The Cautious Seldom Make Mistakes: Chinese Culture Centres Learn from Confucius’s Mistakes

By Dr. Zhenzhi Guo School of Journalism and Communication Tsinghua University. Dr. Zhang Xiaoling, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies University of Nottingham UK. The worldwide spread of Confucius Institutes (CIs) has become a global phenomenon. Their partnership with prestigious universities has won it many friends, but at the same time, has attracted strong levels of …

CCTV and the race for soft power

By Dr. Xiaoling Zhang, Head of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Associate Professor in Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham. The Chinese official media outlets, especially the “Big Four” as Yang Jiechi the State Councillor calls them — Xinhua News Agency, Central China Television (CCTV), China Radio International (CRI), …

Building Images: exploring 21st century Sino-African dynamics through cultural exchange and translation

By Dr. Xiaoling Zhang, Head of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Associate Professor in Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham. The rapid expansion in Chinese involvement in Africa in the 21st century has been accompanied by conflicting discourses about what that interest means, both for Africa and for the …

China’s Media Offensive in Africa

By Dr. Xiaoling Zhang, Head of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. Associate Professor in Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham. China has accorded great importance to strategies of gaining a broader influence to accompany its significantly increased economic engagement with the world. Take Africa, for example. In addition to …

Soft Power Success

By Tony Hong, First Year PhD Student in Contemporary Chinese Studies. The University of Nottingham Ningbo China. It used to be said among the students of Contemporary Chinese Studies that once you have read one book or article on the “Rise of China”, you have read them all. In fact we would all do our …