The Changing State of English Education in China
January 15, 2014
By Daryl Johnson, PhD student in Applied Linguistics, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China. English language has a tempestuous place in Chinese history. During and shortly after the Opium Wars, English was seen as the language of ‘barbarians’ and later during the Cultural Revolution, it was the language of the enemy capitalists and a symbol …
Not Everyone Loves Social Media
January 9, 2014
By Dr. Shixin Ivy Zhang, Assistant Professor in Journalism Studies, School of International Communications, University of Nottingham Ningbo China. The most popular term in 2013 may be ‘phubbing’, a combination of ‘phone’ and ‘snub’. This term was coined by Macquarie Dictionary team in Australia in 2012. It refers to the annoying habit of snubbing someone …
Reading the writing on the wall – Recent developments in the study of Chinese Social Media
December 4, 2013
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 …
Pollution and Civilisation
By Felicity Woolf, Studying an MA in Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. Recently when I looked out of my kitchen window, the view beyond the first few tower blocks was shrouded in thick mist; pollution hung heavy in the air. Yesterday a colleague had questioned our cavalier attitude towards cycling …
Party’s Reform Plan
November 19, 2013
By Dr. Zhengxu Wang, Associate Professor, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, and Deputy Director of the China Policy Institute, at the University of Nottingham, UK. Last week saw the eagerly anticipated event of the Plenum of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee. It was planned as a milestone in China’s reform history, as the …
Go forth and multiply?
By Dr. David O’Brien, Assistant Professor, School of Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China. The headline-grabbing decision taken at the recent Third Plenum of the Communist Party of China Central Committee – that the One-Child-Policy is to be significantly relaxed – should come as no surprise. Questions remain however as to …
Unintended Nostalgia
November 6, 2013
By David Symington, Studying a Masters in Chinese Philosophy at Fudan University. Contemporary China is a place where history seems to race. Cityscapes morphing out of all recognition within three years of when you last visited them and new fads that become ancient rituals before they’ve barely seemed to take hold (only this morning I …
Where the Governmental and the Avant-Garde meets
November 1, 2013
By Dr Tianqi (Kiki) Yu, Assistant Professor in Film and Media Studies, The School of International Communications, The University of Nottingham, Ningbo China. If the charm of Berlin lies in the confrontation of different ideologies demonstrated through architecture and the closeness between history and present, the beauty of Shanghai is highlighted through the harmonious mix …
Overtaking the UK, chasing the US… in property prices
October 16, 2013
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 …
Are You Happy?
September 4, 2013
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. Before the week-long holiday with the traditional Mid-autumn Festival on the 30th of September and National Day on the 1st of October happening together, the state Central China Television …