“Labour is Most Glorious!”: China’s Changing Canteens

By Tracey Fallon, Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in Chinese Studies, Faculty of Social Science, UNNC. The canteen (shitang) is a part of everyday life in China that encapsulates the diverse transformations in the relationship between employment, society, and the state. It is an enduring familiar space that has flourished outside the dismantling of the state’s regulating …

On the Possibility of a New Pan-Asianism

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. In a recent lecture entitled “Confronting the History Problem in Northeast Asia” at King’s College London, renowned international relations scholar Professor Barry Buzan, concerned about the disputed …

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 …

Society and Faith in Contemporary China

By Mani Lazzara, PhD Candidate School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham UK. The history of modern China is characterised by events which have greatly affected its attitude towards religion in a various number of ways; from the control exerted by the Communist Party in order to incorporate religion into the state, to the …

Beyond the “Doubting of Antiquity”

Dr. Fangchun Li, Teaching Fellow & Senior Tutor, The School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. Chinese communist revolution and “continuous revolution” profoundly transformed Chinese society and shaped the course of Chinese, East Asian and world history. In post-revolutionary China, the reassessment of the Chinese revolution and its political legacy …

Shanghai, Then and Now

By Boon Hooi Hong, Studying Chemical Engineering at the University of Nottingham Malaysia. It was 2003 when I first visited to Shanghai, exactly 10 years ago. I remember it clearly as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) incident happened in the same year and it affected China greatly especially the economy. As an innocent teenager, I …

Religion in China: Christianity

By Ademola Akande, Studying Mathematics at the University of Nottingham UK. At virtually every place we visited, there was a substantial amount of fetish practices and beliefs proudly displayed to us tourists as Chinese history and culture. There was in fact a religious sculpture erected in front of a restaurant where we had lunch. However, …

China and the West – Opposite attracts?

By Hans-Christian Mehrens, Studying International Relations at the University of Nottingham UK. Shanghai… Food Market… One song on my mind: “I’m a legal alien. I’m an Englishman in Shanghai!” Indisputably, we as Europeans are as much of an attraction to the local Chinese population as it is the other way round. Everywhere we went, pictures …

Why China?

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. ‘Why China?’ is a question many have been asked over the years. For today’s student or business person the answer might seem glaringly obvious: China is now the second-largest …