Cross-Strait Liberalization of Aviation: The Case of Kinmen
December 15, 2015
By Julie Yu-Wen Chen, Department of Asian Studies, Palacky University, Czech Republic & Ying Lee, Department of Geography, San Diego State University, USA. This article first appeared on the China Institute Policy Blog. In early December, DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-Wen made a campaign stop in Kinmen, an outlying island geographically close to China that …
Saturday Afternoon Snail Fishing
December 4, 2015
By Alice Richards, University of Nottingham UK exchange student studying MSci Hons Contemporary Chinese Studies. On Saturday 17th October between midday and 1 o’clock, I observed two groups of people fishing for snails in the XiaoPutuo area of Dongqian lake in Ningbo. These field notes will describe the behaviours of the two groups, analysing how …
Fieldwork reflections: Elusive subjects and the value of trust
January 29, 2015
By Gareth Shaw, PhD Candidate in Contemporary Chinese Studies, The University of Nottingham, UK. I’ve often heard from fellow scholars that conducting fieldwork in a foreign country represents one of the most challenging aspects of a research project. It can often seem like a battle fought between endless bureaucracy and one’s own faltering reserves of …
Translation and Modernity: Rethinking the Semantic Shift of “Civil Society” in the Chinese Context
June 5, 2014
By Meixi Zhuang, Studying a PhD in Contemporary Chinese Studies, The University of Nottingham Ningbo Campus. What does it mean to translate Western ideas into the Chinese language on the basis of hypothetical equivalences? What happens in the process of intercultural interpretation and how do translated concepts impact Chinese people’s perception of their own society? …
Fieldwork in Ningbo: getting beyond observation
April 2, 2014
By Felicity Woolf, Studying an MA in Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. The moment has arrived when I can no longer shelter in the library, deep in theory, but must venture forth to my chosen fieldwork site and attempt to find out what is happening there and why. I have …
Reforming China’s Science and Technology System
October 23, 2013
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 …