Will Chinese trains come to Britain?

By Dr Yuefan Xiao Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Amsterdam. The internationalisation of China’s High-Speed Rail (HSR) has gone a long way since 2010 and it epitomised China’s soft power as an ascending nation not only of great growing but innovative potential. Recent months have seen a sequence of international endorsements of China’s …

Alibaba & Chinese Business Culture

By Donald Bain, Student of UNNC Summer School 2015. Despite China’s political and economic power, their business practices remain poor because the intrinsic complexities of Chinese culture. Therefore the ultimate question is to what extent does China’s national culture have an impact on firms. By observing a successful company like Alibaba, a multi-national e-commerce company …

The rising internet+ economy in China

By Dr. Youqing Fan Assistant Professor, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham Ningbo With the technological innovations, the mobile internet based economy started to demonstrate its huge potential in changing people’s life and business models. The rise of China’s new rich does not only provide fertile soil for internet+ based entrepreneurs, but also …

African community in Guangzhou – Trade development and migrant integration

By Dr. Youqing Fan, Assistant Professor at the SCCS, At the University of Nottingham Ningbo. When first witnessing quite a few African people gathering at the gate of one large Catholic church in Guangzhou for services in 2009, I was amazed that the Africans have to some extent formed their community in China’s southern economic …

The Rise of China: a threat to the world, or a model for the rest?

By Edward Pode, Studying Mathematics at the University of Nottingham UK. The question of whether China’s recent growth marks it as a model to be followed by other countries around the world or sets it up as a threat to them is dependent on several assumptions.  Firstly it presupposes that the two characteristics are mutually …

Nǐhǎo Shìjiè: Hello World

By Lucy Kirkup, Studying Modern Languages with Business at the University of Nottinham UK. When Brits travel abroad the stereotype is that they are pretty lazy when it comes to learning languages. I must admit that this generalisation has some truth to it. However, being a student of languages myself, I despair when I think …

China: A Country in Transition

By Catriona Deery, Studying Geography at the University of Nottingham UK. A country in transition is defined as a nation state that has undergone significant and profound political-economic change over a relatively short period of time. Countries in transition are often scripted as being ‘emerging markets’. They have social impacts including alternative modes of social …

The Genius of Gongchandang: A Laowai’s View of the One Child Policy

By Dr. Brian J. Hilton, Associate Professor in Accounting at the Nottingham University Business School China. The one child policy is not the most popular part of CCP’s agenda. Much energy is being put into trying to terminate it. In the view of this author this would be a mistake. When first encountered this policy …

Watches and cuckoo clocks – the tick-tock of China-Europe relations

By Professor Stephen L. Morgan, Dean of Social Sciences at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Professor of Chinese Economic History at the University of Nottingham. What is it about Europeans and Chinese? Or rather, what’s rattling each of their cages at present? Trade relations has been at the heart of some pretty heavy words …