Watching “Under the Dome” from a Chinese Communication Perspective

By Angela Wang Dan, PhD Student from Hong Kong Baptist University. On the last day of February, 2015, former CCTV investigative report anchor, Chai Jing, released a documentary on Chinese air pollution issue which stirred up hot debates. 48 hours after “Under the Dome”, the documentary, delivered online for free, it has received over 30 …

Are there lessons from Business for the CCP?

By Joseph Healy, MA student in Contemporary Chinese Studies, UNNC One of the intriguing leadership and management challenges anywhere in the world in 2015 is how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) manages the socioeconomic transition within China. It’s hard to think of a precedent in politics or business to equate to the scale of the …

Reading the writing on the wall – Recent developments in the study of Chinese Social Media

By Christian Shepherd, Studying an MA in Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. Chinese social media is both a blessing and a curse for Contemporary Chinese Studies’ research. The potential is obvious: over half of Chinese internet users are micro-bloggers and internet penetration has reached the 40th percentile, but the pitfalls …

Reforming China’s Science and Technology System

By Dr. Cao Cong, Associate Professor and Reader, at the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, The University of Nottingham UK. Despite more money, better trained talent, and sophisticated equipment, China’s domestic innovation system is still underperforming. The root of these problems can be found at the macro, meso, and micro levels of governance of the …

Overtaking the UK, chasing the US… in property prices

By Dr. Youqing Fan, Assistant Professor, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. The slogan ‘Overtaking the UK, chasing the US’ proposed by Chairman Mao in 1958 has now been realized in China.  The rapid growth of its economy has enabled China to overtake the UK in terms of Gross …

China to relax ban on Facebook and Twitter?

By Dr. David O’Brien, Assistant Professor, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. China may be about to relax its ban on foreign media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the New York Times in order to make ex-pats working in a pilot free-trade zone ‘feel more at home’. …

Summarizing and Reflecting on “The Chinese Communist Party and the Politicization of Traditions” Workshop

By Dr. Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley, China Media Centre at the University of Westminster, UK. A workshop on “The Chinese Communist Party and the Politicization of Traditions” took place at the University of Zurich, 6–8 June 2013. It brought together political scientists, East Asian Studies specialists and China observers to discuss what, why and how traditions …

Positiveness in the China Daily

By Yvonne Nijenhuis, Studying Media and Culture at the University of Amsterdam Holland. Keeping myself up-to-date of the latest news during the summer school made me a fanatic reader of the China Daily. Besides the latest Chinese news, did it also give a good impression of the Chinese view on contemporary global issues. Instead of …

Chinese Connections: Communication and Complexity

By Shipra Khanna, Studying International Media and Communications Studies with Chinese at the University of Nottingham UK. As a student of International Media at the University of Nottingham UK, I have continually been intrigued by China and it’s censorship upon social media and communication. I have always had the opinion that indeed restriction and censorship …

How Difficult Is It to Obtain Government Information in China?

Dr. Yiyi Lu, Senior Research Fellow at the Beijing-based think tank ChangCe. During the height of the anti-Japan protests in China last year triggered by the Sino-Japanese territorial dispute over Diaoyu/Senkaku islands, a Chinese environmental NGO submitted a request for environmental pollution data to a provincial Environmental Protection Bureau. An official responded by telling the …