China Information最新文献

{"title":"Book Review: Made in Censorship: The Tiananmen Movement in Chinese Literature and Film by Thomas Chen","authors":"Bin Xu","doi":"10.1177/0920203X231156977b","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X231156977b","url":null,"abstract":"dents of Chinese foreign policy and contemporary Chinese studies and related fields. Not only does Phua provide the history of how China has come to create its own political thought through examples such as tianxia (天下, literally ‘all under heaven’), but he also includes examples of how this can be interpreted and used in current international affairs. The chapters of this book are well organized, beginning with examples first, followed by explanations that are useful for practical theorists and policymakers. Phua then brings in his perspectives of understanding China on a cultural level. The author is to be commended for offering a possible positive solution for arguably the world’s greatest threat in present international relations. More importantly, Phua does this in a manner that is comprehensible and accessible to Western political and international scholars. The main aim of Phua’s book is to understand the importance of culture in world international relations and the need to see ‘China as China’.","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"35 8","pages":"147 - 148"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41302658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Book Review: China’s Environmental Foreign Relations by Heidi Wang-Kaeding","authors":"José de Arimathéia Cordeiro Custódio, Mara Boccaccio","doi":"10.1177/0920203x231156977","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203x231156977","url":null,"abstract":"In late 2022, the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity took place under Chinese presidency. The theme of this conference was ‘Ecological civilization: Building a shared future for all life on earth’. By successfully managing to include the concept ‘ecological civilization’ in the title, China’s negotiators booked a major accomplishment in the conduct of the country’s environmental foreign relations. Heidi Wang-Kaeding’s thin but rich book helps us to understand why, for China’s policymakers, the adoption of the Global Biodiversity Framework as well as the title of the conference were great achievements: China showed global leadership and deployed discursive power. Wang-Kaeding traces the origins of China’s approach to international environmental cooperation and discusses this part of the country’s foreign affairs in the context of its domestic political economy. She explores three main themes shaping China’s role in international environmental governance: treaty implementation, bilateral environmental cooperation, and the quest for international discursive power. Chapters 1 and 2 introduce both the interest groups that influence the country’s approach to international environmental cooperation and the ideological debates that contextualize Chinese environmental policymaking. Chapter 3 covers the treaty-implementation theme, discussing the implementation of two multilateral environmental agreements, that is the Montreal Protocol to reduce emissions of substances that deplete the ozone layer and the Convention on Biological Diversity. Chapter 4 investigates environmental aspects of China’s bilateral relations by studying the execution of Chinese-led projects in Laos. Then, Chapter 5 takes up the ideological thread again and ponders on the concept of ecological civilization, in particular its origins and the various interpretations, which embody both the interest-based approach to environmental affairs and the specific reading that the Chinese leadership wants to convey to both the domestic audience and the so-called global South. Ecological civilization is constructed in congruence with economic interests and exists without the participatory modes of governance in democratic, rule-based societies. Book reviews","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"37 1","pages":"144 - 145"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-02-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49282984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cybernationalist authoritarianism: Fangirls’ peer production of the virtual celebrity ‘Oppa China’","authors":"M. Chew","doi":"10.1177/0920203X231156357","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X231156357","url":null,"abstract":"This study has two research objectives. The first is to analyse a case of Chinese ‘cybernationalist authoritarianism’, which I define as the ideological articulation and practical conjoining of cybernationalism and digital authoritarianism. This intriguing case involves the peer production of a virtual celebrity called ‘Oppa China’ (阿中哥哥) by fangirls (饭圈女孩) in China. The empirical analysis contributes to ongoing debates on whether cybernationalists mainly serve or undermine authoritarianism in China. My second objective is to theoretically explore the rising phenomenon of cybernationalist authoritarianism. This exploration contributes to studies on the contemporary transformation of nationalism and authoritarianism. I approach the two objectives by analysing cybernationalist authoritarianism in terms of the interplay between cybernationalism and digital authoritarianism. I find that peer production is the key novel characteristic of cybernationalism and that authoritarian legitimation is the main imperative of digital authoritarianism. My analysis illustrates how the peer production of new and multiple cybernationalisms serves as well as undermines authoritarian legitimation. This study’s data include in-depth interviews, informal interviews, various documentary sources, big data from Weibo, and online participant observation.","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"37 1","pages":"75 - 99"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-02-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44117597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"‘Sissy capital’ and the governance of non-normative genders in China’s platform economy","authors":"Shuaishuai Wang, Hongwei Bao","doi":"10.1177/0920203X221147481","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X221147481","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines Chinese government censorship in the intersection between queer and fan cultures and the government’s regulation of big tech companies and platform economies in the 2020s conjuncture. In the context of booming platform industries and proliferating queer representations, the government issued explicit directives to censor the representation of ‘sissy men’, or androgynous and effeminate male celebrities, on video streaming platforms in 2021. Accused of encouraging ‘sissy capital’ (娘炮资本), the digital platforms that produce or host these videos have also been closely scrutinized. Focusing on the discourse of sissy capital, this article traces how the term has been used in state policies and mainstream media to discern the power relations that produce such a discourse. It argues that in the context of China’s fast-developing digital platform economy in which the pink economy plays a part, the governance of non-normative sexualities and platform industries has converged in the government’s efforts to define and regulate culture in an era of digital capitalism. The term sissy capital points to the gendered dimension of capital as well as the political economy of queerness; it also contributes to a more nuanced understanding of contemporary governing rationalities and techniques in a digital, non-Western, and illiberal context.","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"37 1","pages":"342 - 362"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2023-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46283254","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The platformization of digital philanthropy in China: State, tech companies, and philanthropy engineering","authors":"Qiuhong Song, Chengpang Lee, Ling Han","doi":"10.1177/0920203X221143940","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X221143940","url":null,"abstract":"Although there may be disagreement about the consequences of technology, such as the Internet, on Chinese philanthropy, there is consensus that giant tech companies have profoundly reshaped the field. One outcome is that this has led to the rise of digital philanthropy. The extant studies on the impact of the Internet on philanthropic practices tend to be limited to investigations of a specific platform (e.g. Weibo), while overlooking the heterogeneity of tech-empowered digital philanthropy in China. This study is an introduction to the diversity and the platformization of digital philanthropy. We use a snowball sampling online survey (n = 2132) to examine people’s attitudes towards digital philanthropy to understand user perceptions of some of the most common digital philanthropy platforms and products. The sample captures more educated mobile phone users already active on digital platforms. Based on the results, we categorize and discuss the three most mentioned types of digital philanthropy products: event-based products, issue-based products, and gamified mini-programs. We provide some insight on how these philanthropic products are engineered to blur the boundaries between online and offline activities to leverage tech companies’ mega platforms. The platformization of digital philanthropy has potential consequences for the evolving state–business–society relationship.","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"37 1","pages":"123 - 143"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44094425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Gendered social address in China’s convergence culture: The case of meinü (beautiful woman)","authors":"Jun Lang, Zhuo Jing-Schmidt","doi":"10.1177/0920203X221139435","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X221139435","url":null,"abstract":"Henry Jenkins posited that digital culture is convergence culture. This prognosis has since been intensely debated. Critiques of its romanticization of grassroots participation and objections to its neglect of the political economy of media convergence are particularly pertinent in the context of China where media is under state control despite the drastic platformization of society. The present study probes China’s convergence culture through a sociolinguistic lens. We examine patterns of convergence in the usage of a viral social address, meinü (美女, literally ‘beautiful woman’), and we survey the perception of this term across social categories. Results on usage pointed to a linguistic convergence of popular culture and state media, which fuels the viral spread of meinü in China’s digital ecosystem where interactions between stakeholders defy a simple user–censor dichotomy. Results on perception showed a generational contestation. Contrary to previous findings, older Chinese are more likely than younger Chinese to use meinü, and older women experience gratification when called meinü but younger women experience effrontery at its use. The generation gap suggests socially distributed experiences and practices among China’s digital media participants. Our study not only reveals the complexities, contradictions, and contingencies of media convergence in China, but also has theoretical and empirical implications for convergence culture.","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"37 1","pages":"382 - 405"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2022-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46894595","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Book Review: On the Edge: Life Along the Russia–China Border by Franck Billé and Caroline Humphrey","authors":"Eva P. W. Hung","doi":"10.1177/0920203X221130402c","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X221130402c","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"36 1","pages":"435 - 437"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2022-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41858666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Book Review: China’s Western Frontier and Eurasia: The Politics of State and Region-Building by Zenel Garcia","authors":"S. Handke","doi":"10.1177/0920203x221130402","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203x221130402","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"36 1","pages":"430 - 431"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2022-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45087899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"China’s borderlands in the post-globalization era","authors":"Tianlong You, M. Romero","doi":"10.1177/0920203X221127224","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X221127224","url":null,"abstract":"China is considered to be the biggest beneficiary of globalization, as evidenced by the growing volume and diversity of people, goods, and information moving across its borders. However, the increase in scholarly attention on China ’ s borderlands that is war-ranted by such economic, social, and political activities is absent. This special issue of China Information is committed to new research that addresses mounting challenges facing studies on China ’ s borderlands, as well as borderland studies in general. This special issue presents the work of emerging scholars who investigate cross-border migration and the key characteristics of China ’ s borderlands, focusing on previously under-studied places that were out of the reach of scholars for years. These studies offer a lens through which the socio-economic and politico-institutional changes in China ’ s borderlands can be understood within the broader context of China ’ s time-compressed global rise. A cursory glance at the research topics may give the impression that this special issue appears to investigate migratory phenomena in geographically remote places on the peripheries of the country. However, we suggest that China ’ s rise is inseparable from, and critical to, a variety of complex phenomena that should be scrutinized and re-evaluated respectively in each contribution to this special issue. As areas experiencing rapid changes, China ’ s borderlands are the sites of a multitude of processes embedded in the social transformation which affects the country ’ s borderlands as much as its coastal regions.","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"36 1","pages":"309 - 317"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2022-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48725783","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Book Review: Policing China: Street-level Cops in the Shadow of Protest by Suzanne E. Scoggins","authors":"Jianhua Xu","doi":"10.1177/0920203X221130402d","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/0920203X221130402d","url":null,"abstract":"practices suggest a complex cross-cultural process of borrowing, inspiration, and mimesis. In sum, On the Edge is rich in thick descriptions of the lives of people in the Sino-Russian borderlands. It adopts a ‘from the periphery to the center’ (p. 20) approach to examine the border dynamics of the two countries and border transformations on the ground. While the substantive topic of each individual chapter could have been better connected and woven into a larger conceptual framework, this book surely adds to a growing body of literature on the historical development of the Sino-Russian border in general, and contributes to the understanding of how border residents interpret and imagine the reality on the ground in particular.","PeriodicalId":45809,"journal":{"name":"China Information","volume":"36 1","pages":"437 - 439"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2022-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49123820","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}