Seminars

Translation seminar series

"Translation Tools and the Technology" Presented by David Shen

Speaker Bio:

David Shen is an expert in IT and translation which he has been working in for more than 20 years.

(Bio correct at the time of the seminar)

Translation seminar series

"Subtitling and International Communication of Chinese Films" Presented by Qin He

21 March 2023

Speaker Bio

Qin He is film producer, foreign film content reviewer and subtitling supervisor, recommendator of foreign films for International Film Screening of China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival, jury member of Jordan International Film Festival and North American International Youth Film Festival, film selector of Montreal International Film Festival in Canada and Madrid International Film Festival in Spain, expert of revision group in formulating the Specification for Translating Chinese Radio and TV and Network Audiovisual programmes into Foreign Languages of the State Administration of Radio and Television of China, member of the China University Film and Television Association, a deputy director of the Professional Translation Committee of Film and TV of the China Translation Association, special tutor of China Communication University. Qin He has been responsible for the distribution of 30 foreign films in China and international promotion of more than 20 Chinese films, accumulated a lot of cases and experiences in film subtitling and international promotion.

(Bio correct at the time of the seminar)

Translation seminar series

"The Reconstruction of the Cultural Images in the Translation of Mo Yan' s Novels — Challenges and Strategies" Presented by Luminita Balan

14 March 2023

Speaker Bio

Luminita Balan is a famous Romanian sinologist and translator at the Chinese Department, and the Romanian Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Bucharest, Romania. Luminita Balan has translated the works of Zhuangzi and Xunzi, and also eleven Chinese contemporary literary works. In 2019, Luminita Balan won the "Chinese Government Friendship Award" of the People’s Republic of China.

(Bio correct at the time of the seminar)

Translation seminar series

"Legal Translation" Presented by James Halstead

7 March 2023

Speaker Bio

James Halstead is General Manager of IMD Legal Translation and Interpreting Ltd, a boutique UK LSP that caters to the language service requirements of the legal sector, providing translation, interpretation, and transcription services across dozens of language pairs.

(Bio correct at the time of the seminar)

Translation seminar series

"Machine Translation"

28 February 2023

Translation seminar series

"Translation project management" Presented by Meixin Li.

21 February 2023

"Governance of Food Systems in China: a pork story on sustainability and resilience" Presented by Dr Lingxuan Liu.

22 November 2022

Abstract:

Home of the world’s first strategic pork reserve, China's pork supply chains have experienced dramatic disturbances in recent years. This study examines how various contradictory pressures and policy responses have shaped the pork system in China. Pork-related policy priorities have swung between environmental sustainability and production recovery. Public authorities' weighing of sustainability and resilience has also led to contrasting views on policy formulation and implementation. Reorientation of the pork system for environmental sustainability undermined the system’s robustness to cope with the African Swine Flu epidemic, while dedicated policies on recovery have further compromised the original goals of systemic reorientation. We also discussed how governance has affected the resilience of the pork system and the trade-offs between systemic resilience and sustainability.

Speaker Bio:

Dr Lingxuan Liu joined Lancaster University Management School in March 2016 as a Lecturer of Sustainability. His research interests include sustainable supply chains, sustainable and resilient food systems, corporate sustainability strategies, and ESG. He specializes in business sustainability issues in UK and China, but also has a general interest in developing countries, particularly Southeast Asia and Africa.

(Bio correct at the time of the seminar)

"Anglo-Chinese Encounters before the Opium War: A Tale of Two Empires Over Two Centuries" Presented by Dr Sunny Xin Liu.

26 October 2022

Abstract:

From Queen Elizabeth I’s letter to the Chinese Emperor Wanli in 1583 and ending with the letter from Lord Palmerston to the Minister of China just before the Opium War in 1840, Dr Sunny Xin Liu’s new book explores Britain and China’s long journey from cultural diplomacy to gunboat diplomacy.

In this seminar, Dr Liu will share fascinating tales of long-forgotten Sino-British interactions from missionaries to scholars, from merchants to travellers and from artists to scientists.

Joining Dr Liu in conversation will be the UK’s pre-eminent China expert Professor Kerry Brown, Director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London, and Dr Derek Hird, Head of Department of Languages and Cultures at Lancaster University.

Speaker Bio:

Sunny Xin Liu received her PhD in China’s Cultural Diplomacy from University of Central Lancashire. Her research interests lie in public diplomacy, cultural studies, media and communication, and China’s relations with the West.

(Bio correct at the time of the seminar)

"Collective memory narratives and national identity construction of contemporary China". Presented by Dr Jing Cheng, Xidian University.

7th July 2021

Abstract:

Collective memory, the widely shared perceptions of the past, plays a vital role in the construction of national identity. It shapes the story that groups of people tell about their past, present and future in simplified narratives. The dominant approach to the study of Chinese memory and identity politics largely focuses on the Chinese state’s strategic use of war memories for legitimising the CCP’s leadership and promoting political purposes. While it emphasizes the state’s role and capacity, it may have underestimated the complexity of state-society relations and overlooked historical and cultural elements that could generate resonance among the wider population. By analysing the Chinese victim and victor narratives, it shows that along with the rise of China there has been a notable shift in emphasis onto the victor identity in the stories China is trying to tell and in the way China engages with the world. This shift should be contextualised in the Chinese state-society dynamics. This paper highlights that the memory narratives China makes out of its past provide a window to the changes to Chinese national identity today.

Speaker Bio:

Dr Jing Cheng is a lecturer in School of Foreign Studies at Xidian University, Xi’an, China. Supported by Tomlinson Award of the Asia Research Institute, she did her doctoral research and received PhD in International Relations from the University of Nottingham in 2018. She was a visiting scholar at Imperial College London (2005) and Tsinghua University (2015). Her research lies in the field of national identity, intercultural studies and international communication. She has published in Journal of Asian and African Studies, Political Studies Review, and The Conversation. She is also an associate fellow at Global Governance Institution.

(Bio correct at the time of the seminar)

"Toward a non-essentialist paradigm of culture: A study of Chinese and Japanese management culture". Presented by Dr Yu Fu and Dr Zoe Zhu.

25th May 2021.

Abstract:

This study reviews and compares the Chinese and Japanese national culture values and norms discussed in the management studies to illustrate the importance of the non-essentialist paradigm of culture facing the key cross-cultural issues faced by organisations when designing and implementing management policies and practices in East Asia. This paper addresses Nathan’s (2010) call for a non-essentialist approach to culture studies by acknowledging the importance of exploring and respecting local culture when developing organisation strategies. A comparative review on the notions in the Confucianism shows the limitation of essentialist scholars who used the functionalist approach on culture. The simplification of culture based on functional and essentialist perspective and the lack of interpretive and non-essentialist analysis on the core of its management culture will result in confusing the corporate ideology (what the company say they do) with the reality (what they actually do). Only through an analysis of the continuity, change, and context of a company, we can better understand the culture behind the mask. Thus, the authors contend that the development of national cultural values and norms and their impact of management policies and practices in Japan and China, needs to be investigated in a dynamic context through a long-term view.

Speaker Bio:

Dr Yu Fu is a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Organisation, Work and Technology, Management School, Lancaster University. She delivers lectures in the areas of Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour. Her research interest lies in international HRM, particularly national cultural factors in employment. The main focus of her research is to investigate the impact of Chinese cultural values on the Western Transnational Corporations’ HR policies and practices in their Chinese subsidiaries.

Dr Zoe Zhu is an International Teaching Fellow in the Department of Organisation, Work and Technology, Management School, Lancaster University. She teaches management and marketing in the China campus as well as the Bailrigg campus. As an ethnographer, she is interested in corporate culture in the era of globalization, in particular in the formation, dissemination and interpretation of corporate ideology at Japanese company in East Asia.

(Bio correct at the time of the seminar)

"Chinese Consumers Environment Behaviour: the roles of place attachment, responsibility, and norms." Presented by Dr Didier Soopramanien, Loughborough University.

18th May 2021.

Abstract:

Environment Laws and regulations in China are becoming stricter. One notable/interesting example is the compulsory sorting and recycling of household rubbish and, when this started in Shanghai in 2019, apps had to be developed to help consumers recycle. But pro-environment behaviour can also be framed as an ethical/moral decision which one ought to be doing rather than being forced to or be rewarded for complying.

With my colleagues based in China (Beijing) Dr Song Zenning (Beijing Foreign Studies University) and Lancaster (Dr Ahmad Daryanto) respectively, we have studied and are studying the role of place attachment in promoting pro-environmental behaviour. Place attachment refers to peoples’ affection and relationship with a place. The more attached people are to a place, they are more likely to take care of that place and thus engage in environmentally friendly behaviours that will benefit that place.

This presentation will discuss research that we have conducted in China about that relationship and, importantly, we focus on some other intervening factors that may influence how place attachment positively influences pro-environment behaviour of Chinese consumers. More attention will be devoted to on-going work using data collected in Beijing (with Song Zenning and Ahmad Daryanto) where we specifically study the roles of two factors that can influence how place attachment affects pro-environment behaviour. These two factors are: environmental responsibility and social norms.

We find, firstly, that attachment to a place activates a personal sense of responsibility which may counteract the well-known constraining effect of social dilemma to engage in environmental behaviour. Secondly, the place attachment effect on responsibility that promotes residents’ environment behaviour is stronger when individuals perceive that others are also engaging in similar behaviours (i.e., the effect of norms). But the characteristic of the groups of individuals performing these behaviours is important: what neighbours (local norms) are doing or ought to doing matters less than colleagues, friends, and relatives/parents (subjective norms).

Speaker Bio:

Dr Didier Soopramanien is currently a Reader in Marketing at the School of Business and Economics at Loughborough University. Didier holds a PhD from Lancaster University and was also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management Science from 2002 to 2011. Prior to moving back to the UK in 2018, Didier worked as an Associate Professor at the International Business School of Beijing Foreign Studies from 2012 to 2018.

(Bio correct at the time of the seminar)

"From eSport industry to players: Understanding the platformalization of infrastructure and digital culture in China". Presented by Dr Yupei Zhao, co-founder of UK-China Media and Communication Association.

27th April 2021.

Abstract:

China has embarked on a radical transformation of its online and mobile games industry since its government announced its ambition to be a global sporting power. This study investigates Chinese electronic sports (eSports) in the context of platform governance and platform capitalism, through a case study of the platformization of Tencent, one of China’s largest media conglomerates. examine the interactivity and flow of power arising from direct state control and the processes of commercialization and professionalization.

To support our proposal that the state and corporations, while genetically different, are mutually constitutive, we explore concepts of the platformization of infrastructures and infrastructuralization of platforms. This study proposes that the Chinese eSports industry has an umbrella-like structure and challenges the assumption that China is an authoritarian system with a one-size-fits-all policy.

Moreover, we find eSports is perceived as non-secure, casual, and irregular by the Chinese public and that the mental changes experienced by eSports professionals throughout their careers have been significantly influenced by a more sophisticated form of state power and social norms, including cultural cognitive beliefs, economic stimulation, and authority attributions.

Speaker Bio:

Dr Yupei Zhao (PhD in University of Leicester, UK) is an “Hundred Talent Program Young Professor” and doctorial tutor in college of Media and International Culture in Zhejiang University. She is currently vice chair-elected of International Communication Association Popular Media and Culture Division, co-founder of UK-China Media and Communication Association. Meanwhile, Yupei Zhao has been invited as senior researcher in Institute of Asia and Pacific Studies, China Policy institute at University of Nottingham (UK), and the Eurasian Sport Industry at Emlyon's Shanghai Campus, visiting professor in Xi’an-Liverpool University and Beijing Institute of Technology.

Her research interests widely includes mixed-methods use to examine digital culture and politics, political communication, neo-globalization communication, intracultural communication, cultural diplomacy and social media. She has a PhD and MA in University of Leicester (UK). Thus, far, she is in charge of more than ten research funding projects, and her research has appeared in International Journal of Cultural Studies, Journal of Cultural Economy, International Journal of Communication, Social Science Quarterly, Sage Open, Social media + Society, Media International Australia, popular music and society etc.

(Bio correct at the time of the seminar)

"On the culture-specific aspects of formulating opinions in Chinese: A multidimensional and comparative approach"​. Presented by Professor Vittorio Tantucci, Lancaster University.

18th March 2021

Abstract:

How do we say what we think? Is the way we formulate evaluations and opinions culture-specific?

In this paper we adopted a corpus-based approach to analyse pragmatic and textual mismatches that exist from Mandarin Chinese to American English Interaction. We fitted a conditional inference tree model (Hothorn et al., 2006; Tantucci & Wang 2018) that simulates large-scale interactional choices in the two languages, based on the two balanced corpora of spontaneous telephone conversation (CallHome). Our results indicate that while American English evaluations are distinctively subjective and markedly speaker-oriented, Chinese opinions are conventionally formulated as a joint project (cf. Clark 1996) and are pre-emptively aimed at intersubjective agreement among interlocutors (Tantucci 2020). This is pragmatically achieved via specific markers of epistemic cooperation and ad hoc strategies of harmonious rapport-maintenance (Goffman 1967; Spencer-Oatey 2008). Large-scale analysis of naturalistic interaction as such has the potential to inform research in intercultural communication and the study of interactional behaviour in social sciences in general. The culture-specific modality in which we state what we think is a fundamental area of research for advancing cross-cultural awareness and (im-)politeness research”.

Speaker Bio:

Vittorio Tantucci is Lecturer of Chinese and Linguistics at Lancaster University, UK. His publications focus on usage-based intersections of pragmatics and cognition. These issues are addressed typologically and cross-culturally, both from a synchronic and diachronic perspective. His recent major publications include "Language and Social Minds: The Semantics and Pragmatics of Intersubjectivity" (Cambridge University Press, 2021); “Resonance and engagement through (dis-)agreement: Evidence of persistent constructional priming from Mandarin naturalistic interaction” (Journal of Pragmatics 2021, authored with Dr Aiqing Wang); “Diachronic change of rapport orientation and sentence-periphery in Mandarin” (Discourse Studies 2020; authored with Dr Aiqing Wang), “From co-actionality to extended intersubjectivity: Drawing on language change and ontogenetic development” (Applied Linguistics 2020).

(Bio correct at the time of the seminar)

"China’s Political System: Responding to Giant Crises". Presented by Professor Zhengxu Wang, Fudan University.

19th January 2021

Abstract:

In this talk I first propose a conceptual framework for understanding political systems – a political system should be understood on two levels, i.e. the ideational and the operational level, respectively. With this framework, I explain how the Chinese political system is formed and structured, at both levels, while also comparing it to an ideal liberal democracy. I then examine how the Chinese political system is supposed to respond to giant crises when such crises emerge, and use the Covid-19 epidemic of 2019-2020 as a case study. I conclude with some general discussion on the study of China and the study of political systems.

Speaker Bio:

WANG Zhengxu is Distinguished Professor at the Department of Politics at Fudan University. Previously, he served as Acting Director and Senior Research Fellow at the China Policy Institute, University of Nottingham. Professor Wang received his PhD in political science from University of Michigan in 2005. His current research projects include the democratic values of Chinese citizens, institutional changes and political reforms in China’s political system, and politics of governance in China. He has published widely on socioeconomic modernization, value changes, democratization, governance challenges, and leadership and elite politics in China and East Asia. His publications have appeared in Governance, International Review of Sociology, Political Research Quarterly, Japanese Journal of Political Science, Contemporary Politics, Asian Journal of Public Opinion Research, The China Quarterly, The China Journal, Journal of Contemporary China, and others.

(Bio correct at the time of the seminar)

“The world of tomorrow: Imagining Afro-Asian Solidarity & the Modernisation Project in the People’s Republic of China in the 1950s.”Presented by Dr Zhiguang Yin, University of Exeter.

19th February 2020

Abstract:

This talk explores the manufacture, distribution and public collective receptions of the internationalist image of Afro-Asian solidarity in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) during the Great Leap Forward period in the late 1950s. It examines the ‘Afro-Asian solidarity’ imagery generated particularly through the Sino-Middle Eastern cultural exchanges, which were made possible through the Afro-Asian cooperation initiatives.

Speaker Bio:

Zhiguang Yin is a senior lecturer in University of Exeter. He is currently the director of Global China Research Centre and MA Global Literatures and Cultures Programme at the University of Exeter. His research interest lies mainly in the area of Chinese modern intellectual and legal history, 19-20 century history of international relations, and contemporary Sino-Middle Eastern relations, with a strong curiosity of understanding the formation of our modern “world-view”. His current research project investigates the Chinese foreign relations with the third world countries, especially Middle Eastern countries during the 1950s and 60s.

(Bio correct at the time of the seminar)

“Happily Ever After (Documentary Film Screening and Q&A).Presented by Director He Xiaopei, Pink Space Sexuality Research Centre China.

22nd January 2020

Documentary Introduction:

Six years after they married gay men, documented by He Xiaopei in Our Marriages - When Lesbians Marry Gay Men, we revisit the same four lesbian women in Shenyang, Northeastern China. We learn how they have created their families with their same-sex partners, gay husbands, children, their own parents as well as parents-in-law. These innovative and intentional family formations invite the viewer to reflect upon mainstream ideas of what makes a family.

Speaker Bio:

Dr Xiaopei He is Director of Pink Space Sexuality Research Centre China and a filmmaker. Her films include:

• Polyamorous Family, 2010, 26 minutes (a poly family including black, white, Chinese & Indian, explores relationships, globalization and sexuality);

• Gay Cats, 2010, 3 minutes, (Two male cats' love story);

• The Lucky One, 2011, 36 minutes (a Chinese woman with HIV with a few months to live telling her hidden desires);

• Our Marriages - When Lesbians Marry Gay Men, 2013, 42 minutes (life stories of four Chinese lesbians wed with gay men);

• Jolly Christmas, 2014, 45 minutes (a well known American woman zoologist with terminal cancer spending her last Christmas with her family);

• Yvo and Chrissy, 2017, 64 minutes (life stories of two English persons, giving away the wealth and phallus and searching for meanings of lives beyond social norms);

• Love You Too, 2017, 16 minutes (documenting Pink Space art workshop exploring disability & sexuality);

• Playmates, 2018, 46 minutes (following two boys one from rural Sichuan, one from Lewes UK, for eight years, witnessing how young children perceive the differences of colour, nationality, class, culture, gender and sexuality.

(Bio correct at the time of the seminar)

“Regimes of Temporality: China, Tibet and the Politics of Time in the Post-2008 Era.” Presented by Dr Séagh Kehoe, University of Westminster.

14th January 2020

Abstract:

Following the demonstrations that erupted across the Tibetan Plateau in 2008, Chinese state media published dozens of news stories that sought to discredit protesters and reaffirm Chinese rule over Tibet. The relationship between Tibet’s past, present and future was a central focus across much of these stories and has since become an increasingly prominent part of state media reportage about Tibet. While the politics of time are an important dimension of official discourse about Tibet, it remains insufficiently explored in theoretical and practical terms. Seeking to address this, this paper examines the written and visual discourses that characterize Tibetan temporality across Chinese state media in the post 2008 era.

Speaker Bio:

Séagh Kehoe is a postdoctoral fellow at the Contemporary China Centre, University of Westminster. Their research interests include media representations of ethnicity, gender, celebrity and military in contemporary China. They are currently working on a monograph examining the online politics of representation surrounding Tibetan modernity in contemporary China.

(Bio correct at the time of the seminar)

“China and North Korea's development and security nexus.” Presented by Dr Catherine Jones, University of St. Andrews.

10th December 2019

Abstract:

China's approach towards North Korea is often presented as being a paradox: on the one hand China has voted in favour of UN sanctions against the regime in Pyongyang and consistently condemned their development of a nuclear program and testing of missiles; on the other hand China is seen as not fully implementing the sanctions that it is endorsed. How then should or can we understand the policy position and work in harmony with China on this crucial issue? This paper presents the argument that by adopting the lens of the Chinese Peace (He Yin, Kuo) that is focused on development as a means towards peace China's position and approach is less contradictory and may be the last option available in managing the behaviour of the hermit kingdom.

Speaker Bio:

Catherine Jones joined the School of International Relations at St Andrews in September 2018. Previously she was a research fellow in the department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick from 2012-2018. Previously, she was awarded her PhD by Reading University where she was funded by the Leverhulme Trust’s major research project on the Liberal Way of War.

In 2017-18 she held a research grant from the Korea Foundation which explored the relationship between China and North Korea. Results from this project will include an edited volume and a series of journal articles.

(Bio correct at the time of the seminar)

• 14 November 2019 - 'The EU’s tightening scrutiny on FDI from China and political risks for Chinese corporations', Dr Fanwei Kong, Tianjin Foreign Studies University.
• 28th October 2019 - 'Chinese public opinion's role in crisis diplomacy: preliminary findings from the field', Professor Andrew Chubb, Lancaster University.
• 14th May 2019 - 'International influences on social policy in China', Professor Jane Duckett, Glasgow University.
• 24th January 2019 - "Playmates" (Documentary Film Screening and Q&A).Presented by Director He Xiaopei, Pink Space Sexuality Research Centre China.
• 22nd November 2018 - 'Brexit, Trade War and the Future of Sino-UK Relations',Professor Wang Zhanpeng, Beijing Jiaotong University.
• 24th October 2018 - ‘Is China a post-secular society? The appearance of Xinyang in Chinese political discourse’, Professor Gerda Wielander, Westminster University
• 15th November 2017 - ‘Are the US and China destined for war?’, Professor Peter Hays Gries, University of Manchester
• 16th February 2017 - ‘Investigating Employability and Entrepreneurship in China’, Dr Peter Sewell, Lancaster University
• 24th November 2016 - ‘Every day-Life Business Delinquencies of Chinese SME Owners’, Dr Qingan Huang University of East London
• 23rd November 2016 - ‘British Born Chinese’ Research Documentary Film, Dr Elena Barabantseva, University of Manchester
• 26th October 2016 - ‘Will individual religious belief lead to increased propensity for the individual to act entrepreneurially in China?’ Dr Haina Zhang, Lancaster University
• 10th July 2016 - The 4th Chinese Language Teacher Training Workshop Theme: Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) teaching methodology and teaching resources
• 24th May 2016 - China Research Forum, Lancaster University
• 29th April 2016 - ‘Asia as part of the EU’s Global Security Strategy: Reflections on a more strategic approach’ Dr Michael Reiterer, Principal Advisor for Asia, European External Action Services (EEAS)
• 26th April 2016 - ‘Returnee CEOs under Weak Institution: Blessing or Curse?’ Dr Wenxuan Hou, University of Edinburgh
• 15th March 2016 - ‘Governance with Chinese Characteristics? The Politics of Financial Market Regulation in China’ Professor Dr Jörn-Carsten Gottwald, Ruhruniversität Bochum
• 9th March 2016 - ‘China’s Global Goals and Roles: Changing the World from Second Place?’ Professor Shaun Breslin, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick.
• 11th February 2016 - ‘Designing Performance-Based Incentives for Healthcare Services: Challenges for China’s Healthcare System and Insight from the English NHS’, Professor Zhan Pang, Lancaster University
• 4th November 2015 - ‘Visualizing China and the World: Documentary Filmmaking as a Critical Method’ William A. Callahan, Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science
• 29th October 2015 - ‘Revisiting Entrepreneurship in a Transition Context’, Professor David Smallbone, Professor of Small Business and Entrepreneurship; and Associate Director of the Small Business Research Centre
• 10th October 2015 - ‘New Chinglish and the Post-Multilingualism Challenge ’, Professor Li Wei, University College London
• 18th June 2015 - “Relational embeddedness and Supply Flexibility: The Moderating Role of Proactiveness and Culture Differences”, Dr Matevz Raskovic, University of Ljubljana.
• 5th May 2015 - ‘China and Disaster Governance: Unravelling the Domestic Sources of a Global Responsibility', Dr Pichamon Yeophantong, University of New South Wales, Australia
• 12th March 2015 - ‘Chinese currency and its influences on China’s economic growth and globalisation‘ Kang Qu, Bank of China
• 25th February 2015 - ‘Addressing heterogeneity of consumer preferences and the demand for cars in China’ Dr Didier Soopramanien, Associate Professor, International Business School, Beijing Foreign Studies University
• 29th January 2015 - ‘Science, Technology and Innovation in China: Progress, Problems and Prospect’, Dr Cong Cao University of Nottingham