LUCC News, October 2023
The October 2023 edition of LUCC's newsletter is out.
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LUCC News: October 2023
Welcome to a new academic year of updates from Lancaster University China Centre, a focal point at Lancaster University for research on, in, and with China and the global Sinosphere.
Before our summer holidays, on 31 July, we had a roundtable discussion mapping Lancaster’s research on, in and with China, drawing on a new flagship resource from the China Research Map. The discussions have considered 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. We also had a terrific turnout for Chris Longman and Lingxia Zhou's August 10 workshop, Cultivating Dragon Eggs: Transcultural Teaching and Learning as Transformational Education.
In one of our upcoming events, our PhD research fellow, Fangzhou Zhu (Noah), is going to present the topic “Expressing resistance on Chinese social media during the anaphase of COVID-19: A discursive pragmatic approach” in our first PhD seminar this academic year on 24th October. 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.
The academic community of Lancaster University is well connected with China or China-relevant research activities. This can be proven by the increasing number of Lancaster University China Centre members and early career researchers based on the Weihai campus. On 14th November, a workshop will bring together the knowledge base in such a community and explore opportunities and pathways for acquiring research collaboration funding from China or with Chinese partners. Researchers with current or previously funded research projects supported by funders or partners from China are invited to share their experiences.
LUCC welcomes Dr. Yunyan Li, who is looking after the centre as Acting Director while Andrew Chubb is on parental leave. Read on below for an introduction to LUCC’s visiting scholars, Dr. Chundi Lan, and Gulnara Zholzhanova, LUCC fellow, Dr Yingnian Tao, and doctoral fellows, Noah Zhu and Tingjun Wang, and the latest news and research from LUCC members.
Upcoming Events
24th October
Expressing resistance on Chinese social media during the anaphase of COVID-19: A discursive pragmatic approach
PhD Seminar
Speaker: Fangzhou Zhu (Noah)
Time: 24th of October 2023, 1200-1300
Place: County South D72
Please register interest:
14th November
Research Collaboration & Engagement with China
Time: 14th of November 2023, 9:30 am - 1:30 pm
Place: Room A386, Open Research Lab, Library.
Refreshments and lunch will be provided. Please register here:
https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4111439
Sino-Foreign Research Collaboration: The Evolving Funding Landscape
Interdisciplinary Workshop
Time: Michaelmas 2023
Place: TBA – register interest at china.centre@lancaster.ac.uk
Why Does the West Get So Much Wrong About China?: Reflections on 33 Years of Straddling the Border
Research Seminar
Speaker: Howard Davies, Hong Kong Polytechnic
Time: TBA
Place: Online via Teams – link available from china.centre@lancaster.ac.uk
Laughing, Lost in the Mountains. Towards a New Modality of Seeing Organizations
Research Seminar
Speaker: Ant Hesketh, LUMS
Time: December 2023
Place: TBA – register interest at china.centre@lancaster.ac.uk
Sino-Foreign Research Collaboration: Navigating the Security Minefield
Interdisciplinary Roundtable
Time: December 2023
Place: TBA - register interest at china.centre@lancaster.ac.uk
People
Dr Chundi LAN
Dr Chundi Lan is an associate professor at the Jiangxi Normal University of China with research interests in economic development, fairness and justice, and ideological and political education. She has published two books, Research on the historical track of Marx's justice thought (People Publishing House, 2019) and Research on the higher education teaching model in China -- based on MOOC perspective (Economic Management Press, 2021).
Gulnara ZHOLZHANOVA
Gulnara Zholzhanova is a Visiting Scholar in 2023-24, examining the conceptual foundations of Kazakhstan-China relations. A graduate of the MA (Media and Journalism) program in the School of Arts and Culture at Newcastle University, Gulnara is a politics and law journalist with the newspaper Egemen Qazaqstan in Kazakhstan.
Dr Yingnian TAO
A Senior Research Associate with the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion (PPR), Yingnian is interested in corpus-based social media discourse analysis. Her work has explored interruptions (overlapping speech) in everyday and institutional settings in Chinese, and apologies on social media in China. She is currently working on the University’s race equality surveys, using a mixed-method approach.
Noah ZHU
Based in the Department of Linguistics and English Language, Noah Zhu has research interests in teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) and social media discourse. Noah's expertise lies in evaluating data-driven learning, corpus analysis of social media discourse and Chinese-English translation benchmarking for geoheritage.
Tingjun WANG
A PhD researcher in Educational Research, Tingjun Wang is interested in psychological interventions to support school students’ mental health and the integration of interventions into Chinese school contexts. Tingjun's main project investigates the application of mindfulness training to Chinese secondary schools, including the effectiveness of mindfulness training on students’ stress, emotion regulation and academic performance.
Profiles of all LUCC’s fellows are available on our People page.
Research News
Transnational media production from the margins of “Cultural China”: the case of Singapore’s media producers – Siao Yuong Fong
By exploring what these mean for Singapore’s producers as they navigate cultural capital, power and identity from the margins of an emerging cultural superpower, this article interrogates relations between global, national and regional forces as manifested in producers’ subjectivities in the era of the “rise of China.” It suggests that the experiences of these transnational Singaporean media producers are characterized by a paradoxical combination of the de-nationalizing of production and re-politicizing of national imaginations, the everyday manifestations of which continually rehearse and further engender tensions between the self and the other.
Read the article at:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649373.2023.2242140
The interplay between digital platforms and user-generated content in reinterpreting and recreating mythological narratives with traditional Chinese cultural elements: the animated series Yao-Chinese Folktales – Aiqing Wang
This study seeks to reconcile the divide between participatory culture and mythological storytelling. By doing so, it underscores the significant role that digital platforms, like Bilibili (哔哩哔哩), play in reinvigorating narratives with traditional Chinese cultural elements. The research findings unveil innovative insights beneficial for stakeholders seeking to gain traction in the Chinese market through culturally attuned content. More than just underlining the transformative influence of these digital platforms, the study also contributes to the ongoing discourse on the need for more diverse narratives in global storytelling, as opposed to the ‘universal’ paradigms centred on the Hero’s Journey perpetuated from the West. Ultimately, this article provides a nuanced understanding of the elements that resonate with audiences within the Chinese sociocultural context.
Read more at:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17510694.2023.2252423
The Impact of Normalised Cross-Strait Relations on Regional Economics: An Empirical Study of Jiangsu Province – Yunyan Li
How does the quality of international relations between countries affect regional economics? The question of how much economic change can be attributed to the trajectories of international politics is difficult to answer because different factors over time can influence economic development. This research uses synthetic control and difference-in-differences methods to evaluate the impact of the normalisation of cross-strait relations in 2008 on regional economic growth in Jiangsu province. Based on data from the Regional and China Year Books from 1990 to 2015, Jiangsu province, a region with prominently close economic ties with Taiwan, witnessed a CNY 20,726.52 (around GBP 2328.35) increase in per capita GDP from 2008 to 2015, compared with the counterfactual in the absence of normalised cross-strait relations. There was an annual increase of approximately CNY 2961 Yuan (around GBP 333). This research has important implications for acknowledging the relationship between the quality of political relations and their economic impact on confrontational countries and regions.
Read more at: https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12090493
Jonas Mekas: conversation with filmmakers--movie journal columns 1961-1975 – Translated by Rui Qian
During the summer vocation, a book of Chinese translation named "Jonas Mekas: conversation with filmmakers--movie journal columns 1961-1975" (乔纳斯·梅卡斯：对话电影人，电影日志专栏1961-1975）was published. This book was written by Jonas Mekas and translated by our LUCC Fellow, Rui Qian. As the "father of independent film", Jonas Mekas is an important figure in film studies, and this book is the first and the only Chinese-language translated version of his works.
The following link contains one of the free book chapters to read (in Chinese): https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/7LBkujVBEvEgcjdAlee6hg
Here is the book shopping link in Taobao:
Outreach & Engagement
Meeting the Challenge of Transnational Human Rights Violations in the UK: The Case for a Transnational Rights Protection Office
The Foreign Policy Centre in September published a proposal for a Transnational Rights Protection Office to address cross-border human rights violations. The proposal emerges from Andrew Chubb's 2021 monograph on the overseas political activities of the Chinese Communist Party.
Public hearing at the UK Parliament
Professor Jinghan Zeng has given evidence before a House of Lords inquiry into the development of AI in weapon systems in China. The inquiry by the Artificial Intelligence in Weapon Systems Committee took place in the Houses of Parliament on 21 September 2023. He was asked to give evidence based on his extensive and pioneering research on China’s AI policies and governance in the committee’s fourteenth evidence session of its inquiry.
To watch the full hearing, visit parliamentlive.tv:
https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/47a8d28e-f4f7-4597-8268-d5397d44c9d1
China-Arab Forum for Reform and Development
Najla AL ZAROONI accepted the invitation from the China-Arab Studies Center for Reform and Development to participate as a speaker at the prestigious China-Arab Forum for Reform and Development. This year's theme is 'Euro-Asia Economic Cooperation in the New Era: Impetus, Opportunities, and Prospects,' promises to spark meaningful discussions and innovative ideas.
British Association for Chinese Studies Annual Conference
Our doctoral fellows, Bai Xue and Hao Yang present their research projects in BACS 2023 annual conference held in King's College London on 7-8 September. Bai Xue presented a paper titled "Do boycotts crowd out or expand conventional political participation in China? Political consumerism and political participation in an authoritarian context". This paper explores whether boycotts crowd out or expand conventional political participation in authoritarian China. Through analysing the latest 7th wave of the World Value Survey (China), the findings show that instead of crowding-out effects, boycotts have expanded the political participation repertoire in China. Yang Hao presented the research titled "A Happy Excursion Against the Digital Leviathan". In this research, Yang Hao uses the Chinese Taoist allegory ‘the happy excursion’ to compose a set of art practices as a method to explore the digital Leviathan and ways of coping with it.
The Art of Chinese Traditional Ink Painting
Quan Zi, a PhD student from the Lancaster Institute for Contemporary Arts ran a 2-hour ink painting workshop as part of Light Up Lancaster. The ink painting workshop is held on 16 and 23 September.
Culture & Community
New Trends in Chinese as a Second Language Conference at Lancaster University
On 14th and 15th September 2023, the New Trends in Chinese as a Second Language Conference successfully took place at Lancaster University. The conference was hosted by Lancaster University Confucius Institute and the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University and co-organised by the Department of Languages and Cultures at Lancaster University, the School of Foreign Languages at South China University of Technology, the School of International Education at South China University of Technology and the Research Center for Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.
For more information, see:
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/confucius-institute/research/new-trends-in-chinese-as-a-second-language/
Lancaster University Confucius Institute Annual Lecture 2023: China in 2030 and its role in the world economy with Professor Xiaolan Fu
Lancaster University Confucius Institute will have its Annual Lecture 2023, 'China in 2030 and its role in the world economy' with Professor Xiaolan Fu. This event is open to all students, staff and members of the community.
Please register via Eventbrite:
Chinese Ink Landscape Painting Course
Quan Zi, a PhD student from the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA) will teach the Chinese ink landscape painting course. Please find below for the course content:
https://portal.lancaster.ac.uk/portal/events/chinese-ink-landscape-painting-course
Chinese Calligraphy Course for Staff Interested in Engaging with China
The Confucius Institute at Lancaster University is running a 9-week calligraphy course for all students, staff and members of the public. Wednesday evenings, 6.15 pm-7.45 pm. Open to beginner and advanced level learners to learn and practice calligraphy together. These classes will run from Wednesday, 19 October, to Wednesday, 14 December 2023.
For more information, see:
https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/confucius-institute/events/calligraphy-classes-2022-11-16-19-00-2/
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