Dynamic China
British Postgraduate Network for Chinese
Studies Annual Conference 2016
23-24 June 2016
Strand Campus, King’s College London
Organisers:
Partners:
FOREWORD
Dear participants,
We are pleased to welcome you to ‘Dynamic China: British Postgraduate Network for
Chinese Studies Annual Conference 2016’, which aims to gather postgraduate researchers
with a particular interest and research focus in Chinese Studies.
You will find enclosed in this brochure some important information regarding the
conference, including:
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
General information about organisers, conference venues, and social events;
A full agenda of the conference;
Biographies of our invited speakers and abstracts of panel presentations;
A list of participants, including affiliation.
If you have any additional queries during and after the conference, please feel free to get
in touch with our organising team ([email protected]), who will be
more than happy to assist you.
We hope that this conference will give you all an inspiring and rewarding experience.
Organising Team
1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
On behalf of the British Postgraduate Network for Chinese Studies, I would like to
thank the generosity of King’s College London, our sponsor, for granting financial
support to this international conference. I would also like to thank the Lau China
Institute, and especially Dr. Konstantinos Tsimonis, who secured funding from the
Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy, and PhD students Agatha Kratz, Linxi Li
and Chunsen Yu for their help in organizing the conference.
Let me extend our gratitude to Mr. Shi Lei, the First Secretary of Education Section, who
will be joining our conference on behalf of the Embassy of China in the United
Kingdom, and to our partners: the British Association for Chinese Studies, Combined
Academic Publishers, Cypress Books, Mother’s Bridge of Love, the Society for AngloChinese Understanding, and the Young China Watchers, who have all contributed to this
conference in their own way.
Finally, I would like to thank our keynote speakers Prof. Kerry Brown (King’s College
London), Prof. Barend ter Haar (University of Oxford) and Prof. Julia C. Strauss (SOAS,
University of London) for sharing their research and knowledge during this conference,
as well as all of you for your participation and valuable insights on China, from a broad
range of academic disciplines.
Gabriel F. Y. Tsang
President, British Postgraduate Network for Chinese Studies
2
DIRECTIONS TO AND FROM KING’S COLLEGE LONDON
The conference will take place at the Strand Building, Strand Campus of King’s College
London:
King’s College London
Strand Campus
Strand
London
WC2R 2LS
Tel: +44 (0)20 7836 5454
There are a number of ways to travel to King’s College London’s Strand Campus,
including:
Underground
 Temple (District and Circle lines): 2 minute walk.
 Charing Cross (Bakerloo and Northern lines): 10 minute walk,
 Embankment (District, Circle and Bakerloo lines): 10 minute walk,
 Waterloo (Jubilee, Northern, Bakerloo, Waterloo & City lines): 12 minute walk,
 Holborn (Central and Picadilly lines): 12 minute walk, or
 Chancery Lane (Central line): use exit 4 - 15 minute walk.
Train




Charing Cross: 9 minute walk.
Waterloo: 12 minute walk.
Waterloo East: 10 minute walk.
Blackfriars: 12 minute walk.
Bus
Buses stopping outside the university: 1, 4, 26, 59, 68, 76, X68, 168, 171, 172, 176 (24
hour), 188, 243 (24 hour), 341 (24 hour), 521, RV1.
Car
Note that there is no public parking at King’s College London, but a pay and display
parking system operates in nearby streets including Surrey Street.
3
Conference venues:
A (King’s Building):
Anatomy Museum
B (Strand Building):
Lucas Theatre, S-1.04,
S-1.06, S-1.08, S3.40
4
WIFI
King’s College London provides access to Eduroam. It allows users at any participating
organisation to log on to the wireless network using the same username and password
that they would use at their home organisation. (You may use the email address of your
home institution as the username.)
Eduroam technical support is provided by your home organisation. Therefore, you must
ensure that you are able to connect to eduroam at your home organisation before
travelling. King's College London is unable to provide technical support to visitors.
SOCIAL EVENT (UNOFFICIAL)
Plan A (good weather): A City Walk (guided by local students; visiting Trafalgar Square,
Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, etc.)  A light picnic (at St. Jame’s
Park)
Plan B (in case of rain): A City Walk with umbrellas  A Drink at a café
Time: 2:00pm-6:00pm, 25th June, 2016
Meet at the reception of the Strand Campus, King’s College London
Free of charge, but you have to pay for any food and drink you bring or order.
5
WELCOME TO KING’S COLLEGE LONDON
King’s College London, one of England’s oldest universities
and a founding college of the University of London, was
established by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington in
1829. King’s College London has a long and established
tradition and history of excellence, both in terms of teaching
and research, being the third higher education institution in
England after Oxford and Cambridge to receive a royal
charter to award degrees. Today, King’s is ranked 16th in the world and 5th in the UK and
is a five star university according to the QS World University Ranking. 25,000 students
currently study at King’s College London, spread across five campuses. About 9,000 of
them are international students from over 150 countries. King’s College London’s
objective, up until today, is to provide them with a modern education and an inspiring
environment, and to help them reach a fulfilling future and make their mark in today’s
world.
ABOUT THE LAU CHINA INSTITUTE
The Lau China Institute at King’s College London is part of a
network of Global Institutes dedicated to understanding twentyfirst century political, economic and cultural powers in a global
context. The Institute focuses on interdisciplinary research into
contemporary China and its impact on world affairs. It coordinates
and develops China-related research capabilities and China-focused
programmes of study, while also building links with Chinese
organizations in education, the cultural and creative sectors,
business and government. Together with the Brazil, India, North America and Russia
Institutes and the International Development Institute at King’s, the Lau China Institute
aims to promote understanding, provide a hub of excellence and build connections
through study, staff and student exchanges, research and knowledge sharing.
6
ABOUT THE BRITISH POSTGRADUATE NETWORK FOR
CHINESE STUDIES
The British Postgraduate Network for Chinese Studies (BPCS),
previously the China Postgraduate Network (CPN), is an academic
network for the growing number of postgraduates, young scholars
and early-career researchers in Chinese Studies at British universities.
We hope that the BPCS will become your primary source of
information on developments in the area of Chinese Studies in the
UK, as well as allow you to connect with others working in your
field.
Membership of the British Postgraduate Network for Chinese Studies is free and open to
everyone. To join, simply go to our official website (http://bacsuk.org.uk/bpcs) and
subscribe via ‘BPCS mailing list’. Our mailing list includes news on China-related events,
funding opportunities, training and jobs.
In an effort to create more space for interaction between BPCS members and keep you
updated to our events and other academic activities, we set up a LinkedIn group and
a facebook page which you are most welcome to join.
ABOUT THIS CONFERENCE
Under the leadership of Xi Jinping, China have entered a new phase. Widely referred to
as the era of realising the ‘Chinese dream’ and building the ‘new normal’, it is commonly
characterised by notions of ‘slow growth’, ‘anti-corruption’, ‘middle income status’, and
‘urbanisation’. At the same time, Xi’s push to rehabilitate Chinese culture and traditional
Confucian values prompted both the Chinese society and China scholars to rethink
China’s ideological, cultural and historical heritage. But what are exactly the changes in
politics, economy, culture and society that have taken place under Xi Jinping, and what
can be expected in the future? With the 13th five-year plan underway, China is faced with
revaluation of its past, complexity of its present, and uncertainty of its future.
Now is the time to revisit old questions and develop new lines of academic inquiry. What
is the future of China in a changing world? What is the true nature of power in China?
How far has popular culture in China been influenced by the proliferation of new media?
What impact has China’s popular and literary culture had in the non-Chinese speaking
world? Is China’s pre-modern history still relevant today? What is the relationship
between urbanisation and a consumption-led economic model? What can China’s foreign
relations tell us about its global future? These are some of the questions that ‘Dynamic
China: British Postgraduate Network for Chinese Studies 2016 Annual Conference’
explores.
7
Conference Schedule
23/06/2016 (Thursday) - Day 1
9:00 – 9:30
9:30 – 9:55
9:55 – 10:00
10:00 – 11:00
11:00 – 12:30
12:30 – 1:30
1:30 – 2:30
2:30 – 4:00
4:00 – 4:30
4:30 – 6:00
6:30 – 8:30
Reception (at the Anatomy Museum, 6th floor, King’s
Building)
Conference Opening – Welcome speeches by the British
Postgraduate Network for Chinese Studies and the Lau
China Institute of King’s College London (at the Lucas
Theatre [S-2.18], Strand Building)
Group Photo
Keynote Speech 1: Prof. Kerry Brown (King’s College
London) (at the Lucas Theatre)– ‘Reading the Political
Modern Oracle Bones: Chinese Power Under Xi
Jinping'
Panel Session 1
International Relations 1 (at S-1.04) – p.12
Culture and Technology 1 (at S-1.06) – p.34
Public Policy 1 (S-1.08) – p.24
Lunch (at the Anatomy Museum)
Keynote Speech 2: Prof. Julia C. Strauss (SOAS,
University of London)– ‘Publishing in Chinese Studies’
(at the Lucas Theatre)
Panel Session 2
International Relations 2 (at S-1.04) – p.13
Culture and Technology 2 (at S-1.06) – p.36
Public Policy 2 (S-1.08) – p.25
Coffee break (at the Anatomy Museum)
Panel Session 3
International Relations 3 (at S-1.04) – p.15
Culture and Technology 3 (at S-1.06) – p.37
Finance (S-1.08) – p.40
Conference Dinner (at New Loon Fung, China Town)
8
24/06/2016 (Friday) - Day 2
9:30 – 11:00
11:00 – 12:00
12:00 – 1:00
1:00 – 2:30
2:30 – 4:00
4:00 – 4:30
4:30 – 5:30
5:30 – 6:00
Panel Session 4
Culture and Technology 4 (at S-1.06) – p.38
Public Policy 3 (at S-1.08) – p.27
Politics 1 (at S3.40) – p.16
Keynote Speech 3: Prof. Barend ter Haar (University
of Oxford)– ‘Antecedents for communist violence in pre1949 socio-religious history’ (at the Lucas Theatre)
Lunch (Please collect your packed lunch at S-1.06)
Panel Session 5
Education 1 (at S-1.06) – p.31
Politics 2 (at S-1.08) – p.17
History 1 (at S3.40) – p.19
Panel Session 6
Education 2 (at S-1.06) – p.33
History 2 (at S-1.08) – p.20
Gender (at S3.40) – p.30
Coffee Break (at S-1.06)
Panel Session 7
Literature 1 (at S-1.06) – p.28
Literature 2 (at S-1.08) – p.29
History 3 (at S3.40) – p.22
A Talk by Xue Xinran, Mothers’ Bridge of Love (at
the Lucas Theatre) – ‘The Sharing of a Chinese Volunteer,
Writer and Journalist’
9
INVITED SPEAKERS
Prof. Kerry Brown (King’s College London)
Kerry Brown is Professor of Chinese Studies and Director of the Lau China Institute at
King's College, London. From 2012 to 2015 he was Professor of Chinese Politics and
Director of the China Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia. Prior to this
he worked at Chatham House from 2006 to 2012, as Senior Fellow and then Head of the
Asia Programme. From 1998 to 2005 he worked at the British Foreign and
Commonwealth Office, as First Secretary at the British Embassy in Beijing, and then as
Head of the Indonesia, Philippine and East Timor Section. He lived in the Inner
Mongolia region of China from 1994 to 1996. He has a Master of Arts from Cambridge
University, a Post Graduate Diploma in Mandarin Chinese (Distinction) from Thames
Valley University, London, and a Ph D in Chinese politics and language from Leeds
University. He directed the Europe China Research and Advice Network (ECRAN)
giving policy advice to the European External Action Service between 2011 and 2014.
He is the author of over ten books on modern Chinese politics, history and language, the
most recent of which are `The New Exmperors: Power and the Princelings in China'
(2014), `What's Wrong with Diplomacy: The Case of the UK and China' (2015) and the
Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography (in Four Volumes- 2014-2015). His `China's
CEO: Xi Jinping' will be published in 2016.
Prof. Julia C. Strauss (SOAS, University of London)
Julia C. Strauss received a BA in Chinese Language and European History from
Connecticut College (1983) and both an MA and PhD from the Department of Political
Science at the University of California, Berkeley (1984, 1991). She moved to the
Department of Political and International Studies at the School of Oriental and African
Studies (SOAS), University of London in 1994. She served as Editor of The China
Quarterly from 2002-2011 and was promoted to Professor in 2013. She offers courses in
Chinese politics and comparative political sociology. She is a member of the Association
for Asian Studies, the American Political Science Association, and the Latin American
Studies Association.
Prof. Barend ter Haar (Oxford University)
Barend J. ter Haar, PhD Leiden (1990), taught at the universities of Leiden, Heidelberg,
Leiden and now Oxford. Published extensively on new religious groups, Triads, rumours,
lay Buddhism, identity and violence. His most recent book was called Practising
Scripture (Hawaii UP, 2014) and he has just completed a book on the social history of
the religious culture of Emperor Guan or Lord Guan. He has now started a new project
on the social history of witchcraft fears and accusations in China.
10
Ms Xinran Xue
Ms Xinran Xue is one of the most well-known British-Chinese journalist and writer, who
was born in Beijing in 1958. In the late 1980s, she began working for Chinese Radio. In
1997 she moved to London. In London, she began work on her seminal book about
Chinese women's lives The Good Women of China, a memoir relating many of the
stories she heard while hosting her radio show (‘Words on the Night Breeze’) in China.
The book was published in 2002 and has been translated into over thirty languages.
Xinran has since published a number of other non-fiction books including What the
Chinese Don’t Eat in 2006 and China Witness: Voices from a Silent Generation in 2008.
Xinran is also a published novelist and published Sky Burial in 2004, Miss Chopsticks in
2007 and Message from an Unknown Chinese Mother in 2010. In 2004 she founded the
Mother’s Bridge of Love (母愛橋) organisation to support Chinese children adopted by
western parents and those living in China. In 2014 The Good Women of China was
issued as a Vintage classic.
11
ABSTRACTS OF PANEL PRESENTATIONS
International Relations 1
Beatrice Galleli
Ca’ Foscari University in Venice
On the rhetorical construction of the “China Dream”
The “China dream” sums up the ideals and the governmental goals of the fifth generation of Chinese
leaders for the development of Chinese society, while also displaying the new trend in Chinese political
communication. The “China dream” discourse is part of a broader one, involving political, social and
cultural sphere, currently underway in China. Research on the rhetorical and discursive construction of this
national metaphor may shed light on its role in the building of China’s international image as well as on
how the new political, social and cultural order has to be constructed in a reality which, having achieved
economic development, is now facing new challenges and underlying problems. By analysing Xi Jinping’s
speeches from the viewpoint of metaphor and intercultural studies, this paper evaluates the meaning of the
“China Dream”, its cultural significance and its role in Chinese national rhetoric as well as in the building
of a global discourse. Taking into consideration that the concept of “dream” has different meanings and
implications in different cultures and that its persuasive power therefore also differs, the rhetoric and
discourse of the “China Dream” attempts to close the rift in Chinese society and to bring together
traditional Chinese and Western values.
Sunny Xin Liu
University of Central Lancashire
The Multiple Roles of Cultural Diplomacy in the China Dream-Construction, Articulation and
Communication
This paper argues that cultural diplomacy is both an integral part and a strategic communication of Xi’s
China Dream. Though launched before the new vision was crafted, cultural diplomacy has since then taken
on multiple roles in constructing one pillar of the China Dream, while articulating it to domestic audiences
for internal recognition and communicating it to overseas audiences for external rapport. This can be
contextualised from a historical, international and domestic framework of analysis: historically and
domestically, as the oldest continuous civilization on earth, China sees its cultural revival as an integral part
of the great national rejuvenation. Nationalism plays a critical role in keeping the national coherence and
regime legitimacy. Historically and internationally, China wishes to restore its position as a great power in
the world through communicating its peaceful rise ambition when China’s economic rise and military
build-up received mixed global reactions. It also wishes to reshape its misrepresented image of being the
‘cultural other' and ‘ideological other’ by challenging western power of discourse. The dynamics created by
these multiple contexts reveal the complexity of China’s cultural diplomacy, which is more than just
building ‘soft power’, rather, it is a grand strategy to bring these contexts together in realising China’s
glorious national rejuvenation politically, economically, militarily and culturally.
A comparative case study of Confucius Institutes, one of the most visible and highly controversial
manifestations of China’s cultural diplomacy, was carried out to epitomize the unique challenges they face
in effectively playing these multiple roles.
Tom Harper
University of Surrey
The Sleeping Dragon Awakened: Exploring the Depictions of China in Africa
Over the past decades, the growing relationship between China and Africa has become one of the major
areas in the study of Chinese foreign policy, often entailing economics and development as well as political
studies. This has been subject to numerous interpretations with the traditional Western narrative depicting
China as an exploitive power seeking to control Africa’s natural resources in order to further China’s
economic development. Indeed, this view has also led to fears of a new rivalry between the West and
China over Africa as well as claims that China is following the same path as the European empires of the
19th century. However, the traditional narrative has also been subject to increasing criticism as the new
Chinese narrative, rooted in China’s historical experiences, seeks to challenge the dominant Western
depiction of China’s engagement in Africa.
12
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to utilise Foucault’s theory on the creation of knowledge along with
Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic power and “legitimate culture” in order to examine the creation of the
Western and Chinese discourses on Chinese policy towards Africa. This will entail an examination of the
choices of terminology made by Western and Chinese theorists as well as an exploration of the experiences
that shape these depictions, most notably the Cold War and China’s imperial past. These concepts will be
applied to the case study of Sudan, often cited to be the epitome of the worst excesses of China’s Africa
policy in order to explore how the competing depictions of China in Africa illustrate the power relations
between China and the United States in order to show how the two different narratives conflict and how
China’s identity has shifted away from political and towards a more cultural identity.
Francisco Urdinez
King's College London
Don’t cry for me “Argenchina”: Unraveling political views of China through legislative debates in
Argentina
Purpose: Which are the domestic variables that explain why there disagreement in Argentina’s political
debate on whether deepening relations with China is good or bad for the country? The hypothesis is that
China is seen as a double edge sword: on the short term, it is seen as a unique source of fresh money and
historical opportunity. However, the long-term view of China is full of uncertainties since (a) China might
reproduce center-periphery relations, and (b) disagreements on the relation between Argentina and US:
some in favor of China displacing the US and creating a new global order, and some against it and in favor
of status-quo.
Methods: Case study of the Deep Space Station built in 2015/2016 in the Province of Neuquén, a project
which raised huge domestic debate, and analysis of parliamentary speeches and media coverage through
Quantitative Text Analysis.
Results: Confirm the hypothesis and show that the arguments in favor or against deepening relations with
China are marked by government-opposition as well as Peronists-anti-Peronists variables which reflect
concerns of (a) US reactions to the project; (b) China reproducing center-periphery power relations and (c)
the scope of the Comprehensive Strategic Relationship.
Conclusions: The results suggest there is no political consensus on how China should be addressed in
Argentina, which reflects a lack of a long-term strategy towards the Asian country as the cleavages
government-opposition and Peronist-anti-Peronists are in constant change and highly determined by
electoral cycles.
International Relations 2
Richard Q. Turcsányi
Masaryk University
Assertive Chinese Foreign Policy: The ‘Power-Shift’ Theory and the South China Sea
The paper deals with the assertive shift in Chinese foreign policy which started to be discussed widely since
2009-2010. As of yet, no systematic study has been published rigorously testing validity of theories
explaining the change in Chinese behaviour. The primary focus of the research is the ‘power-shift’ theory,
arguably the most popular explanation of the perceived change in Chinese foreign policy. The theory is
based on the neorealist tradition of international relations and it suggests that China started to act
assertively due to changed distribution of power.
The research begins with conceptualizing power to show that essentially the theory asserts that China
acquired the relevant sources of power immediately prior to their employment in the assertive actions. The
subsequent analysis focuses on the South China Sea, which is regarded as the ‘influential’ and ‘crucial’ case
for the assertive China phenomenon. After studying relevant events it is shown that only Chinese actions
since 2011 can be coded as assertive – hence being unusually bold in pursuing own interest by means
qualitatively or quantitatively different from actions of other actors.
It is found that from the six events constituting Chinese assertiveness only one – the oil-rig incident in
2014 – can be sufficiently explained by the power-shift theory. In the remaining five events, China’s power
was necessary but not sufficient independent variable causing China’s assertive behaviour in the South China
13
Sea. In these events, actions of other actors provide sufficient additional variable explaining why China
started to act assertively.
Kata Julianna SZABÓ
University of Zurich
The Role of Chinese Think Tanks in China’s Foreign Policy Formation
Xi Jinping’s ‘super think tanks’ are increasingly seen as relevant actors to China’s foreign policy making.
Focusing on Chinese foreign policy think tanks, this paper aims to assess their role by providing a twofold
research agenda. First, by analyzing the changes in political and organizational circumstances under which
think tanks currently operate, the study explores the most recent mechanisms through which think tanks
contribute to Chinese foreign policy making. Second, based on this analysis, the paper proposes a middle
range theoretical framework that allows structural variations and is therefore less exclusive than previous
think tank theories. Based on the findings of a field investigation conducted in January 2016, the study
identifies six factors that explain the successful impact of think tanks on foreign policy. These are: 1) access
to information, 2) quality and quantity of channels to the central leadership, 3) international embeddedness,
4) analysis skills, 5) reports and publications, and 6) media coverage. The paper concludes that the ultimate
goal of Chinese think tanks is to maximize their influence and function as agenda setters in the foreign
policy making process. In spite of this fact, and in contrast to previous analyses, this study finds that when
practicing their influence, think tanks do not exclusively focus on official foreign policy decision makers, as
influencing the public and the media is now equally important. Finally, a brief case study on think tanks
role in the development of China’s One Belt, One Road initiative provides empirical evidence of the
detected mechanisms at work.
Andrea Ghiselli
Fudan University & Torino Word Affairs Institute
Chinese diplomacy and the use of military force in peacetime: from peacekeeping to salamislicing
In recent years, the PLA has become an important foreign policy tool in the hands of the Chinese
government. However, the explanations of this phenomenon given so far offer only a partial picture. The
analysis of the debate about the concept of Military Operations Other Than War (MOOTW) in Chinese
military publications and the development of relevant laws and institutions show that the transformation of
the PLA into an important foreign policy tool is the result of a crisis-driven process. The nationalization of
the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands by the Japanese government and the evacuation of 36,000 Chinese nationals
from Libya were the main events that determined this outcome. The result of this evolution is a China that
is more willing to engage in cooperation and less reluctant to use force to defend its interests.
Audrey Dugué-Nevers
The University of Sheffield
“China & Soft Power: the dynamics of strategic communication”
This paper provides a theoretical approach on how the shifting global order is shaping international
relations and how China is wielding soft power to alter its image, from a “threat” or “the manufacture of
the world” towards a “peaceful rise”.
The 21st century is a multi-polar world where economies are intertwined, creating a balance of powers.
Power in global affairs is “relational power” (Nye, 2011). The world order crudely lies embedded in a set of
norms, institutions, and coercive power. States are now competing for a better image and shared values to
attract and influence others. Constructivists analyse ideas, norms, and identities. China’s recent economic
growth, spanning three decades in a globalised economy, illustrates that China has become a regional
leader and a prominent actor in international affairs. States have an influence on others, and are influenced
by others, as a result of the circulation of goods, ideas and culture.
In response to the call for papers on Dynamic China, my contribution will assess the impacts of
globalisation on foreign policy and economic power, and examine how states are striving to attenuate
them. Coined by Joseph S.Nye in the 1990’s, soft power involves attraction to culture, policy and values.
This American Foreign Policy concept has travelled to East Asia, and is now meshed in a different context.
It specifically focuses on how China is expanding its cultural and diplomatic influence worldwide, and
14
managing strategic communication with some European countries to disseminate its soft power, enhance,
and facilitate international relations.
International Relations 3
Tsunghan Wu
King's College London
China’s Nation-building Politics in Tibet, 1949-1959
This article provides a preliminarily analytical framework studying nationalism, and takes China’s nationbuilding in Tibet in 1949-59 as an examined case. It defines that nation-building process in a multi-ethnic
country is an ongoing interactive construction between the ethnic groups and the state, which holds a
certain nation-building narrative. Regarding the state-ethnic interactions in such process, this paper argues
that the state tends to adopt accommodated policies when recognizing that it has more advantages than the
ethnic groups; if not, the state tends to adopt suppressive policies. While much of the current literature on
nation-building politics mainly focuses on either national or international dimension, this paper argues that
both domestic and international contexts should be equally analyzed based on the individual case.
This paper then examines the evolevement of the Tibetan issue of the 1950s and considers it as the CCP’s
effort to build the Chinese nation in Tibet, with the narrative of “national territory integrity and ethnic
unity.” Due to that Beijing in the early 1950s substantially built a good relationship with its neighboring
countries, India and the USSR in particular, while Tibet did not receive the international helps and lowly
radicalized, the CCP adopted accommodation, which led to its co-existence with the Dalai Lama’s
government. However, with the bilateral interactions got to worse and the US started to intervene the
Tibetan issue, the Tibetans turned to radicalize. In March 1959 when the Tibetans highly fought against the
CCP, Beijing adjusted its previous accommodation to suppression.
Florence Mok
University of York
Nationalism and Identity Shifts Revisited: Chinese as the Official Language of Hong Kong
Movement (Case Study)
In 1974 , Chinese was recognized as Hong Kong’s official language under the Official Languages Bill. The
campaign to make Chinese as the official language can be traced back to the mid-1960s, a watershed of
Hong Kong history, a period when a new political culture linked to a Hong Kong identity started to
emerge. Despite the significance of the Movement, the campaign has not been covered by existing
literature using archival sources. This paper will examine the organization of the movement, the
motivations of participants, the tactics employed by the activists and the significance of the campaign for
state-society relations. It will use secret government correspondence and reports, supplemented by
published sources such as student newsletters. It will make a new contribution to a nascent historical
literature on the evolution of political ideas and institutions in Hong Kong.
The paper reveals that the Language Campaign was not monolithic with a fixed agenda. It was a spectrum
in which different attitudes could be found. The activists avoided using overt political slogans and used a
‘Chinese’ nationalism to appeal for mass support. Being from Hong Kong and being loyal to China were
compatible, mutually reinforcing senses of belonging. The activists repeatedly identified themselves as
Chinese and revealed to the public that they were not only campaigning for local self-determination, but
for the advancement of Chinese culture.
As such the papers adds a new perspective on identity formation in Modern China, with implications for
the contested politics of culture in Greater China today.
Benjamin Tze Ern Ho
London School of Economics
Dressing up the Dragon – Image Promotion in China’s Race to the Top
Despite China’s meteoric rise, it continues to suffer from an image problem. as a sovereign nation-state
with global ambitions, the managing of China’s national image represents a crucial step in projecting the
ideals of the Chinese state worldwide, and consequently, how it is perceived by other nation-states. This
15
paper will explore efforts by the Chinese government to promote a favorable image, in particular through
expressing its ideas and ideals towards governance. It will argue that “substance, strategy and symbolic
action” are necessary to achieve a favorable nation-image. Through a textual analysis of the speeches of
President Xi Jinping, as compiled in his book “The Governance of China”, the article will evaluate the
extent to which these ideas help or hinder China’s image-promotion efforts.
Claus Kao-Chu Soong
Tsinghua University
Reviving of Empire: How Can Tianxia System Contribute in Solving South China Sea Disputes in
the Era of Globalization?
Can the Tainxia System be the possibly led the resolution of South China Sea Disputes and the explanation
of Chinese foreign policy? This essay aims to point that the concept of Tainxia can explain Chinese foreign
policy in South China Sea Disputes and can possibly provide a solution for South China Sea Disputes with
validation of the Tianxia System, although the concept of Tainxia per se is lack of a clear guidance to deal
with another center, United States, in the region.
I firstly answer questions above mentioned by discussing the concept of Tainxia from a historical
perspective with focus on collapse of the tributary system and the transition of Chinese position in the
world, from “center of the world” to “one among the world”, and by examining Tainxia in the era of
globalization to evaluate whether Tanixia System would be a disguise of an empire dominating its
neighbors, or rather would force China to shape new norms applicable to all states within the system even
such rules is inconsistent to China’s interest. After discussing the interrelationships among Tainxia, empire,
and globalization, I would analyze Chinese foreign policy in South China Sea and conclude that to validate
Tainxia System, China need not only to be powerful enough to establish and maintain international norm
by asking other countries to follow, but also need to be more committed supporting and sharing with other
counties and to take more responsibility on funding and achieving common good in the diversified but
highly connected world.
Politics 1
William Z.Y. Wang
London School of Economics and Political Science
Prestige in Chinese Elite Politics
Whether Chinese elite politics is evolving toward a rule-based game or not has been a matter of heated
debate for a long time. The debate, however, overlooks a critical factor influencing the dynamics of
Chinese elite politics--namely, prestige. This article argues that prestige has been a crucial political capital
that enables Chinese leaders to keep power and perpetuate their influences within the regime. By
examining three periods of leadership succession since 1989, I test the hypothesis that prestige can play a
pivotal role in helping leaders to perpetuate their influences beyond their resignation from the official
posts.
Yin Zhiguang
Lecturer at Exeter
The Concept of “Zhonghua Minzu” (Chinese nationalities) in Political Practices
This paper aims to elaborate the complexity of “national” recognition used in contemporary Chinese
political contexts of “national self-determination” and “regional ethnic autonomy”. The historical subject
of study is the elaboration and application of “autonomy”, especial the one in the context of “national
autonomy”, in the political practices from Constitutional Reform in the late Qing period to the New
Democratic Revolution period. The concept of “Nation,” when combined with the political ideal of social
liberation, encompasses the historical judgment of the relations of production and the development of the
world system. By revisiting the history of Chinese revolution, in particular the appeals for social revolution
in the national liberation campaign during the New Democratic Revolution period, we could see a
theoretical agenda that acknowledges national differences and yet tries to transcend the narrow-minded
version of ethnic nationalism. To New China, the founding of which is accomplished through revolution,
16
the ideation of “Chinese nationalities” is not only related to the antagonistic revolutionary tasks of “antiimperialism and anti-feudalism,” but also closely connected to the more constructive internationalism of
universal care. Only in the dynamic dialectic relations between the 20-century China and world can we put
into perspective the policy of “national regional autonomy” arising in the specific historical process of
Chinese revolution and the universal value hidden behind it.
Meixi Zhuang & Zhengxu Wang
University of Nottingham/Fudan University
Rule Consciousness or Rights Consciousness? A Structural Model of the Relationship between
Political Mentality and the Propensity for Collective Action among Chinese Citizens
Collective action has been rising in China for the past two decades. According to survey data, Chinese
citizens have shown a higher tendency to join boycotts, demonstrations and strikes, when compared with
citizens in some neighboring democratic regimes such as Japan and Taiwan. Why are Chinese citizens
willing to take collective action, despite the fact that civil disobedience is not fully protected by the Chinese
law? It has been suggested that political mentality links to public aspiration for political participation. Yet
China scholars have contested views about whether it is rule consciousness (belief in authoritarianism and
the Party rule) or rights consciousness (belief in democracy and negative rights) that works its way into
popular contention in China. Based on the sixth wave of World Value Survey data, this article aims to
assess the relevance of authoritarian mentality and democratic mentality to the behavioral propensity for
collective action among Chinese citizens. Using a structural equation approach, we specify and estimate the
two rivaling theories in a causal path, and compare them in terms of fit. Empirical data suggests that the
belief in the Party-state and the authoritarian rule it represents plays a sensible role in the causal elaboration
of citizens’ willingness to join collective action, whereas the impact of democratic orientation is ambiguous.
This shows that authoritarian mentality still enjoys great popularity in China, which has important
implications to the dynamics and consequences of popular contention.
Zhengxu Wang & Jinghan Zeng
Fudan University & Royal Holloway, University of London
Xi Jinping and the Changing Norms of China’s Elite Politics
Amidst China’s emergence as a global power, Xi Jinping is pushing through a range of ambitious reform
plans that are reconfiguring both Chinese domestic politics and foreign policy. A fierce anti-corruption
campaign has led to the dismissal of a large number of powerful figures; while a major effort has begun to
bring party, state, and military power within Xi’s control. Many observers have interpreted these moves as
radically altering the rules of game of elite politics, if not creating a personalistic political system. Our
analysis shows that Xi’s corruption fighting and power centralization represent part of his state building
project, in order to enhance the party-state’s capacity for the pursuit of governance objectives. We identify
three rules regarding the Party’s power succession that would provide a critical test regarding how radically
Xi is prepared to upset the Party’s key norms. The outcome of the 19 th party congress in late 2017 would
make it clearer whether Xi is in an effort to further institutionalise Party politics or turning the regime into
his one-man rule.
Politics 2
Rowan Alcock
University of Oxford
The New Rural Reconstruction Movement a Movement for Environmental Sustainability and
Social Justice
This research investigates a "grass-roots" organization called the New Rural Reconstruction Movement
(NRRM). Drawing on qualitative work and relevant literature I link the NRRM to a Western
environmental and social justice movement - Degrowth Theory. This link is designed to bring greater
awareness of the NRRM to western environmentalists and greater awareness of Degrowth Theory to
Chinese scholars, in the expectation that the two movements will find it beneficial to engage in
collaborative research.
17
The NRRM is a movement begun by Renmin University Professor Wen Tiejun's (温铁军) thesis on the
"three dimensional problem of rural China" or "三农问题". NRRM scholars are strong critiques of the
prevailing marketization they see in rural China. In 2005 NRRM volunteers reached a consensus on basic
principles of their work, including "sovereignty in community resources, solidarity, and security in
ecological terms."
This research can be placed in the growing literature on Chinese state-society relations. It demonstrates
that Chinese politics is not a simple monolithic state led project, but is more nuanced. There is space for
non-government organisations critical of state policies to create practical projects and theories to try and
persuade the authorities to change course. This research demonstrates the possibility of progressive politics
in China. It also may give some hope to those looking at China for a grass-roots organisation which is
aiming to address China's environmental and social problems in a holistic research led fashion.
Jean Christopher Mittelstaedt
Sciences Po Paris
The CCP’s Party building efforts and ideology
The leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) must be understood through an interpretation of
its political, ideological and organizational principles that are outlined in the CCP’s Constitution. While
political leadership is cemented within the State Constitution and organizational leadership points to the
importance of leading Party groups within institutions and society, ideological leadership is concerned with
the promulgation of norms. In the context of the CCP’s overall leadership, this paper treats the question of
how ideological leadership should be understood. The relationship between political education and Party
building was formalized in 1994 and 1996, from which it covered all areas of society, from establishing
projects and harmony in the countryside to the establishment of Party groups in organizations. In 2001 a
document on the construction of citizen’s morality was released and in 2002 the CCP Propaganda
Department highlighted the successes made in the construction of a “spiritual civilization”. Under Xi
Jinping, what values are promulgated and how are they cemented? What is the relationship between the
unification of thought within the Party and in society? As the guarantee for overall reform, the unification
of thought within the CCP, the building of a “spiritual civilization” and the subsequent dissemination of
values through the Party institutions and groups remain understudied. At the case of the Standards on
Integrity and Self-Restraint and Regulations on Disciplinary Punishments published in October 2015, this paper will
show the importance of intra-Party rules to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of the Party’s
ideological leadership.
Shangsi Zhou & Jiahua Yue
Renmin University of China
Transitions, Rent-seeking and Elite Opportunities: China and Russia compared
There is no doubt that political corruptions exist in all governments and are widely accepted as political
decay, other than benefits for economies. Nevertheless when comparing the same issue with that of welloperating governments from liberal democracies, political corruption in non-democratic polities such as
autocracies or hybrid regimes tend to be more rampant due to relatively few effective checks and balances
among government agencies and non-state actors. In China and Russia, which are both continent-sized
countries sharing the same communist legacies in ideologies, political cultures, economic strengths, the
wide-spread political corruptions in the form of rent-seeking from elites have exacerbated since their
recent reforms in post-communist transitions. With the purpose of unravel the puzzle of why political
corruption in Russia with electoral democratic system are more severe than that of China under one-party
autocracy, this paper seeks to clarify the causation of political corruptions in the governments of China and
Russia since their respective political economic reform. Centering on the roles of political elite groups and
their privileged opportunities for extra-legal gains during post-communist transitional eras, my assumptions
involve two factors. The first is the structural consequences concerning compositions of interest groups
among power elites caused by the different reform strategies that China and Russia applied to their market
transitions. The second factor that I argue resides in the different bureaucratic arrangements both for the
whole system design as well as central-regional divisions between China and Russia’s political systems.
18
Jiahua Yue & Shangsi Zhou
Renmin University of China
The Logic of Ideological Campaigns under Authoritarianism: Evidence from China
Authoritarian regimes tend to have democratic-sounding names to show their formal respect of human
rights in the form of constitutions. Though scholarly work have offered insights on the motivations of
authoritarian leaders to promote liberal norms, a large proportion of them are limited to macroscopic
cross-national empirical analysis. Other actors within the scale of domestic politics, especially local political
elite, receive less notice. Therefore, this paper attempts to fill the gap by examining the Core Socialist
Values Campaign started by Xi Jinping since October 2012, in which “democracy” “justice” “freedom”
“equality” and “rule of law”, namely principles from liberal democracies, are officially pronounced as
essential components of the “Core Socialist Values” in China. The main argument of the paper is, although
central elites have incentives to utilize the Campaign to buy off the public, the responsiveness of local elites
to the Campaign initiated from above varies across regions by showing different strategic behaviors. Based
on data covering provincial newspapers from 2010 to 2015, this paper finds out both political and
economic factors contribute to the variation. That is, local elites who govern more economically advanced
and modernized regions, or have tighter linkage with the central leadership are more responsive to the
Campaign.
History 1
Ran Lu
University of Manchester
The Rise and Fall of Revolutionary Justice in the 1920s China
The ideology of revolutionary justice is essential for understanding the contemporary judicial system in
China. In the French and Russian Revolutions, revolutionary justice included the use of judicial power by
the ‘People’ in the repression of anti-revolutionaries. That idea was introduced in China during the
cooperation period between the KMT (Kuomintang) and the Soviet Union in the 1920s. Initially, based on
the theory of revolutionary justice, the KMT tried to erode the independence of the judiciary, but this
attempt faced resistance from judiciaries during implementation. When the Chinese Communist Party’s ally
– the left wing of the KMT seized power, especially after Xu Qian took over the post as the president of
Da Li Yuan (the Supreme Court), the process of revolutionary justice was accelerated. Under Xu’s
governance, the ‘People’s Court’ replaced Western-style judicial institutions, judicial power was delegated
to the Labour Union, the Farmers’ Association and other informal judicial institutions which were actually
all under the control of the CCP. Moreover, with the development of the Northern Expedition, these
institutions used ‘Mass Trials’ and ‘Revolutionary Tribunals’ to suppress anti-revolutionaries and build up
their own legitimacy. Such practice went too far and became beyond the control of the KMT regime. It
eventually caused social unrest and undermined the governance of the KMT regime. The practice of the
revolutionary justice was terminated in 1927 but its heritage could still be found in the legal practice both
under the KMT regime and the CCP regime.
Boyu Zhu
Renmin University of China
Opposite Perspectives - Evaluation of the Qing Dynasty History during 1910-1980s in China
History is what has been done. Historical evaluation is a way of subjective cognition yet. The evaluation of
Qing Dynasty’s definite place in history is one of the most important topics of Chinese historical circles
during the 20 century in China. Trend of thought and political power have influence on the discussion. It is
supposed to be a political topic. How to evaluate the Qing Dynasty becomes the political gesture
depending on the trend activation.
In the first 20 years of 20th century, the field of history had negative evaluation of Qing Dynasty depending
on National Revolution which was Anti-Manchu. In the 30th of 20 century, Chinese nation was in crisis of
national subjugation and genocide with Imperial Japan evading China. Meanwhile, Japan took advantage of
the negative evaluation which became the theory tool of invading China and causing ethnic antagonism.
Under the condition of “Chinese nation is a whole-integration of Chinese Nation” discourse, the
evaluation of Qing Dynasty becomes positive.
19
After the founding of PR China, the new history discourse was established. It was divided two different
parts as the year of 1840. It was evaluated in different standard. It is positive evaluation to earlier Qing
dynasty for the territory of China while negative evaluation to later Qing Dynasty for Semifeudal and
Semicolonial Society. It tends to be negative generally. The historic dispute between China and Russia
became one of the focus political struggles during the Sino-Soviet split in 1960-1970s. It again threatened
the ethnic integration and national unity of China. Chinese history field made more positive evaluation for
Qing Dynasty based on it.
It is practical to judge Qing Dynasty. Argumentation of state power legality and The Crisis of Modern
China constitutes a special dynamic tension. This is also confusion for China to tend to be modern nationstate.
Mark Baker
Yale University
Urban Histories of the Henan Famine, 1942-43
Thanks to the efforts of historians, novelists and filmmakers alike, the Henan Famine of 1942-43 has
rightfully taken its place as a major episode in China’s wartime experience. This paper tackles two key
aspects of the famine that have been overlooked by previous studies. First, what was the experience of the
famine in the province’s cities? Second, how did the famine differ in occupied areas compared to the
better-understood territories under Nationalist control?
This paper compares the course of the famine in Nationalist-held Zhengzhou and Japanese-occupied
Kaifeng. Using local newspapers and archival material (both published and unpublished), it argues that the
urban character of these two cities still mattered a great deal, even at a time of social and economic
collapse. It shows that on both sides of the frontline, market- and state-led grain flows still worked to the
benefit of urban areas.
Yet these cities were far from oases of plenty, and rural-urban relations during the famine were marked by
a systemic and very real violence. In bombed-out Zhengzhou, desperate refugees from the city’s rural
hinterland searched desperately for food amid the shattered ruins of this once-prosperous railway town. In
Kaifeng, the occupation-collaborationist authorities could only feed this ancient city by conducting
coercive grain seizures in the nearby countryside. In the end, their half-hearted relief effort broke down,
and the dwindling ambition of Japanese rule in Henan shrank further, as the occupiers struggled to
maintain a stranglehold on cities and railways amid the growing rumble of American bombs.
Li Zou
University of Edinburgh
Chinese Human Body Discourses, 1931-1945
Human body is not only a biological organization, but a cultural, social and political signifier. Through
analysing the human body discourses of China from 1931-1945, this paper aims to study the Chinese
people’s conception of body during the Sino-Japanese war. During this period, human body is an
important discourse as the Nationalist government employed the strengthening of physical body as a
means to achieve nation rejuvenation and modernization. This paper examined the conception of body in
sexual, medical and scientific, social and political discourses and find that these conceptions of human
body are the basis of contemporary China’s establishment of body discourses. It also shows that the
conception of body is subjected to the change of cultural, social and political discourses.
History 2
Jie Li
The University of Edinburgh
The Use of Lenin in China after Tiananmen
In 1989, China met with criticisms from all over the world, due to the brutal military crackdown ordered
by its ruling communist party over civilians during the pro-democratic Tiananmen demonstrations in the
summer of the year. After examining a range of academic and official articles published in China after the
Tiananmen incident, the paper found that Chinese official media and scholarship after 1989 had drawn
20
parallels between the early Soviet state under Vladimir Lenin and China after Tiananmen, when both
regimes were facing international sanctions. They argued that China might learn from Lenin’s teachings,
which championed the continued friendly relations with the West while concentrating on economic
development and maintaining communist dictatorship.
First, Chinese articles put Deng Xiaoping and Lenin on the same altar. The interpretation of Lenin’s
writings was for advocating Deng’s reformist policies and bolstering his position at home against the party
conservative offensive after Tiananmen.
Second, the Soviet Union under Lenin was selected as it had gone well with the stance and interest of
China after Tiananmen, since both regimes were bound by the common aspirations of rising to be global
powers amidst international hostilities. China praised Lenin’s policies that embraced reform and learning
from the West, as the key to keep socialism vital.
The historical episode in the early 1990s demonstrated that the symbol of Lenin and his post-1917 policies
had been manipulated to legitimize the Chinese Communist Party after the crisis in Tiananmen, and to
envision the future direction of China in the post-communist world.
Wankun Li
University of Leeds
Peasants, Merchants and Government Control--A Case Study of Grain Market in Jiangjin County
(1949-1953)
The early years of the People’s Republic of China contain many areas of dispute and debate, but few are as
consequential as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s market management and control before
implementing the State-planned Purchase and Marketing Policies (统购统销).
In Jiangjin County, a rural district of Chongqing now, land reform was quite late in arriving; as a former
Guomindang stronghold, it was considered a very challenging area from the standpoint of consolidation.
From the end of 1949 to November 1953, the county government gradually increased its control over the
grain market by cooperating with the private grain merchants and using the area differential price and
wholesale-retail differential price. It is this struggle that the paper reveals, using an array of material from
newly-opened county archives.
The paper illustrates local aspects of major nationwide campaigns such as the “Three-anti, Five-anti”(三反，
五反) campaigns and to argue that the Five-anti campaign was not only the result of anti-corruption
movement, but also the result of decreasing the price differential of wholesale-retail trade by the
government. During this campaign, merchants’ processing factories were nationalized, and private grain
merchants were eliminated. The Grain Bureaus thus represented a victory for state-planned economy in
the rural areas. The Jiangjin case illustrates how the Communist Government made the first step of its
planned economy.
Hermann Aubié
University of Turku
Reconsidering the Turn against Universal Norms under Xi Jinping from a Historical
This paper seeks to interpret and clarify the political calculus behind Xi Jinping’s crackdown on civil
society by situating it in relation to the recent transnational history of human rights in China. After briefly
reflecting upon key changes that have taken place in China’s increasingly glocalizing society, I will discuss
what can be learned and unlearned from Chinese political history as an attempt to better understand the
historical conditions of possibility under which Xi Jinping’s party-state has been able to tell a particular
story of China that re-activates old ideological terms from Mao’s era while silencing critical voices
(generally seen in the West as progressive-minded forces for whom the options are increasingly severe) and
censoring key words (like constitutionalism) that challenge the very story through which the party-state
hopes to govern the public both within and outside China.
Cai Chen
King's College London
‘Great Battles’ in Science and Politics: Marine Science in Qingdao During the Cultural Revolution
In most of the general discourses on the history of science in China during the ten-year Cultural
Revolution, except several great achievements in physics, medicine and military technology, the science and
21
technology were largely in stagnation. The scientific organizations and institutions were thrown into chaos
and a large number of scientists were criticized and overthrown. However, the history of marine science in
China provided an uncommon story, which will be narrative in this paper.
Marine science after the foundation of the People’s Republic of China had its distinctive characteristics.
For one thing, through the assignation of marine scientific resources and reorganization of marine
scientific system, Qingdao in Shandong Province was built as the center of marine science in China in the
both fields of research and education, where the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Science
(IOCAS), Shandong Ocean College and the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) were built during the
1950s. It was different from most of other disciplines of science, which were based in Beijing, the capital
city of the PRC. For another, due to the limitation of Chinese economic, military development and
international isolation, marine science, especially the fields of oceanography, marine geology and oceangoing technology, etc., was on the periphery of scientific research. The research of marine science focused
on fisheries, marine biology and aquaculture. The Great Cultural Revolution brought changes in the
scientific field. After the early two-year chaos in marine scientific institutions during the Cultural
Revolution, the organization and routine of marine science entered into a different but relatively stable
situation: both of scientific and political works were reorganized with the formation of ‘Great Battles’ (da
hui zhan). With ‘old academic authorities’ in marine science were expelled from the academic center, young
scientists obtained opportunities to conduct their researches, such as desalination of sea water and deep sea
drilling technics, which influenced the progress of marine science in China even after the Cultural
Revolution.
This paper will examine the experience of marine scientists in Qingdao in scientific work, political struggles
and everyday life during the Cultural Revolution and its influence on the development of marine science in
China. Thus, the paper will provide a different narrative on the Chinese history of science during the
Cultural Revolution and a picture of scientific routine, research and everyday life of a group of particular
scientists in local places of China.
History 3
Tawirat Songmuang
Royal Holloway, University of London
‘From Ethnic to National Identity’: Chinese Diaspora, Settlement and Networks in Surat Thani
(from the Late 19 th Century to 1932)
This research seeks to engage with migration of ethnic Chinese, their settlement, networks and the
transformation of their identities from ethnic to national in Surat Thani from the late nineteenth century
through to 1932. While some prior research has been conducted on Chinese migration to Thailand, the
history of Chinese diasporic communities in the area has never been studied intensively. Surat Thani, a
province in Southern Thailand, was meeting place for migrants from many different parts of China, which
made the characteristics of migrant communities and their associated networks quite complicated. Through
observation of the role played by Chinese temples and schools, the chapter is constructed around three
major conception points: the establishment of native-place associations as the centres of networks, both
national and transnational; the improvement in the economy and transportation, especially the
construction of the railway due to industrialisation; and the transformation of Chinese identities from
ethnic to national. These had a considerable effect on Chinese migration and the resulting communities.
Therefore, they provide a lot of opportunities to examine how Chinese migrants built their networks; how
industrialisation had an impact on the migration; and how the Chinese identities shifted from ethnic to
national identities. Prior to the twentieth century, women rarely migrated from China so Chinese men
assimilated into the host society through intermarriage with local women. This fluidity is another
interesting characteristic of Chinese migration and identity.
Julian A. Theseira
The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (IHEID)
“The Bethlehem Mission Society (SMB) in Manchuria: Contested Narratives and Memories of
Imperialism and Nationalism” (Working Paper Title)
22
The following is an abstract of a paper to be adapted from my forthcoming Master’s thesis that examines
the activities and experiences of the Bethlehem Mission Society (Missionsgesellschaft Bethlehem, SMB) in
Manchuria and those of the Chinese to whom they ministered. The thesis is based on primary sources
from the SMB archives currently housed in the Luzern State Archives in Switzerland. The paper will focus
on the contested historical memory of the first SMB Apostolic Prefect in Manchuria, Msgr. Eugen Imhof.
An early edition of the SMB missionary journal had described the missionaries as “conquering soldiers”
subduing new territories for the Kingdom of God. When the Chinese Communist Party gained power in
Manchuria after World War II, they denounced the SMB as imperialists. The missionaries and their
Chinese followers were persecuted and the last Swiss missionaries were expelled from China in 1954.
Chinese historiography has however since attempted to claim Msgr. Imhof was a hero who supported
Chinese resistance against the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and who was allegedly assassinated by the
Japanese. Historical reality was more complex as archival records reveal the SMB provided relief to
Chinese fleeing war while also maintaining relations with the Japanese and their puppet government of
Manchukuo. Historical evidence also suggests the train accident that killed Msgr. Imhof was likely caused
by bandits rather than by the Japanese. The paper will use the contested historical memory of Msgr. Imhof
to analyze the complexities of the construction of Chinese narratives about imperialism and nationalist
resistance.
Yingzi Wang
SOAS, University of London
Politicising Chinese nationhood – the contribution of Gu Jiegang to the ethno-historical discourse
in Republican China
Gu Jiegang 顧頡剛 (1893-1980), is a well-known Chinese historian and sociologist. His ‘stratification
theory’ about how to understand ancient history, and in particular the path-breaking Gushibian 古史辨
(1926) caught the attention of the entire Republican academia. Controversially Gu postulated that the
Chinese did not originate from one ethnic group, and that China had always been a multi-ethnic country.
This idea was strongly opposed by nationalistic scholars working for the Republican administration,
dominated by the Nationalist Guomindang. Since the ruling party emphasised that the notion of one
united Chinese ethnicity (zhonghua minzu 中華民族) was both its raison d’être and ultimate goal for China,
Gu Jiegang represented scholars who preferred to keep their distance from the volatile politics of the
Republic.
In 1939, however, Gu published the article “Zhonghua minzu shiyige 中華民族是一個” (The Chinese
People is United) in Yishi Bao 益世報. In this article, he changed his opinion to demonstrate that the so
called ‘Chinese people’ actually came from one ethnic group, on the basis that the interpretation of Chinese
nationalism and ethnicity had developed significantly by then. The purpose of the present essay is to
analyse and critically contextualise the reasons for this abrupt change. China’s political environment, the
contemporary Chinese scholarship, as well as his inspection tour of Xibei, all influenced his ideas
concerning ethnic minorities and his attitudes towards academic research. Furthermore, this essay
introduced how political issues actually shaped the ideas of nationalism and ethnicity from the Republican
period until today.
Simone O Malley Sutton
University College Cork
Contested Commemorations: Nationalism and the Irish Easter Rising 1916 as portrayed in the
Chinese May Fourth magazine ‘New Youth’
This paper entitled “Contested Commemorations: Nationalism and the Irish Easter Rising 1916 as
portrayed in the Chinese May Fourth magazine ‘New Youth’ is the result of my recent research trip in
March 2016 to Oxford’s China Centre library that was financed by a travel bursary from CACSSS of
University College Cork, Ireland.
The theme of this paper is based upon ‘Nation and Nationalism’ and examines the effect that the Irish
Easter Rising of 1916 had upon the Chinese intellectuals of the May Fourth era as they sought to establish
a modern Chinese national identity through literature. This paper focuses on the article entitled 爱尔兰爱
国诗人 ‘Aierlan Aiguo Shiren’ or ‘Irish Patriotic Poets’ written by Liu Ban Nong for the 1 st October 1916
edition of the influential Chinese “New Youth” magazine found in Volume 2 on pages 141 -8.
23
This paper firstly examines how Irish nationalism and the search for a modern Irish identity through
literature inspired the Chinese in their search for a modern Chinese nationalism in the early twentieth
century. Secondly, this paper will compare the graveside oration by Pearse for O’ Donovan Rossa with the
eulogy by Deng Xiao Ping for Zhou Enlai which led to the April 5 th incident in 1976 in China. Thirdly, this
paper will conclude with an examination of the ramifications this entails for contested commemorative
projects both in Ireland for 2016 and in China for 2019, as different groupings claim to be the true
inheritors of the nationalism of the Irish Easter Rising and the revolutionary May Fourth era.
Public Policy 1
Nina Rotermund
University of Duisburg-Essen
The Chinese Urban Street-Level Bureaucracy and the Guarantee of Rule of Law
This paper deals with the urban management system, the so-called chengguan system which illustrates not
only a platform for state-society conflicts, but reveals several system-inherent deficiencies. Much attention
has been paid to administrative law reforms over the last three decades. Administrative law reforms started
in the 1980s and at first focused on economic modernization and bureaucracy streamlining before the term
“administration according to law” entered the official rhetoric under the rule of Xi Jinping.
But not only legal reforms are necessary to promote the rule of law, political or institutional reforms are
also essential, such as a profound reform of the street-level bureaucracy on which research has been rather
rare. Currently, the cities’ administration suffers from overlapping responsibilities, repeated and even
violent law enforcement which had led to several brutal encounters between citizens and chengguan
officials. These tensions root in central-local conflicts as well as unclear division of duties. As can be seen,
the administrative law enforcement system still follows a more command-control- approach which dates
back to the era of planned economy. But for many Chinese administrative law scholars, the transition of a
system based on administrative law enforcement towards one based on administrative management is long
overdue. The paper wants to contribute an analysis of the system of lower level bureaucracy, its
understanding of “social management” and its potential or challenge towards the establishment of rule of
law in China as emphasized by the Party.
Echo Lei Wang
King's College London
Cross-Sectorial Partnerships as a Framework for Understanding Social Enterprise
There have been many attempts to conceptualise social enterprise. However, no existing literature has tried
to understand social enterprise from the angle of cross- sectorial partnerships (CSPs). This paper presents a
model to illustrate how the emergence of social enterprise could be embedded within the framework of
CSPs. It argues that with two basic features, namely hybridity and social innovation, social enterprises are
essentially an ‘integrated’ form of CSP by nature. As the three major sectors in the economy, namely the
public, the private and the third sector, are becoming increasingly interrelated both in terms of resources
and information flows, and of the social roles they perform, the traditionally divided sectors in the
economy start to converge and amalgamate to form a unified structure — the social ‘welfare mix’ — with
social enterprise being a new form of hybrid organisations at the core. Social enterprise thus becomes the
site where resources, goals, and operations from all three sectors are joined under one institutional roof in
producing public goods and services. This phenomenon could be understood using the ‘integrated’ CSP
framework, because it gives rise to a new form of CSP where sectors become progressively continuous and
indistinct. The case of a social enterprise in China has been used for illustration. By understanding social
enterprise from a cross-sectorial angle, this study not only expands the exiting framework of CSPs, but also
bridges the gaps between what used to be divided literatures.
Nannan Zhang
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
The Effects of Social Assistance and Management Policy for Homeless People in China and
Implications for Further Refinement
24
Background: Policies concerning homeless people have changed a lot during the past decades in China. In
the 1950s, reeducation through participating in production activities is the main way in punishing the
homeless people. In the 1960s, a large amount of rural homeless people in urban areas were repatriated to
their hometown. And in 1982, with the implementation of Regulations on Interment and Repatriation of
Homeless People in Cities, rural people were restricted in their hometown. And the turning point was the
introduction of Social Assistance and Management Policy for Homeless People in 2003 when homeless
people have more freedom in migrating. Until 2016, this policy has been functioned for over 13 years. In
this article, I would like to explore the effects of this new policy by incorporating both the homeless
people’s and officials’ opinions.
Methods: A qualitative method has been employed in this research. Twenty homeless people and one staff
member in the Relief Station had been interviewed in 2014. Homeless people and staff member are all
directly related to the policy and their opinions can complement each other. This can give us a better
understanding of current policy concerning homeless people.
Results: This research shows that current policy is in conflict with new situations. The situation is changing
since implementation of Social Assistance and Management Policy for Homeless People. Firstly, some
illegal begging groups are emerging. Secondly, the function of relief station has been restricted to buying
train tickets for homeless people rather than solving the homeless problem. Thirdly, different sectors,
including police security department and civil administration department, cannot coordinate effectively in
helping homeless people.
Conclusions: In order to better manage the homeless people issues, some measures are needed. Firstly,
household registration systems should be reformed. Secondly, homeless people management should be
accompanied with anti-poverty policies. And thirdly, people-oriented strategies should be enhanced in
homeless people management. Last but not least, there is an immediate need in refining current policies in
defining the concrete responsibilities of different departments so as to enhance a good coordination.
Shanshan Guan
University of York
Understanding the outcomes, reflections on an ethnographic study of social enterprise
Following the implementation of its ‘Reform and Opening Up’ policy in the 1980s, China has experienced
a rapid industrialisation and urbanisation process, creating plenty of employment opportunities in nonagricultural sectors. There are 35.81 million internal rural-urban migrant children in China, however, due to
the Hukou system and other restrictions, migrant children face a variety of challenges with respect to their
school education opportunities, family and parenting, psychological health, and etc. after they migrating to
urban areas. Social enterprise as a form of social economic organisation has become an increasingly
important vehicle to address a variety of social problems. To solve those challenges and to improve
migrant children’s well-being, pioneering social entrepreneurs have been engaging in providing services to
migrant children in China. However, there has been very little empirical research regarding the outcomes
of these social enterprises.
This study aims to provide empirical evidence on the role of social enterprise playing in supporting the
well-being of migrant children in China. This paper discusses findings from an ethnographic study of two
community based social enterprises working with migrant children in China. The aim of these two
organisations is to support migrant women and children. The researcher was immersed in each social
enterprise for six weeks. Acting as a full-time volunteer, she was able to observe daily practices and the
interactions between different groups (social enterprise employees, volunteers, migrant parents and
children). Data from these observations was triangulated with data from interviews and focus groups with
members of these groups and document analysis.
Public Policy 2
Peiqi Deng
University of Warwick
Provision and Funding for Elder Care: A Case Study in Hubei, China
At present, China’s population is aging fast. Longevity risks associated with complex social issues, such as,
the ‘empty-nest’ family and ‘4-2-1’ family model, call desperately for increased elder care services.
25
However, the relatively high cost of elder care raises burdens not only on elderly people themselves, but
also on their children, or even grandchildren. At present, Chinese government has issued relevant policies
concerning the increase in people’s retirement income, advocating several forms of social elder care
patterns, and introducing market-oriented mechanism in public nursing institutions, in order to find out
ways to increase finance and expand social provision for the elderly. Leaving aside fully-funded public elder
care provision, two other funding approaches are ‘fully private’ and ‘public construction and private
operation’ – the last arguably a type of public-private partnership. In this research, I will apply a social
investment perspective to examine provision and funding for elder care in Hubei province, analysing how
social investment has affected the state’s role in financing elder care, comparing funding policies in
different types of nursing institutions, and investigating how these social investment policies affect elderly
people and their families. To avoid looking at elder care solely in terms of old people’s needs, this research
will analyse it in terms of the issue of financing old age – as this is a dimension that is too frequently
ignored.
TIAN Tian
University of York
The Status of Social Workers and their Perspectives on Child Maltreatment in Mainland China: an
Exploratory Discussion
This presentation, from social work point of view, through an exploratory research of the child protection
and welfare status and the examination of the first hand data gathered by interviewing the front-line social
workers in five social work agencies in Beijing, presents a picture of child abuse status quo in mainland
China. The research involved in four face-to-face, semi-structured interviews with agency leaders and five
focus groups with 24 professional social workers.
Different from initial purpose, more problems emerged from feildwork. The workable and feasible
countermeasures for social workers in mainland China have also been explored. This research has
identified three current accessing models to child maltreatment cases used by social workers in the field of
child protection in China, including cooperation with community, school and judicial departments.
Through combining literature and interview data, several advices and suggestions have been given in four
aspects with detailed analysis, including working mode, economic issues, law enforcement issues and
education issues, in the hope that through future studies and joint efforts of the families, communities and
society at large, those problems mentioned in this dissertation will gradually be solved.
Jiabao Sun
King's College London
A comparative study of the impact of two state-led urbanisation strategies on the livelihoods of
surplus rural labourers: case studies from Tianjin and Zhejiang
This paper compares the impact of two modes of state-led urbanisation on the livelihoods of resettled
rural villagers with case studies from Tianjin and Zhejiang. In the ongoing debate over the path for rural
development and human welfare in China, it is unclear whether to integrate the rural area into the urban
area or whether to develop the rural economy independently. Based on eleven months of fieldwork with
resettled villagers in Huaming Town (Tianjin), and Dongheng Village, Wusi Village and Qingyanliu Village
(Zhejiang), this research analyses the two different livelihood patterns generated by the two antithetical
approaches to rural development, the urban-integration approach and rural indigenous development
approach. Focusing on villagers’ capabilities, possession of assets and activities, this paper examines the
imbalances in rural resource redistribution at three levels, among social groups, between villages and across
the rural-urban divide. This research shows that the urban-integration approach leads to a livelihood
pattern which relies on rental income from ownership of properties, leaving unskilled farmers with very
limited livelihood strategies; in contrast, the rural indigenous development approach creates a livelihood
pattern with a balanced dependence on labour and ownership income, generating a diversified livelihood
pattern for resettled farmers. Furthermore, this paper raises deeper structural questions about the driving
forces behind the land rights reforms, which release the liquidity from the rural farming land. It argues that
the structure of incentives in the governance system, particularly at the village committee level, plays a key
role in reorganising and redistributing rural resources; at the same time, having the space and capacity for
village intervention is also critical for the success of the rural development programme.
26
Public Policy 3
Virginie Arantes
East China Normal University
Is Xi Jinping “cracking down” on NGOs? A field perspective of grassroots environmental NGOs
in Shanghai
Despite the restrictions and barriers imposed by the Chinese government, grassroots NGOs have come a
long way in China. Either by working in the shadow of the government in order to obtain a legal status, or
by surviving in a grey zone. This last 30 years, they managed to grow in quantity and quality. In May 2015,
a first draft of China’s Overseas NGO management law was forwarded to the media. More recently, in
mid-March 2016, the long- awaited Charity Law to regulate the philanthropic sector was approved. This
recent law combined with a tense political environment resulting from the ongoing campaigns against
activists and human rights lawyers, has been interpreted by many as a way for the government to
crackdown on civil society.
Our intention in this panel is to investigate the development, strategies and motivations of grassroots
environmental NGOs in Shanghai, as well as the creation and expansion of their innovation process. More
specifically, this panel will focus on how environmental activists and grassroots ENGOs, despite the
political situation, managed to initiate an environmental movement and empower citizens at a local level.
This panel will also represent an opportunity to emphasize other important questions: why environmental
movement in China stands out from other types of social movements? How ENGOs are today capable of
creating complex and nuanced interactions with politics, the media, the internet and international NGOs?
How they constitute new sites and agents where citizens may develop political skills, organize and
participate in civic action?
Hanbin ZHANG
King's College London
Relationships between air pollutant chemical composition and human health in ambient, personal
and indoor exposures in Beijing
Background. UK and China have recently launched a collaboration to tackle air pollution in Beijing. One
of the main objectives of this collaboration is to investigate personal air pollution exposure methods and to
understand associated health outcomes. The Effects of AIR pollution on cardiopuLmonary disEaSe in
urban & peri-urban reSidents in Beijing (AIRLESS) study aims to quantify the association between air
pollution exposure and key cardiopulmonary measures in two contrasting cohorts.
Methods. AIRLESS project will establish two panels comprising 120 individuals each from two existing
cohorts in urban and peri-urban Beijing. Their personal and indoor exposures to PM, NOx, and CO will be
collected using the novel devices while detailed ambient air pollution data will be collected by other
projects, for 10 days each in winter 2016 and summer 2017. A novel dual-wavelength device will be used to
understand sources of black carbon in the home environment. Meanwhile, cardiopulmonary metrics will be
collected at the clinic.
Results. The data collected will aid understanding of contrasts between personal, home and ambient
exposures; examine the relationships between chemical compositions of ambient and indoor exposures;
develop methods to extend the short-term personal exposure measurements to longer periods; and link air
pollution exposures to health metrics. These results will then inform the environmental inequality and
policy-making studies.
Jérôme Douaud
Sciences Po Paris
The governance of environmental issues-at the city level of Beijing
Our goal was to examine the governance of environmental issues at the city-level of Beijing: we decided to
focus on four fields in order to have a comprehensive understanding of this complex network. We thus
studied municipal waste management, green building certificates, energy supply and energy mix, as well as
the transportation system.
We will begin by discussing our findings regarding governance in Beijing before discussing the four
27
research topics we just mentioned to offer a wide perspective on environmental issues at the city-level of
Beijing.
Runya Qiaoan
Masaryk University
David Talks to Goliath: Proactive Participation of Environmental NGOs in China’sEnvironmental Politics
The research examines Chinese environmental NGOs as “strategic actors” in the “strategic action field” of
state environmental policy/law making and implementation. In March 2014, the Chinese premier declared
a “war on pollution”: a series of strict environmental policies and “the most stringent environmental law”
were soon made targeting the polluting industries. In the following year, an average of 10% drop of PM 2.5
was monitored among over 300 Chinese cities. When these changes are discussed, it is mainly actions from
the state side that are noticed. Evidence shows that Chinese environmental NGOs have also been very
active during this period, which begs a question of what strategies they employed to participate in the
environmental politics. To investigate Chinese environmental NGOs’ policy/law advocacy strategies, I
conducted a three-month participatory observation in an environmental NGO in Beijing. Besides, I also
attended conferences between various environmental NGOs and the state officials and carried out indepth semi-structured interviews with environmental NGO leaders all around China. The paper argues
that proactively participating in policy/law advocacy to acquire a dialogue relationship with the state is an
effective way for Chinese grassroots NGOs to achieve their specific agenda on environmental issues. This
research breaks new ground by entangling the black box of environmental policy/law making process in
China. Moreover, it sheds light on general policy advocacy strategies of civil society in an authoritarian
regime.
Literature 1
Jia Jia Teo
Nanyang Technological University
The Play-Element in Chinese Folk Songs Entitled ‘Yue Guang Guang’ (The Moon Shines
Brightly)
In this 21st-century urban life, the more luxurious the entertainment is, the higher the consequential price
is. In other words, such entertainment is only obtainable on monetary basis. More often than not, in trying
to seek quality life, people have failed to notice the simple pleasures around them.
In the early times, Chinese folk songs were one of the entertainments which everyone could afford to have
and they were popular and prevailing at that particular period. Due to their liberal and free-style nature,
they could be composed or compiled according to one’s preferences and memories. As a result, there were
varied forms of Chinese folk songs being widely disseminated in China.
Most of the Chinese folk song corpuses entitled ‘Yue Guang Guang’ (The Moon Shines Brightly) are
indeed nursery rhymes. They represent different traditional cultures of different dialect clans. They also
preserved dialectal sounds as well as rural scenes in different areas. Some of these ‘Yue Guang Guang’
nursery rhymes involved description of the human anatomy and were rendered vulgar. Nevertheless, this
element of vulgarity in the lyric serves as a vital clue to research on folk literature. This is because the
element of vulgarity manifests children’s fondness for games, their standard of knowledge as well as values.
This article will explore the Chinese folk songs ‘Yue Guang Guang’ from three perspectives, namely the
play-element found in ‘Yue Guang Guang’, linguistic changes and cultural context with regard to the
decline of this unique folk song corpus ‘Yue Guang Guang’.
Jianping Hu
East China Normal University
The Struggle Between the Power of Man and the Destiny from Heaven: A Comparative Study of
Zhang Zhan and Xunzi
The debate on the power of man and the destiny from Heaven has been one of the main subjects in
Chinese philosophy and culture for a long time. Both Xunzi, an important figure of Confucianism, and
28
Zhang Zhan, a scholar in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, have raised their arguments upon the subject. While
Zhang Zhan expresses his idea of fatalism in his commentaries of Liezi, Xunzi argues that what man is
confronted is destiny and man could regulate what Heaven has mandated and use it, emphasizing the
objectivity of destiny and the autonomy of individuals. This essay debates on Heaven and man from three
aspects: the definition of destiny, the power of individuals and the reflection of their political thoughts.
This study helps us not only further our understanding of Xunzi and Zhang Zhan, but also explore the
significance of the debate on Heaven and man to Chinese history and tradtion.
Literature 2
Chunxu Ge
University of Edinburgh
The influences of Dickens on Zhang Tianyi
Zhang Tianyi張天翼（1906-1985）—is a distinctive satirist in modern Chinese literature. He stood out in
the literary world at the end of the 1920s, and then rapidly grew up into a new star of the League of LeftWing Writers (Zhongguo zuoyi zuojia lianmeng 中國左翼作家聯盟). Zhang wrote in his article entitled
"Autobiographical sketch" (Zixu xiaozhuan 自敘小傳): "The writers who have influenced me most are
Dickens, Maupassant, Zola, Barbusse, Lev Tolstoy, Chekhov, Gorky, Lu Xun,et al.." Obviously, Charles
Dickens exerted tremendous influence upon Zhang Tianyi (He put Dickens first). In light of this, this
paper will do a comparative study of these two writers.
From 1929 to 1938, according to Lu Xun, Zhang grew up into "The Best Writer" of Chinese new
literature. Like many other modern Chinese authors, Zhang's work echoed foreign literature at the very
beginning. Among those foreign writers, Dickens is the one who influenced Zhang the most profoundly
and deeply. In this essay, the influence from Dickens on Zhang will be elaborated from perspectives such
as the "Character comes first" literary creation concept, choosing a topic, character building techniques,
humorous and satirical writing style, and children’s perspectives, etc.
Flair Donglai SHI
University of Oxford
“Yellow Peril Incarnate”—A Comparative Study of the Performance of Yellow Perilism in World
Literature
This paper offers a comparative analysis of the manifestations of racial politics in 20 th century Anglophone
and Sinophone literatures. As a case in point, I focus on the Chinese dissident writer Wang Lixiong and his
“racist” appropriation of the Yellow Peril ideology in fin de siècle Western popular culture. Wang’s works
often involve the critique of Chinese politics and culture through negative racialisation of the Chinese as
“the Yellow Peril”. By juxtaposing his canonical work China Tidal Wave (Chinese name: Huang Huo
“Yellow Peril”) with the Asian invasion fictions by Jack London and M. P. Shiel, I argue that instead of
some kind of indisputable metaphysical truth, the Yellow Peril ideology is merely a performative cultural
practice that shifts its functions and allegiances according to the socio-political agenda of its practitioner.
Breaking from the academic convention of situating Yellow Perilism only in Western imaginations of
China and the Chinese, this paper also seeks to provide meaningful revisions to the idea of the postcolonial
palimpsest and the notion of “world literature” that has dominated our understanding of literary
appropriations and intercultural communications. Ultimately, this paper advocates a post-structural
understanding of the Yellow Peril discourse, which is shaped by a diverse range of Orientalist and
Occidentalist forces in the making and spreading of world literature.
Wei Peng
Stanford University
When the Knight-errant Encounters the Modern Detective: Scientific Detection and Public Justice
in Chinese Detective Fiction
Detective fiction was first introduced to China in 1896. Along with the burgeoning popularity of the
translations of Western detective fictions, stories of “Sherlock Holmes in the East” started to flood the
popular fiction market in the following half a century. Despite their popularity, these native creations are
29
criticized as mere “shadows” of their Western counterparts, imitating the characterization and plot
construction. This criticism, however, dismisses the perseverance of the Chinese cultural paradigms of the
knight-errant in these stories, which discloses the native agency of appropriating Western classical detective
fiction. The process of appropriation both creates and resolves epistemological and ideological tensions
regarding order and justice at a time of reform and revolution.
In this paper, I examine this innovative appropriation by analyzing one of the most popular and
appreciated Republican detective fictions, The Detective Stories of Huo Sang, which features the first Chinese
consultant detective applying modern forensic science and logical deduction to solving criminal cases in
urban areas. Curiously, the identities of the criminals in these stories are often revealed as chivalrous
burglars and assassins of secret patriotic societies, evoking the imperial paradigm of the knight-errant. I
argue that the introduction of the knight-errant figure in the narrative not only supports a modern
worldview based on science and reason, but also establishes a renewed concept of public justice that is
grounded in the welfare of the people and the society. Engaging with the cultural history of the knighterrant, contemporary intellectual history, and forensic and legal discourse, my paper examines the unique
negotiation of order and justice in the process of nation building in the Republican period. By exposing the
conflation of the idea of order and justice, my investigation highlights the complex nature of Chinese
modernity.
Gender
Mengwei Tu
University of Kent
More Chinese women study in the UK than men: a sign of gender equality in China?
Consistently more Chinese women than men graduated from UK universities during the last decade. The
gender gap was especially wide at the level of a Master’s degree, with Chinese women outnumbering men
by a ratio of 1.5 to 1 in 2012. Mostly funded by their parents, middle class Chinese women clearly had
benefited from family resources and had experienced a rapid increase of social mobility in the international
education system.
However, to what extent does the strong presence of women in overseas education reflect the gender norm
in today’s China? This paper explores the role gender played in this highly educated, transnationally mobile
cohort, by examining 37 interviews with Chinese migrants (aged between 22-38) in the UK who arrived as
students and remained to work as professionals, as well as some of their parents in China.
Focusing on the impact of gender during the migrants’ upbringing, their decision to study abroad, and their
remaining in the UK, the findings show uneven changes of gender norm in China. From a macro-level, the
traditional gendered social expectation is still pervasive among urban middle class families. Nevertheless,
from a micro-level (familial level), the attitudes of gender between parents and children are more covert
and complex. Both generations had to adapt to a new set of gendered expectations as a result of the onechild policy and the rapid economic development.
Mengting Li
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Family Caregiving for the Disabled Elderly in Mainland China: How Does Gender Affect Primary
Caregiver Selection?
Background: Researchers have widely discussed how is a particular child selected from all offspring for the
role of primary caregiver of disabled older adults. Gender has been regarded as an important predictor in
primary caregiver selection. However, the mechanism through which gender has an impact on primary
caregiver selection has not been fully examined, not to mention how it works under different culture and
social contexts.
Methods: Data used in this study were from the 2011-2012 wave of Chinese Longitudinal Healthy
Longevity Survey. Living arrangement was measured by co-residence with spouse, co-residence with sons’
family and co-residence with daughters’ family. Kinship was divided into spouse, son, daughter-in-law,
daughter, son-in-law, grandchildren and others. Multinomial logistic regression models were built to test
the relationship between gender, living arrangement and kinship.
Results: This study found the gender of care recipient has no significant effect on the decision to move in
with adult children, but the gender effect appears once older persons decide to move in with their children.
30
Disabled older adults are more likely to cohabitate with the child of the same gender. The co-residing child
is more likely to become the primary caregiver for disabled older adults than other offspring.
Conclusions and Implications: This study shed light on the missing link between gender and primary
caregiver selection within family. Living arrangement was found to be one of the mechanisms through
which gender impacted on caregiver selection and it played a key role in the organization of family care in
the Chinese context.
Kailing Xie
University of York
The wrong time VS. the right time: Responsibilization of women’s pregnancy among China’s
‘privileged’ daughters
The controversial only-child policy started 35 years ago and officially ended in 2016. The Chinese
government now allows families to have two children. The old policy has created a unique ‘only-child’
generation (Fong, 2004), which is now at the age of marriage and pregnancy. My PhD research investigates
how gender affects the lives of China’s privileged daughters: well-educated women from urban China born
in the 1980s only-child generation. I carried out semi-structured in-depth interviews with 42 participants,
including 11 men. In this presentation I illustrate how, in spite of their unprecedented access to education,
this group of women continue to face major challenges in terms of gender inequalities surrounding
sexuality and reproduction. Focusing on participants’ accounts of pregnancy and abortion I illustrate how
women’s reproductive rights are regulated through managing information provision, particularly sex
education, and upholding socialist morality by the Party-State drawing from Foucault’s concepts of
’discursive’ mechanism‘, ‘disciplinary power’ and biopolitics’ (1977, 1984). My paper centres on
participants’ constructions of the ‘wrong time’ and ‘right time’ of pregnancy. Based on the analysis of the
participants’ descriptions of their life stories and rationales behind their choices, I will discuss the
responsibilization of female reproductive body in contemporary Chinese society. Finally, after presenting
my conclusions, I will use data gathered from recent online forums to discuss the challenges that the newly
implemented ‘two child’ policy might bring to this group of women.
Education 1
Xiaochen Zhou
King's College London
Parental Educational Expectation in Mainland China: the Role of Social Class
Based on Bourdieu’s theory, social capital and cultural capital are crucial elements in the reproduction of
multiple opportunities including the access to educational resources, with important implications on
educational outcomes, labor market differentials and social mobility. However, even though the issue of
social capital, cultural capital and potential inequality of educational opportunity and outcomes have been
widely discussed in the context of mainland China, few existing studies especially large sample studies are
targeting the association of social class stratifications and parental educational expectations and parenting
attitudes. This study will address these gaps in the understanding how social class generated from parents’
education, occupation and income, social capital generated from the families’ network, and parenting
attitude are associated with parental educational expectations using a large national probability sample.
The proposed study will explore a set of hypotheses regarding the relationships among parental
educational expectation, parenting attitudes, social, and cultural capital and social class. Data from the
China Family Panel Study (CFPS) will be adopted, as it contains adequate information on the community
and household background, as well as self-reported scales that assess parental educational expectations and
attitude. The analytical sample size is around 3000 and the proposed study will test whether parental
educational expectation can be delineated by social class and further will investigate the distinctive
dispositions towards the relationship of social classes, parental educational expectation in China.
Michael G. MA
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
31
Cultural Capital instead of Social Capital: The Effect of Children’s Migration on their Educational
Achievements in Contemporary China
Thanks to the massive internal migrations in China, there are almost 100 million children living in the
migrant families. These children, compared with their non-migrant counterparts, are more vulnerable in
terms of the educational achievements. The pervasive reason explained by many scholars is the effect of
social capital, which means the resources embedded in the social networks for children are undermined by
the migration.
This paper, however, argues that the social capital is inadequate to explain the educational differences
between the migrant children and the non-migrant children. In order to examine the relationship between
the social capital and the educational achievements, we utilize the new released China Education Panel
Survey (CEPS). CEPS is a national-wide, representative, and longitudinal survey conducted in the year of
2013-2014. It covers 19,487 middle school students, in which 3500 samples are the migrant children.
The result demonstrates that although the educational achievements of the migrant children are worse than
the non-migrant children, their social capital has no significant difference. On the other hand, our study
further shows that it is the cultural capital that explains the educational differences between the migrant
children and the non-migrant children. Hence, not only does our study empirically explain the educational
inequality between the migrant children and the non-migrant children, but also contributes to the
theoretical debates on the relationship between the social capital and the migrant education. Our findings
also have valuable implications for the improvement of educational policies in contemporary China.
Siqi Zhang
University of Edinburgh
Cultural exchange in higher education: Will the experience of studying in the UK bring about
transformative effect to Chinese students?
There is growing statistical evidence indicating that increasing numbers of Chinese students are going
abroad during the past decades. The experience of studying in Britain means that students can explore how
their conditions can change, for themselves and for the future of their own country. Values and beliefs
move between different social contexts, and this brings about changes to Chinese students. This paper
examines the transformative influence of higher education on young Chinese students, with a special focus
on students who migrate to UK’s higher educational institutions. By exploring the changing ideas and
values of the Chinese students in UK’s universities through qualitative methodology, I aim to investigate
how these students learn about the cultural norms which are different from their own and what is the
influence of being exposed to the different cultural norms when they receive high education in Britain. I
also examine the issue of how UK’s higher educational system provides students with opportunity for their
self-development and in what ways UK’s higher education relates to the empowerment of Chinese
students as well as the transformation of their lives when they integrate into the different cultural context.
Renfeng Jiang
Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin
Researching language learning motivation in Confucian philosophy
In the process of language learning, motivation is commonly associated with the human nature which plays
a significant role. Despite the fact that such human nature can hardly be discriminatingly analysed under
different culture backgrounds, there has been a call for ‘a more oriental approach’ of researching
motivation. For that reason, this paper explores the possibility of applying an ‘oriental approach’, namely,
Confucian philosophical concept of learning motivation, as the theoretical framework to language learners.
The proposed Confucian analytical concept derives from one of the ‘Four Books’ (sishu), The Great
Learning (daxue), which is also considered as a masterpiece of educational theory in ancient China. In the
work, self-cultivation, serving as the core value, was explained in a brief of three principles and eight steps.
These principles and steps have been frequently examined by researchers as ‘a connection between
individual self-cultivation and civil conduct in the social and political order’ (Keenan, 2011, p. 37).
The study aims to apply the Confucian philosophical theory to a particular group, language learners, on
indentifying motives and aspirations in their language learning. This is discussed by generalising the
Confucian motivation approach based on the self-cultivation principles and steps. A further aim of this
study is, by comparing the Confucian approach with Self-Determination Theory, to build a constructive
relationship between the oriental and approach western motivation theory, promoting the development of
32
the Confucian philosophy of learning in the domain of language acquisition.
It is noted that, even after two thousand years, the Confucian philosophy of learning can describe and
explain the motives of mode
Education 2
Xie Han
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Intervention of social work in school violence ----a case study in Beijing
The frequent occurrence of school bullying, which is a serious problem related to education, has aroused
many concerns in China. Intervention conducted by social worker is effective to solve the problem to a
large extent. In this study, a child studied in a secondary school in Beijing, who was always bullied by peers
and schoolmates physically and psychologically, is regarded as the patient of social work service, as well as
the research object. With the combination of Ecological Systems Theory and practical intervention
methods, the social worker had provided services for the child 8 times in 2014, so as to explore why this
child was always bullied by peers and help the child alter the victimization situations. Throughout the
intervention process, the social worker has used qualitative methods including participate observations and
interviews to understand the physical, psychological and social environment conditions of the child,
excavate her potential abilities, help her to establish a social support network actively. From the case study,
we can explore and reflect the intervention methods of case work, which may contribute to the
advancement of China’s educational system.
This study not only complement the existing literature, provide a new point of view about how to treat
school violence problems at a micro-level, but also advocate the popularity of school social work and more
emphasis on students’ psychological and social problems, put forward the anti-bullying policies and
regulations formulated by education department and schools in China.
Jing Kun Bai
Institute of Education, University of College London
A Comparative Analysis of Citizenship Education in China: What does this suggest regarding
China’s democratization from 1949?
1978 is suggested as a major turning point in the history of the People Republic of China since the
communist party came to power in 1949. Since China determined reforms for achieving ‘the
modernizations’ as a national goal from 1978, China has made great achievements in terms of economy,
social and education. Currently, China boasts the world’s second–highest Gross National Product, and
more than 90 per cent of the population is able to read and write. These structural changes are known in
the literature to facilitate democratization, however China remains the largest and most dynamic one-party
dictatorship in the world. Thus, it is relevant to ask whether democracy has developed following Chinas’
economic growth, and in which directions China may develop in the future. This study investigates the
features of democratization in China by a comparative analysis of citizenship education, the curriculum and
the compulsory ‘Politics’ course before and after the reform from 1949 to the present day, and explores
possibilities for democratic development in the future. Education is a part of China’s state institutions.
Education, in particular citizenship education policies, curriculum and teaching content can directly reflect
some features of democratisation within a country. The analysis includes classroom observations and
interviews with teachers and students at five Chinese universities.
Yuan GUO & Ning TANG
Sheffield Hallam University
Western theories and Chinese practice: Practitioners’ perspectives on MI curriculum and
pedagogy in a private kindergarten in China
This paper is based on a PhD project which is an ethnographic study conducted in China. The PhD
project explored different perspectives on the curriculum and pedagogy in a Chinese private kindergarten
which adopts the Western Multiple Intelligence (MI) programme. This paper focuses on the practitioners'
perspectives: What are their views and experiences of implementing the MI curriculum and pedagogy?
33
How do they conceptualise 'learning' and 'play'? What are their concerns and dilemmas in delivering a
Western programme in the Chinese context?
The paper addresses these research questions by firstly review recent China’s pre-school education reform,
national policy initiatives and the development of private kindergartens in the background of socialist
market economy and globalisation. It critically reviews academic debates around the development of preschool education and the application of Western educational theories and teaching models in a Chinese
context with a strong Confucian tradition. This is followed by a reflection of data collection methods
employed in gathering views of the practitioners at different levels of the private kindergarten, and the
researcher's role of both an outsider and insider in the ethnographic study. Data presented illustrates a
changing perspective on children and children's rights in pre-school education in China. The paper
therefore argues for a need to address the challenges faced by Chinese private kindergartens in the delivery
of Western programme, such as understanding children and children’s rights, as well as meeting parental
expectations and the national requirements of pre-school education in China.
Li Siyuan
University of Leeds
The Dynamics and Effects of China’s Power/Knowledge in Africa: A Case Study of China’s
Confucius Institute in Sub Sahara Africa
This thesis adopts a Foucauldian perspective to analyze China’s Confucius Institute (CI) with the case
study of the CI in Sub Sahara Africa (SSA). In Discipline and Punish, through his analysis of the power
technology in a disciplinary society which fundamentally operates through strategies of normalization on
human bodies, Foucault shows the dynamics of power/knowledge as well as a productive notion of power.
The CI has caused a great deal of attention because of its phenomenal growth and controversial incidents,
especially in the West. Current research on the CI sees it as a fixed reality of China’s extended presence, an
objective tool of China’s foreign diplomacy, or a physical vehicle to transport China’s influence via the
promotion of Chinese language and culture; but none has done a systemic research to deconstruct the
organization, to examine the internal operations of power under its concrete shell, to find out how the
operations of power produce institutionalized subjects and other effects that may be useful not only for the
CI but also for the enhancement of other forms of China’s presence and relations with other countries.
With a fine-tuned Foucauldian conception of power as the theoretical framework, this thesis aims to fill
this gap in the research of the CI.
Culture and Technology 1
Marianna Tsionki
Manchester Metropolitan University
Sacrifice zones: An aesthetic response to digital materiality
Rare earth industry has contributed to China’s strategic dominant position in global economy. Rare earth
minerals are essential in the manufacturing of hi-technology products such as mobile phones, and laptops
as well as for the developing of defence systems and green energy technologies. The increased availability
of these devices in our contemporary technologically mediated societies have created the dystopian area of
pollution and human exploitation of Bayan Obo Mining District. Bayan Obo mining region in Inner
Mongolia is the largest Rare Earth metal deposit in the world holding 75% of the known global reserves
accounting for more than half of China’s current rare earth minerals production. In 2014, Unknown Fields
a group of architects and artists based in London visited Bayan Obo and created the film ‘Behind The Scenes
of Technology: Inner Mongolia Rare Earth Mineral Mines’ revealing a terrifying natural and social landscape.
Recently, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary in Vienna staged the exhibition Rear Earth featuring the
works of 17 artists each one representing one of the 17 rare earth elements. Focusing on these two works
this paper aspires to explore intersections between nature and technology through the lens of cultural
production and argue that digital technology is not simply a medium that separates humans from “true”
materiality but is itself a new materiality consisting of raw matter, energy and social relationships. The
paper will explore the impact of these practices on the distribution of the sensible in the era of the
Anthropocene.
34
Paul Gardner
University of Glasgow
Is the purpose of censorship in China only to curtail collective action?
King et al suggest censorship in China is now simply focused on preventing possible collective action and
that Chinese citizens are allowed ‘the full range of expression of negative and positive comments about the
state, its policies, and its leaders’ (2013, 14).
My paper, based on an analysis of propaganda instructions sent to media organisations, shows that Chinese
censorship is not limited to curtailing collective action. Although the propaganda authorities are much
more selective about censoring information related to Party/state criticism than under Mao, they use a
range of tactics to manipulate sensitive information about the state, its policies and its leaders in the news
media and social media, in an attempt to create an information environment that is favourable to the
Party/state.
Far from allowing ‘even vitriolic’ criticism of Party leaders (King et al, 2013, 1), the authorities sought to
ban content which simply pokes fun at senior Party leaders. The authorities also intervened to censor some
information on living standards and environmental problems where there was a risk that people would be
particularly critical of the Party/state and/or where there was potential for those criticisms to reach a large
audience.
As well as banning some content in news coverage and on social media, the authorities also sought to set
the agenda by instructing the news media to limit their coverage of particular issues, not to use certain
words or forcing them to run government approved content.
Adam Knight
Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford
Peer-to-Peer Content Control on the Chinese Internet
The development and spread of ICTs has challenged the Chinese state’s centralised monopoly over
content creation and dissemination. Hitherto faced with the control of a handful of easily identified,
controlled, and compliant, if not always docile, licensed media mouthpieces, houshe 喉 舌, the internet has
transferred the ability to produce content into the hands of hundreds of millions of users at the margins of
society - the rise of a ‘microphone era’, maikefeng shidai 麦克风 时代, in which the mass- circulation of
public content is no longer the exclusive right of the state.
This has required a significant shift from a highly centralised model of content control, to one focussed
primarily on the periphery of content creation - that is to say, the users themselves. My research has
attempted to provide a case study of one such mechanism, the Weibo Community Management System
(CMS), as a way of exploring alternate methods of content regulation. Previous studies of content control
have focussed predominantly on vertical conceptions of censorship, precluding emerging horizontal forms
of control. The CMS was chosen as it presents a distinctive and supplementary censorship model to
previous studies’ dichotomous focus on vertical ‘state-on-citizen’ regulation. I have sought to position the
CMS’s method of handling non-political content as the emergence of a non-state horizontal control
structure, something I term as ‘peer-to-peer’ (P2P) censorship.
Damin Tang
SOAS, University of London
Hyper-Publicity and Exile of Publicness on Tiananmen Square
Concerned with the politics of space and the spatiality of politics, this essay zooms in on the interrelations
between the Chinese party/nation state, globalization, media and public spaces. Locating Tiananmen
Square in what P.M. Thornton (2010) calls “landscapes of power”, and exploring the signifying and
mediating functions of the square as media-architecture, proposed by Scott McQuire (2006), this essay
aims to reveal how the Chinese party state has managed to overlay new meanings on an iconic site of
collective triumph and trauma, orchestrating a “new square experience” for the speculating and consuming
publics that is driven and characterized by what I call hyper-publicity. The essay traces the square's origin
in Republican China during its first wave of urbanization in the 1910s and1920s, revolving around the
milestones in its trajectory from being the prototypical protest site, particularly in the May 4th protest in
1919 and Tiananmen protest in1989, all the way till recent updates in the 2010s. I particularly pay attention
to the various types of media spectacles staged on the square – of celebrations and revolutions, the recent
35
deployment of media equipment on the square such as surveillance cameras and huge screens, the addition
of the other-worldly National Centre for the Performing Arts in the vicinity of the square, and renovations
of the National Museum of China that carefully kept its iconic Mao era front façade untouched but
replaced everything behind it. These case studies facilitate a close examination of the relationship between
spectacle and politics, attraction and surveillance, public space and publicity, as well as China’s ambivalent
relationship with global capitalism.
Culture and Technology 2
Linxi Li
King's College London
The Technical Production of the Unofficial Publication in Beijing (1978-1981)
The unofficial publications in China have experienced remarkable ups and downs in reform era. In the late
1978, private publishers in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai aroused both the official and public’s
attentions rather than surviving underground during the Cultural Revolution. Though this prosperity was
suppressed by the authority in 1981 after reaching its culmination in the mid-1979 with the toleration of
the CPC leaders, the production of unofficial publications played a crucial role in contemporary Chinese
intellectual history. Other than political influence, an emphasis on cultural continuity will be concerned. In
this essay, I will focus on the technical production – mimeograph printing – of the unofficial publications.
By examining the mimeograph printing history in China and the actual mimeograph condition of the
publications, I will delineate a complete process of the mimeograph practice. I will also analyse an
exceptional breakthrough, to uncover a possible power relationship behind the authority and the unofficial
journal Beijing Spring (北京之春 Beijing zhichun) editorial board, who produced the only letterpress issue
and successfully delivered it to its readers. Comparing the generality and the exception, it is obvious that at
least in contemporary China, the possibility and the degree of technical practice are deeply rooted in the
relationship between the editorial board and the authorities.
Biye Gao
SOAS, University of London
Technology and Reproductive Governance in an Information Era in China
With the development and popularization of Internet and escalating rural to urban migration within China,
the reproductive politics are becoming increasingly influenced by information technology, which can be
particularly demonstrated from the establishment of the population control system named PADIS
(Population Administration Decision Information System) in 2009, where females’ information of
marriage, contraceptives, births and childbearing is maintained and shared by different birth planning
officials across the nation. Since then, the birth planning work transits from a coercive implementation by
force to one governed by information input, share and control. Based on a nine-month ethnography in
Hunan, China, including interviews with 20 birth planning cadres in different villages, towns and districts,
this paper seeks to explore how the development of technology impacts on the population governance,
and how the decision making of birth planning officials is constrained and enabled by the use of
information technology. As a result, this paper will contribute to the relatively scant literature on
information technology and reproductive governance in contemporary China.
Shihua Ye
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
NPO 2.0: What drives Chinese NPOs to adopt and use of Web 2.0
The development of Chinese third sector has been greatly influenced by Web 2.0 technology. The
emerging body of studies has explored whether Web 2.0 technology has been adopted and how the
Chinese NPOs use this new technology. However, why the Chinese NPOs adopt and use this new
technology has seldom been studied. In order to fill this research gap, this study explored what drives
organizational adoption and use of Web 2.0 based on a nationwide survey conducted in 2014 to 2015.
Since there is no list of grass-roots NPOs existed, the study accessed to GPOs with the help of supporting
organizations in the particular region, and worked with some influential domestic new media. The efforts
36
yielded 569 GPOs with 547 valid cases. We found that despite heavy Internet censorship and unbalanced
relationship between government and civil society in China, Chinese GPOs are tapping into a high level of
utilization of Web 2.0 technology. Like their Western counterparts, organizational strategies, capacities,
governance features and external pressures all play a part as driving force of Web 2.0 adoption. Through
this integrated perspective, this study further our understanding of Chinese GPOs. Besides, because of
unique legitimacy issue facing by Chinese GPOs, building legitimacy through improving public
acknowledgment and brand of service is the most important concern of GPOs.
Culture and Technology 3
Sheng Qu
The University of Manchester
“China Dream” meets China Dream Show: On the Nature of Public Benefits in Chinese Talent
Shows
Under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, the “China Dream” has become one of the most significant
political ideologies promoted by China’s party-state system. Recently, the emphasis placed on the “China
Dream” in Chinese state-run media has shifted from hard news to entertainment. Zhejiang Television has
produced a talent show entitled China Dream Show (2011-present) that emphasises the conception of public
benefits (gongyi) by helping ordinary people realise their dreams outside of the television show. This paper
examines the transformation in the format of Chinese talent shows away from “pure entertainment”
towards a growing focus on “public benefits”, exploring the relationship between “public benefits”,
entertainment and the “China Dream” discourse. Regarding China Dream Show as a kind of neoliberal
theatre with Chinese characteristics, I argue that participants rely on both rationally demonstrating the
feasibility of their dreams and emotionally narrating their significance as two intertwined expressive tools
of dream-realisation. In particular, “sensational expression| (shanqing) has become the part of neoliberal
governing technology so as to manage the results of the show. Meanwhile, the nature of public benefits as
packaged by entertainment discourse not only avoids focusing on the role of government responsibility but
also dealing with sensitive public issues so that the party-state is able to maintain control over the meaning
of the “China Dream”.
Zipeng Li
University of Edinburgh
Online News Discussion: A Chance to Influence the Disaster Policy? -- A Case Study on Online
News Discussion’s Impact on Policy Initiatives of Tianjin Explosion in China
It may be too early to judge the Internet’s function for political democratization in China. However, it has
extensively drawn scholars’ attention for its political implication. Scholars have discussed he potential
political function of online forums and blogs in China(Yang, 2009, Hassid, 2012). But very few have
conducted research on online news discussion from the policy impact perspective. This paper focuses on
the relationship between online news discussion and policy initiatives with respect to the Tianjin Explosion
Case. Policy initiatives here refer to new policy introductions and policy modifications. We generate the
theoretical framework based on the theory of agenda setting(McCombs and Shaw, 1972) and “policy
entrepreneur(Mintrom and Norman, 2009)”.
The specific questions include: what is the relationship between policy initiatives’ agenda and the online
news discussion agenda? Would policy entrepreneurs within the Chinese government refer to online news
discussion for policy making? Would some people on social media work as “peripheral policy
actors(Mertha, 2009)”? As top level policy making is still a lockbox(Zheng, 2008), we explore two aspects
of the relationship of social media and policy documents: the theme correlation linked by key words and
the publication sequence. With the assistance of Sina news comments and the Chinese government press
conference speeches, the paper applies content analysis to both online news discussion data and policy
initiatives related to the Tianjin Explosion Case.
Sha sha Wang
Durham University
Visualising China through the Lens of the West: A Critical Analysis of British TV Documentaries
on China
37
Literature shows that Western representations of China in the past have undergone distinct stages from
early explorers’ awe to Jesuit missionaries’ praise, documentation of Chinese culture, a philosophical
idealisation of Confucianism, and then the disillusionment with China’s changelessness (Mackerras, 1991).
The Eurocentric image of “Yellow Peril” had powerful resonance ever since the Victorian age (Kiernan,
1972). However, with the rise of China as the most important emerging power especially in 21st century,
contemporary China has undergone great changes, whilst Western representations of China seem still
operate within stereotype frameworks. Nowadays, with the development of mass media and its influence
on people, a large growing depictions of China image in the eyes of the West derives from the western
mass media when reporting and representing China or themes related, but research on how the West
perceives Contemporary China or represents China through mass media way especially the visualisation
way of TV documentaries has scarcely been mentioned or researched.
This study is to explore and analyse the Western perceptions of Contemporary China in the context of the
rapidly-changing global power dynamics of 21st century through visualising China in the lens of the
Western mass media. Specifically, the study will involve investigating and analysing two critically-selected
British TV documentaries on China as the main case studies, The Chinese Are Coming, 26 Feb 2011, BBC 2;
China: Triumph And Turmoil, 12 March 2012 in order to give a depth picture of Western representations of
China.
The study aims to use an interdisciplinary analysis focusing mainly on semiotics to contextualise
visualisations of China. Through a combination of several visual methodology approaches including
semiotic analysis, multi-modal analysis and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this research intends to
bring the study of Contemporary China a much closer, deeper but also fresh angle.
Culture and Technology 4
Tommaso Gianni
Independent scholar
The Pedagogies of the Leung Ting WingTsunKuen 梁挺詠春拳: A Comparative Approach
This paper explores a pedagogic trend within Asian martial arts practiced in the “West”, taking as a case
study the Leung Ting lineage of WingTsunkuen. It compares the pedagogy adopted in South Korea to
teach this Chinese system with teaching methods used in England, Germany, and Italy. WingTsunkuen
syllabus has been updated a number of times as various grandmasters have modified their pedagogies to fit
a variety of purposes. Teachers attempt to remain loyal to the system while moderating their methods to
meet the desire of most students to learn practical self-defence.
Data for this comparison are drawn from historical and contemporary texts along with ethnographic fieldwork, including two years experience of participant-observation in WingTsunkuen classes in Seoul and
long term past training experience in Livorno. This paper analyses the comparative data and proposes
reasons for the pedagogical differences between classes in Korea and Italy. It argues WingTsunkuen
pedagogical changes are the result of negotiating tradition with modernity in an attempt to provide an
updated, efficient, and “realistic” course in self-defence, as preferred by the mass of students. Scholarly
communities have also contributed scientific knowledge to this trend as martial arts classes have been
adopted into the curricula of a growing number of institutions of higher education.
No research has yet compared the pedagogies in different classes of a single Chinese martial art. This
report attempts to fill that gap in the scholarly literature by providing a comparative theoretical model for
researchers studying change in martial arts. Instructors may also find this model will assist in developing
training methods.
Ni Lu
University of York
Activating interviews: BL fan culture in China
Up to now, BL culture, as a newly arising fan cultural among young generation in China, has been
developing tremendously. Along with the development of many popular phenomena on the internet, a
variety of BL novels, comics, games, drama, broadcasts and movies have been expanding. However, as for
the formal academic study, the related literature is very rare, which indicates the value in studying BL
38
culture in China. Adopting qualitative case studies as research method, this paper is aiming at finding out
why many Chinese young heterosexual women, who identified themselves as ‘Fu Nü’ (Rotten girl), read
Boy’s Love (BL) manga today. BL is a Japanese term for female-oriented fiction featuring idealized
romantic relationships between two males. Due to the lack of existing knowledge about Fu Nü group and
the potentially stigmatised label they have, with regard to sex and homosexuality in China, work of
investigating BL fan culture is important. Since the 1970s, as an emerging but influential part in LGBT
issues, many Asian (mainly originated from Japan BL manga) and Western studies have been conducted
from a variety of perspectives on this specific genre of female fantasies of male homosexuality (Nagaike,
2009). Scholars, mostly in Japan and Western countries, have tried to explore whether BL is a meaningful
step in the development of feminism. However, there is little on Chinese BL culture and what does exist
related to Taiwan (Martin, 2012) and not the PRC. With the help of feminist theories on gender and
sexuality, I propose to investigate young women’s self-identity and self-fulfilment in this BL fan culture,
and same-sex element’s popularity in this paper.
Bing Wang
University of Leeds
Cultural? Ethnic? The relationship of Han and Hakka through the investigation of a Hakka
Ecomuseum
Hakka is often considered as a subcultural group of Han Chinese, but some literature does refer to Hakka
as an ethnic group. This depends on the angle of the authors but also expresses the complexity of ethnic
and cultural identity and policies in China. Hakka often enjoy belonging to the Han because this identity
endows the Hakka with a touch of nobility and ethnic pride. However, since late 1980s, the studies of Han
have emerged and the inner diversities within Han Chinese started to attract attention. However, though
described as an analogue of Critical White Studies in a European context by some non-Chinese scholars,
the critical Han studies did not try to dissect the inner diversities of the Han but to confirm that Han is a
unified whole through the ‘snowball’ theory coined by the peerless sociologist Fei Xiaotong. This idea no
doubt has influenced how Han Chinese see themselves and the country and also Chinese diaspora. A grand
historical narrative of China emerged and is being represented in all forms of communications. Museum is
an effective way to consolidate this narrative. As such, when museums about Hakka emerge, it is worth
noting how Hakka is presented and in what way if we try to understand the meaning of Hakka in a modern
world. Hakka is a global community and continues to thrive inside and outside China. Building museums
for Hakka people also raises the question of the concept of ‘heritage’ and ‘world heritage’. Whose heritage
are we really preserving? Hakka culture or simply Han culture with the name of Hakka? Does every Hakka
has the right to alter the content of the heritage? Whose interest are under protection? Han or Hakka? Or
both? I explore the possible explanation of the relationship of Han and Hakka through my fieldwork to a
Hakka ecomuseum and this may be helpful in looking at cultural diversity in China in a nuanced way.
Dr Martina Caschera
University of Naples
Chinese cartoon in transition, from the “modern magazine” to the “online carnival”
By definition, the cartoon (satirical, single-paneled vignette) “reduces complex situations to simple images,
treating a theme with a touch of immediacy. A cartoon can mask a forceful intent behind an innocuous
facade; hence it is an ideal art of deception” (Hung Chang-tai, 1994:124). As well as their western
counterparts, Chinese cartoonists have always based much of their art on the strong socio-political
potential of the format, establishing a mutual dependence of pictographic material and press journalism.
Starting from a media perspective, the present paper primarily aims at showing how Chinese cartoon
developed from 1920s-1930s society, when the “modern (xiandai 现代, modeng 摩登)” magazine was the
most important reference and medium for this newly born visual language, to the most recent participation
to the “online carnival”(Herold and Marolt, 2011:11-15). In last two decades, the Internet has become the
elected “space” for Chinese cartoonists’ visual satire to take part in an international public discourse,
therefore substituting magazines and printed press. Through emblematic exempla, this paper seeks to
understand how cartoonists’ critical efficiency, communicative tools and peculiar aesthetics relate to the
context, i.e., to answer the following questions: how Chinese modern cartoon changed, from the first
“modern” exempla to the latest online expressions? Is its original power of irreverence still alive and how
did it “survive”? How have modern (Lu Shaofei, Wang Dunqing, Liao Bingxiong) and contemporary
39
cartoonists (Rebel Pepper, Crazy Crab, Ba Diucao) been dealing with governmental intervention and
censorship?
Finance
Lifang Hu
Renmin University of China
Credit Demand by Traders in Chinese Agricultural Wholesale Market: A Heckman Model
Analysis of 1407 Traders
Traders in Chinese agricultural wholesale markets play an important role in ensuring food supply,
flourishing market transactions, and increasing farmers' income. Based on a structured questionnaire date
of 1407 agricultural traders in 18 Chinese wholesale markets, this paper analyzed the probability of
borrowing and loan amount by agricultural traders and used a Heckman two-stage model for the analysis.
First, it is revealed that corporations with more years of running and affiliation to trading associations are
more likely to participate in the credit market than their counterparts. It is strongly recommended that selfemployed traders and partnerships transfer themselves to corporations to enhance their business
management and risk aversion for improved financing. Moreover, Business scale has an inverted u-shaped
impact on loan amount. Last, financing from formal credit sources like commercial banks should be
strengthened since it is attempt to provide higher value of loan than informal sources.
Eric Schmidt
King's College London
Financial System with Chinese Characteristics: Understanding Privately-Owned Enterprises’
Access to Finance in a Supplemented Financial System.
My paper argues that when we apply financial systems design theory to China, we are overlooking an
important sector: the shadow-banking sector. My key argument is that this sector has supplemented the
shortcomings of the formal financial sectors in China. In a financial system, that is geared towards
providing cheap access to capital for large SOEs, this sector has developed a platform for those with
excess capital and those in need. By supplementing the financial system, it has provided functions that
financial systems design theory tends to attribute to the formal financial sectors.
Financial systems design theory has focused on the relationship between the formal sectors of the financial
system and their impact on economic growth. It has categorized financial systems using a bank-based vs.
market-based dichotomy. The former tends to produce large corporations, while the latter provides easier
access to capital for small- and medium-sized enterprises in particular. The Chinese financial system is
heavily dominated by the banking sector and by state-owned commercial banks in particular. The four
largest control 75% of financial assets in China. All of this should mean that SMEs should have an easy
access to bank loans. However according to the World Bank Investment Climate Survey only 25% of
enterprises in China have access to a line of bank credit. Despite this only 2.9% of enterprises identify
access to finance as a major constraint on their business activity. That begs the important question: how is
the shadow banking sector supplementing the Chinese financial system?
Qing Xu
King's College London
The Breakthrough of Private Wealth, a Case Study of Chinese New Financial Institutions in the
City of Wenzhou
This paper is a part of my PhD thesis presenting the case study conducted interviews in Wenzhou. It is
showing the status quo of New Financial Institutions (NFIs) there. It will analyze the foremost services
and clients of NFIs, whether financial practitioners are satisfied on, as well as their reactions to policies and
regulations launched by the government, one by one. This paper finds that, as a classic city based on the
private economy, the legitimacy of NFIs is very attracting for private capital transferring from shadow
banking to participate in Wenzhou. First, NFIs, as microfinance institutions, are serving diversified
products to rural and small business by the ways of self-efficiency. NFIs agree with that regulations
regarding standardization are beneficial for the long-term development of their institutions. Nevertheless,
40
they are complaining that barriers on entry, and little policies/tax support are hindering further
development. Responding to the existing regulatory framework, NFIs’ organisations and services are much
standardised than informal finance. However, given the barriers on entry, abundant private enterprises that
have high willingness to invest in banking are squeezed out of this industry and only larger private
enterprises are confident that NFI is sustainable enough. The major interviewees are considering not
transferring into completely formal microfinance institutions. The research also finds that there is no
preferential sequence ranking the primary choice of credit demanders among NFIs and other financial
institutions both formal and informal.
41
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS (in alphabetical order)
Name
Institute
Oxford Internet Institute, University
of Oxford
King’s College London
Fudan University & Torino Word
Affairs Institute
The University of Sheffield
Ca’ Foscari University in Venice
London School of Economics
University of Leeds
SOAS, University of London
Email
[email protected]
[email protected]
Chunxu Ge
Claus Kao-Chu Soong
Damin Tang
Martina Caschera
Echo Lei Wang
Eric Schmidt
Eurydice Fotopoulou
Renmin University of China
King's College London
King’s College London
University of Edinburgh
Tsinghua University
SOAS, University of London
University of Naples
King's College London
King's College London
University of Greenwich
Flair Donglai SHI
University of Oxford
[email protected]
Florence Mok
University of York
[email protected]
Francisco Urdinez
King's College London
[email protected]
Gabriel F. Y. Tsang
[email protected]
Hanbin ZHANG
King’s College London
King’s College London
King's College London
Helly C
Independent Researcher
Adam Knight
Agatha Kratz
Andrea Ghiselli
Audrey Dugué-Nevers
Beatrice Gallelli
Benjamin Tze Ern Ho
Bing Wang
Biye Gao
Boyu Zhu
Cai Chen
Chunsen Yu
Guannan Li
[email protected]
[email protected]
/
/
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
/
[email protected]
Hermann Aubié
University of Turku
Jean Christopher Mittelstaedt Sciences Po Paris
Jérôme Douaud
Sciences Po Paris
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Jia Jia Teo
Nanyang Technological University
[email protected]
Jiabao Sun
Jiahao Guo
Jiahua Yue
Jianping Hu
Jie Li
King's College London
Durham University
Renmin University of China
East China Normal University
The University of Edinburgh
Institute of Education, University of
College London
Royal Holloway, University of
London
[email protected]
[email protected]
/
[email protected]
[email protected]
Jing Kun Bai
Jinghan Zeng
42
[email protected]
[email protected]
Julian A. Theseira
Kailing Xie
Kata Julianna SZABÓ
Konstantinos Tsimonis
LI Siyuan
Li Zou
Lifang Hu
Linxi LI
Liu Chang
Marianna Tsionki
Mark Baker
Meixi Zhuang
The Graduate Institute of
International and Development
Studies (IHEID)
University of York
University of Zurich
King’s College London
University of Leeds
University of Edinburgh
Renmin University of China
King's College London
China Foreign Affairs University, the
University of Warwick
[email protected]
[email protected]
/
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Richard Q. Turcsányi
Rowan Alcock
Runya Qiaoan
Manchester Metropolitan University
Yale University
University of Nottingham
The Chinese University of Hong
Kong
University of Kent
The Chinese University of Hong
Kong
The Chinese University of Hong
Kong
University of York
University of Duisburg-Essen
University of Glasgow
University of Warwick
King's College London
University of Manchester
Trinity College Dublin, the
University of Dublin
Masaryk University
University of Oxford
Masaryk University
Sha sha Wang
Durham University
[email protected]
Shangsi Zhou
Shanshan Guan
Renmin University of China
University of York
Sheng Qu
The University of Manchester
/
[email protected]
[email protected].
uk
Mengting LI
Mengwei Tu
Michael G. MA
Nannan Zhang
Ni Lu
Nina Rotermund
Paul Gardner
Peiqi Deng
Qing Xu
Ran Lu
Renfeng Jiang
Shihua Ye
Simone O Malley Sutton
Siqi Zhang
Sunny Xin Liu
Tawirat Songmuang
Tian Tian
The Chinese University of Hong
Kong
University College Cork
University of Edinburgh
University of Central Lancashire
Royal Holloway, University of
London
University of York
43
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
/
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected].
ac.uk
[email protected]
Tom Harper
University of Surrey
[email protected]
Tommaso Gianni
Tsunghan Wu
Virginie Arantes
Independent scholar
King's College London
East China Normal University
Voon Bartlett
ARTEFICTION
Wankun Li
Wei Peng
William Z.Y. Wang
Xiaochen Zhou
Yin Zhiguang
University of Leeds
Stanford University
London School of Economics
King's College London
The Chinese University of Hong
Kong
King’s College London
King’s College London
Lecturer at Exeter
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Yingzi Wang
SOAS, University of London
[email protected]
Yiyun Ding
Yuan Guo
University of York
Yuanyuan Liu
Newcastle University
Zipeng Li
University of Edinburgh
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Xie Han
Yifan Cheng
Yiming Dong
Sheffield Hallam University
44
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
ORGANISING TEAM
The British Postgraduate Network for Chinese Studies 2016 Annual Conference is
organised by (in alphabetical order):
Agatha Kratz (Leader of the Administration Team)
Aleksandra Kubat (Communications Officer of BPCS)
Cai Chen
Chunsen Yu (Leader of the Academic Team)
Gabriel F. Y. Tsang (Coordinator; President of BPCS)
Guannan Li
Jiabao Sun
Konstantinos Tsimonis, Dr. (Convenor)
Lei Wang
Linxi Li (Leader of the Media Team)
Thomas Owen-Smith, Dr. (Senior Strategy Officer)
Tsung-Han Wu
Yifan Cheng
Yiming Dong
Yiyun Ding (Secretary of BPCS)
45