Legacies in Disaster Governance: From East Asian Historical Epidemic Management to the Modern Era
Dr Baihui Duan
(Lancaster University)
Time: 5:00pm to 6:00pm
Place: Bowland North SR 15
Lunch provided – please register if you intend to come: china.centre@lancaster.ac.uk
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June 25, 2025
International Students in China
Research Seminar
Dr Mengwei Tu
(Swansea University)
Time: 12-1pm (TBC)
Place: TBC
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May-July, 2025
PhD Seminar Series – stay tuned to the mailing list for details!
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People
LUCC is delighted to welcome five Doctoral Fellows. Read below for their diverse research interests.
Jinyuan LI
Jinyuan Li is a PhD student in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University, studying anti-corruption and moral/ideological discipline in China.
Luke DIXON
Luke Dixon is a doctoral researcher investigating the influence of Belt and Road Initiative investments on urban development in West African states, with a particular focus on how these initiatives interact with local governance structures and produce divergent outcomes in democratic and non-democratic regimes.
Linchen LI
Linchen Li is a PhD researcher in the Lancaster University Law School. Linchen is interested in tech transfer and the application of international rules, especially considering national security interests, and the evolution of intellectual property rights and related intangible property rights in modern society.
Jiangye ZHU
Jiangye is a doctoral researcher in Educational Research at Lancaster University. Jiangye is a specialist in advancing higher education internationalisation and improving educational quality through innovative strategies and cross-cultural collaboration.
Xiao ZHANG
Xiao specialises in conducting qualitative analysis on the synthesis of care and education in Chinese public early years settings and on and using child-inclusive methods to understand Chinese preschoolers’ caring agency.
Profiles of all LUCC’s fellows are available at our People page.
Research News
Translation services available for LUCC fellows!
Lirong Gao, a Masters of Translation student from the School of Global Affairs, is currently doing a placement with LUCC throughout April and May, Lirong's role involves assisting with translation tasks to ensure clear and accurate communication between English and Chinese.
If LUCC fellows have any documents or other materials that require translation, or would like to discuss translation and language issues in your area of research, please feel free to reach out to Lirong: l.gao12@lancaster.ac.uk
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- Nick Wong
This article aims to bridge the research gap in understanding the dynamic and discursive nature of translanguaging spaces. It does so through exploring the temporal and interactional qualities of translanguaging spaces using a newly proposed space-centred systematic observation approach to analyze two cases from Kongish Daily, a Hong Kong Facebook page with 75,000 subscribers. By examining initial social media posts, responses, and related discourses at the core of the interaction and in surrounding events, we describe how spaces expand over time through incorporation of new sociocultural references. Results demonstrate how new networks of meaning are created through the expansion and interconnectedness of multiple spaces. Case 1 shows the expansion of the translanguaging space during engagement with a Kongish poem. Case 2 reveals how the expression “loong” and its network of significations developed across sociopolitical and temporal contexts. By observing translanguaging spaces longitudinally across timescales, this novel approach effectively captures their context-dependent dynamic qualities beyond static language and space constructs. It also shows the creative and critical potential of translanguaging to circumvent more powerful state discourses while camouflaging resistance. The study thus offers theoretical and methodological contributions regarding translanguaging spaces’ interactional properties. It has implications for more adequately researching complex linguistic repertoires and translanguaging in diverse communities today.
Processing the Geopolitics of Global Science: Emerging National-Level Advisory Structures
- Andrew Chubb
This paper analyses three governments’ institutional advisory mechanisms designed to shape and support universities and individual researchers’ decisions regarding international academic collaboration. Although ostensibly country-agnostic, increasing geopolitical tensions with China have catalyzed the creation of these new structures. Each mechanism seeks to address the complex trade-offs in international research collaboration caused by the complicated relationship between China and other advanced science nations. We compare the National Contact Point for Knowledge Security in the Netherlands; the Research Collaboration Advice Team and associated “Trusted Research” campaign in the United Kingdom (UK); and Australia's “University Foreign Interference Taskforce” process. The paper finds similarities in their goals - elevating national interest and security as considerations in research collaboration decisionmaking in order to enable it to continue under narrowed conditions - but divergences in their structure, usage and accessibility that produce distinctive strengths and shortcomings.
- Derek Herd
This study explores the relationship between intercultural contact (IC) and intercultural communication competence (ICC) among Chinese international students at Lancaster University, UK. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research analyzes the frequency and nature of IC and self-assessed ICC levels.Findings reveal a predominance of indirect IC, such as media consumption and cultural events, over direct interactions with native English speakers. Self-assessment of ICC indicates strong attitudes towards cultural diversity but identifies areas for improvement in domestic cultural knowledge and cognitive skills.Statistical analysis demonstrates a significant positive correlation between IC and ICC, with direct IC positively impacting communication skills and indirect IC contributing to cultural knowledge and positive attitudes.These findings emphasize the importance of both direct and indirect IC in developing ICC. Educational institutions should focus on facilitating diverse IC opportunities to enhance students’ language proficiency, cultural adaptation, and overall well-being.
- Sharon Zheng
In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of confidence-focused discussions led by female vloggers. Despite the proliferation of self-improvement content on Chinese social media platforms, few studies have explored the discourses that emerge and circulate in these spaces. This study explores the confidence culture constructed by the female toubu vloggers on Xiaohongshu, a lifestyle platform widely popular among young women in urban China. The results show that the female toubu vloggers, as Chinese wanghongs, create content about confidence in noticeable, shared patterns, emphasising individuals’ multifaceted efforts to actualise perceived self-empowerment. The findings also suggest the limitation of the localised postfeminist ideas manifesting through confidence messages. By revealing the characteristics of the wanghongs’ confidence culture in the Chinese context, this essay contributes to the discussions of female confidence in non-Western contexts in an age of precarity.
- Ou Lin
Drawing on a series of interviews with on-demand food delivery riders, who are rural migrant workers, this paper seeks to explain the workers’ decision to give up stable jobs in factories in favour of largely unregulated and precarious on-demand work. Focusing on those aspects of the legal framework which shape workers’ decisions, it presents the explanation under the dual banners of ‘income’ and ‘freedom and flexibility’. In terms of income, Chinese law often enables low factory wages and a reliance on overtime; migrant workers view social insurance contributions as a loss; issues with payroll and wage arrears are significant. In terms of freedom and flexibility, insufficient rest rights lead to inadequate breaks for assembly line workers and, compounded by unspecified ‘special working time’ permit physically unbearable shifts without extra compensation. Age and gender discrimination are prevalent both in factories and various sectors. In contrast, on-demand delivery work has relatively low barriers to entry.
Outreach & Engagement
LUCC director in the webinar and conference
On March 20, Andrew Chubb presented his work on the role of nationalism in crisis escalation at the 20th Annual Conference on China and the World at Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government.
On March 24, Andrew also participated in an Asia Society webinar, alongside Cindy Yu and Maria Repnikova, on "Global Public Opinion: How Does the World See China?" A YouTube recording is available.
Culture & Community
LUCC Summer Internship 2025
Applications are open for the LUCC summer internship. Interns work as research assistants for LUCC fellows working on any aspect of China-related research. For more information please see the LUCC website's "Work with Us" (共事) page: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/lucc/work-with-us/
Chinese (Mandarin) Language classes
The Lancaster University Confucius Institute runs a range of Chinese (Mandarin) classes for staff, students and members of the public at different levels.
The next round of classes starts in the week beginning 28 April and runs through until week beginning 30 June 2025.
This term, the Chinese language classes are 1.5 hours each week for 10 weeks.
For more information visit: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/confucius-institute/events/chinese-mandarin-language-classes-2025-01-20-18-15-2/
Chinese Opera, Dance, Calligraphy and Tai Chi classes
Throughout summer term, the Lancaster University Confucius Institute will be running classes on Chinese Opera, dance, calligraphy, Tai Chi and more.
For all the details see: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/confucius-institute/events/
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