Death Controversy Exacerbated by Institutional Failure

By Dr. Zhengxu Wang, Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham Ningbo China. On Friday (23 December 2016), Beijing’s Procuratorate of the Fengtai District announced that, after a thorough investigation, it came to the conclusion that police officers involved in the death of a man in May would not be charged. The decision was a perplexing …

Are the Chinese ‘losing their gestures’?

A conversation between David H. Fleming (International Communications) & Simon Harrison (School of English). The University of Nottingham Ningbo China. A common interest among researchers in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences is discourse and communication. Because definitions of discourse and communication are domain-specific, interesting debates arise about the nature of the terms that …

Zhibo – The New Trend of Live-Streaming

By Tony Hong, PhD Candidate from the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, UNNC. I had a strange request asked of me a few days ago while working in my office – “You need to watch this guy! He’s hilarious!” Expecting to see a short humorous video, I was instead treated to some guy attempting to …

China’s Expanding Mobile Cyberspace – Endless Disruption Opportunities

By Gary Zhenyuan, SCCS Summer School Participant. The daily life of Chinese citizens is significantly more convenient today, thanks to the integration of mobile internet into key activities. In 2011, China had 513 million internet users. Within 5 years, Chinese outbound international bandwidth rose from 1.39M Mbps to 3.78M Mbps – this is an incredible …

The Construction of a Chinese Majority Identity

By Jonathan McAllister, SCCS Summer School Participant. From the window of the teaching building at UNNC’s summer school program, the view is spliced by a collection of high-rise buildings: symbols of China’s modernity and surging economy, which grew by 6.7% in the first quarter of 2016. Nearer the university, a collection of construction workers’ huts …

No Support, No Opposition, No Promotion

By Emmanuelle Lazzara, PhD Candidate. From the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Nottingham UK. Recent years have witnessed increasing media coverage of LGBT-related issues in China. For instance, in 2014, Qiu Bai, a student from Guangdong province, sued the Ministry of Education on the grounds that a number of university …

The Internet Economy

By Tony Hong, PhD Student from the School of Contemporary Chinese Studies UNNC. There are advantages of managing the Internet because it is an most important wealth generator in the economy. For more than 30 years, China has managed under successive administrations to have its economy grow at a rate of nearly 10% year on …

Saturday Afternoon Snail Fishing

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 …

The Marriage Market of Shanghai’s Peoples’ Park

By Lauren Fung Student of UNNC Summer School 2015. People’s Park is considered to be one of the prettiest parks in Shanghai city, and is often a site of attraction for tourists to the area. Formerly the site of the Shanghai Racecourse, the park is located just south of Nanjing Road and to the north …

Does ‘Socialism with Chinese Characteristics’ suffice for Communism in contemporary China?

By Alfie Cranmer, Student of UNNC Summer School 2015. As you take a look around the busy streets of Shanghai, observing the mass crowds squeezing their way into H&M and Zara whilst you sip on your tall Frappuccino in Starbucks, it’s easy to forget that the ruling Communist Party (CPC) claim the People’s Republic of …