Singapore: China’s Ambivalent Heterotopia

By Flair Shi, Currently Studying Comparative Literature (MA) at University College London, Graduate of the School of English University of Nottingham Ningbo, BA in English Language and Literature. Any Chinese who is efficiently bilingual in both Mandarin and English should be interested in Singapore, and with the population of such Chinese, especially that of the …

When Chinese Eyes are Smiling

By David O’Brien Assistant Professor, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham Ningbo For a small country we Irish box well above our weight diplomatically. And we take great pride in being masters of soft power. There is no other country in the world which has its national day celebrated with such exuberance and …

Dream On

By Kim Willcocks Senior Tutor for Reading and Writing, Centre for English Language Education, University of Nottingham Ningbo Xi Jinping’s contribution to the arsenal of warm and fuzzy CCP catchphrases is “the Chinese dream” and recently I’ve read about it more and seen it plastered on the billboards around Ningbo more. Seems that someone’s trying …

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), …

Nü Zhi Qing: the Wilted Flowers of the Country

By Flair Shi, Currently Studying Comparative Literature (MA) at University College London, Graduate of the School of English University of Nottingham Ningbo, BA in English Language and Literature. For the young college students enjoying China’s unprecedented expansion of urban wealth and education in the 21th century, it is very hard to imagine with what kind …

The Constitution and Rule of Law

By Dr David O’Brien, Assistant Professor, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham Ningbo. Following last month’s 4th plenum meeting of the Communist Party Central Committee, China is to get a new day of celebration. December 4th is now to be marked as ‘Constitution Day’ and according to official news agency Xinhua: “[n]ationwide activities …

Isolation, Hybridity or Biculturalism? Chinese Students’ Integration Dilemma in the West

By Flair Shi, Currently Studying Comparative Literature (MA) at University College London, Graduate of the School of English University of Nottingham Ningbo, BA in English Language and Literature. Recently, an article titled “Foreign Language Di

Family across the Taiwan Strait: One Country? Certainly Two Stories

By Flair Shi, Studying Comparative Literature (MA) at University College London, Graduate of the School of English University of Nottingham Ningbo, BA in English Language and Literature. Every year at the beginning of October mainland China sees the sudden proliferation of nationalistic TV shows across the country, featuring grand ceremonies often involving flowers, flapping pigeons …

The Fascinating SOEs

By Joseph Healy, MA student in Contemporary Chinese Studies, At the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. There are many issues in contemporary China that are fascinating, none more so for me than the role and status of the SOEs The World Bank report on China (2012) argues that if China is to continue its impressive …

People Mountain, People Sea

By Dr David O’Brien, Assistant Professor, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China. In the past seven days somewhere in the region of 480 million trips were made in China as the nation basked in the ‘golden week’ National Holiday. Since 1999 the majority of Chinese workers are given three days …