Events

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‌Ongoing series

LUCC Research Seminar Series: LUCC's research seminar series, presenting new research on Cina across all fields, from LUCC fellows and outside presenters.
LUCC Interdisciplinary Roundtable Lunches: bringing together academics across disciplines to discuss key issues facing China-engaged research at a time of rapid technological change and rising geopolitical tension.
LUCC PhD Seminars: LUCC provides a PhD seminar series for postgraduate students working on, in, or with China to present and discuss their work over lunch at Lancaste University.

Recordings of many past events are available on LUCC's YouTube channel.

To stay informed of all our upcoming events, please sign up to our mailing list at: china.centre@lancaster.ac.uk.

For past issues of our Newsletter, see LUCC News.

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Upcoming Events

25 June 2025

Infrastructural Involution in Student and Skilled Migration: International Student Mobility (ISM) from Belt-Road Countries to China

Research Seminar

Speaker: Dr Mengwei Tu, Swansea University

Time: 12-1pm Weds, 25 June

Place: County South B59

China aspires to increasing its influence in knowledge production and soft power. Why does it pour extensive public resource into attracting foreign students from Belt-Road countries, while simultaneously making it extremingly complicated for them to remain in China? Based on ethnographic data (2018–2023) from China, this study develops an “infrastructural involution” approach - how competing logics in HE internationalisation and migration infrastructures introduce contradictions and intermediaries, thus obstructing, rather than enhancing, international student mobility. This approach disentangles the working dynamics behind a migration process that has become both more accessible and more cumbersome in many parts of Asia.

Speaker bio: Dr Mengwei Tu is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Swansea University.She is the author of book Education, Migration, and Family Relations Between China and the UK (Emerald, 2018), and an editorial board member for Sociology and the British Journal of Sociology of Education.

26 June 2025

The representation and construction of women in discourse on videogames on Chinese social media

PhD Seminar

Speaker: Emma Yin (LUCC and Department of Linguistics & English Language, Lancaster University)

Time: 2-3pm, Thursday, 26 June

Place: Online via Teams

Abstract: This study investigates the discursive construction and representation of women in Chinese gaming communities by analysing user-generated discourse on two social media platforms: NGA Forum and Weibo. While existing literature on video game culture has documented sexist practices extensively, resistance to such practices, especially in non-Western contexts, remains underexplored. Drawing on the Discourse-Historical Approach (Reisigl & Wodak, 2016) and Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies (Baker, 2020), this research examines how female-coded characters, women gamers, and women workers in the video game industry are represented and positioned in Chinese online gaming communities, and how gender ideologies such as sexism and antifeminism are enacted, negotiated, and challenged. Special attention is paid to social media as a digitally mediated, participatory arena where both hegemonic and resistant voices co-exist and interact (KhosraviNik & Unger, 2016). By foregrounding the discursive struggles and practices of resistance, this research aims to illuminate underlying power relations and contribute to efforts that challenge gender inequality within Chinese gaming cultures.

3 July 2025

“A single-log bridge for thousands of soldiers to pass”: Metaphors about the Gaokao national exam on WeChat

PhD Seminar

Speaker: Jiayue Yin (Lancaster University)

Time: 2-3pm, Thursday, 3 July

Place: Online via Teams

Abstract: Studies of metaphor have been conducted across diverse domains of discourse, including politics, health, and advertising. However, very little attention has been devoted to investigating metaphors in discourse around high-stakes examinations (e.g., Taylor, 2023). Applying Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980) and frameworks for visual metaphor analysis (Forceville, 1996), this study aims to explore how Chinese people use metaphors to discuss the National College Entrance Examination (known as the Gaokao) in China on WeChat. The dataset was compiled by collecting WeChat “articles” specifically related to the Gaokao drawn from public WeChat accounts from 2021.09 to 2025.08. Emerging findings indicate that the Gaokao is framed by different source domains (e.g. SPORTS, WAR, JOURNEY, SUPERNATURAL) to metaphorically represent various aspects of the Gaokao, including test-takers (e.g. soldiers), preparations (e.g. sprint), different regions (e.g. hell, heaven), its impact (e.g. a starting point of life), etc. Implications will be drawn both for understanding the nature of metaphor use in discussing high-stakes examinations, and for building theory about how metaphor use might shape public perceptions of the Gaokao.

7-8 July 2025

Electric Vehicles in China

Interdisciplinary Workshop

Time: 12.30pm-5pm, 7 July and 8.30am-5pm, 8 July

With generous support from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences’ Research Catalyst Fund, the event brings together experts from around the UK and Europe to discuss this crucial emerging factor in 21^st century economy, science and politics. While this event is invitation-only, limited places are available for LUCC Fellows and the broader community of Lancaster University researchers. If you would like to joint, please send an email to china.centre@lancaster.ac.uk

10 July 2025

Moral panic over effeminacy: the representations of niangpao in Chinese newspapers

Speaker: Run Li (LUCC / Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University)

Time: 2-3pm, Thursday, 10 July

Place: Online via Teams

15 July 2025

Multimodal Discourses of Voluntary Childlessness on Chinese Social Media: A Critical Study

Speaker: Tianxin Li (Lancaster University)

Time: 11am-12pm, Tuesday, 15 July

Place: Online via Teams

Abstract: Since the implementation of China’s three-child policy in 2021, public discussions around reproductive choices have intensified. However, little research has explored how voluntary childlessness is discursively constructed in China. This study adopts a Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) framework and analyses relevant posts on Weibo and Xiaohongshu collected over a three-year period (2021–2024). Methodologically, it combines Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies (CADS), Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), and Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) to examine how linguistic patterns and visual strategies co-construct meanings. A preliminary analysis found that individuals frequently employ mental processes to express personal intentions. Negation structures are also widespread, often used to reject the societal expectations embedded in traditional motherhood roles. Visually, images frequently deploy colour, composition, and metaphorical elements to reinforce textual meanings, often exhibiting strong ironic features that amplify the critical orientation of the discourse. Overall, this study highlights the dynamic interplay between reproductive choices, gender identity, and broader socio-structural conditions.

Grassroots Celebrity in the Chinese Digital Sphere

Research Seminar

Speaker: Sharon Zheng (Sociology / LUCC, Lancaster University)

Time: TBC

The global pandemic motivated the emergence of grassroots celebrities in healthcare who led online opinion through their professional insights and sharing of health and medical-related knowledge in China. A certain number of practitioners introduced their professional guidance to general netizens through pay-for-answer subscription with the help of Chinese social media. This article interrogates grassroots celebrities via Zhihu, China’s largest community for questions and answers (CQA). It extends Western-focused scholarship on microcelebrities.

Speaker bio: Sharon Zheng is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Media and Culture in the Sociology Department at Lancaster University. Sharon's research areas cross over popular culture (e.g. audience/ fan/ consumer/ celebrity culture), gender studies (e.g. feminism and motherhood), British/Chinese TV and media ecosystem/landscape. She is also interested in media and cultural policy, social and digital media studies in China particularly.

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Recent Events

30 April 2025

Confucian Legacies in Disaster Governance: From East Asian Historical Epidemic Management to the Modern Era

Research Seminar

Speaker: Dr. Baihui Duan, History, Lancaster University

Time / place: Bowland North SR 15, April 30, 2025.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need for comparative studies on quarantine practices and transnational health in Asia and this talk’s examination of historical epidemic management, coupled with its unique perspective on Confucian approaches to communal health and its nuanced analysis of the long-term environmental, medical, and political impacts of the East Asian War of 1592-1598 on Korean society, positions it at the forefront of a growing field. Its insights into post-war recovery, epidemic management, public health policies, and disaster relief resonate with contemporary societal challenges, offering valuable historical perspectives.

Speaker bio: Baihui Duan is an environmental historian of early modern East Asia, particularly the Korean peninsula. Combining approaches from history and geospatial analysis, she examines how nature and infectious diseases shaped migration, disaster relief, medical care and governance. Her current book project is Relieving the People: Epidemic Management and Confucian Statecraft in Post-Imjin Korea.

19 March 2025

一举两得/一石二鸟：two birds with one stone, languages are good for science, science is good for languages

Interdisciplinary Roundtable

Speaker: Timothy Douglas (Engineering, Lancaster University)

Time / place: Charles Carter A05, 12-1pm, 19 March 2025

In this cross-disciplinary roundtable, Dr Tim Douglas, LUCC Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Bio-Chemical Engineering, will explain why language is good for science and why science is good for learning languages. Tim will discuss his experiences learning Chinese and the connections between language and science, with special reference to the Periodic Table in Chinese. Languages and Sciences are however often perceived as separate; this roundtable will explore how they are intertwined and complementary.

Speaker bio: Dr. Tim Douglas is Senior Lecturer in Bio-Chemical Engineering, working on biomaterials for biomedical applications, and the promotion of Languages in Science.

11 March 2025

Confucian Ren Ethics Revisited: A Feminist Perspective

Research Seminar (co-hosted with Lancaster University Confucius Institute)

Speaker: Dr Pei WANG (Hong Kong University)

Date and time: 12:00 - 1:30 pm, Tuesday, 11 March

Please register via the link: Academic Seminar with Dr Pei Wang

Dr Pei Wang will argue that in Confucian philosophy, care has been considered as a feminine quality, and fully developed ren considered as a masculine virtue, precisely because the core of ren goes beyond care. In traditional Confucianism, ren does include “female” care but it is not sufficient: ren as a comprehensive virtue also encompasses lifelong love of learning and personal contributions in society and politics, which is the distinctive “male” domain of ren.

An advanced Confucian ethics of ren needs to encourage women to learn more about the Way and rightness and to establish themselves in society and in politics, while also urging men to provide more care for family members and in turn help them provide more care in the family.

For ren as a political virtue, care and learning are equally important. If we overemphasize the value of care and ignore the significance of learning, ren and care will both face the risk of misuse, which is likely to harm women in particular.

Dr Wang will start by showing how filial service and care, as the root of ren, have been gendered in the Confucian classics, with care largely viewed as a “womanly” virtue. Next, Dr Wang will develop the idea that Confucian ren includes both care and love of learning, with fully developed ren viewed as a “male” virtue. In the third section, Dr Wang will show that ren how ren can be misused in a political context if the sole emphasis is placed on care without due consideration of wisdom and political ability which can be cultivated through the process of learning.

Speaker bio: Wang Pei is Assistant professor at the School of Chinese, the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include Confucianism, comparative philosophy and Chinese intellectual history. She is particularly interested in Confucian feminism and how traditional Confucian virtues can be morally justified in modern China. She is the co-author (with Daniel. A. Bell) of Just Hierarchy: Why Social Hierarchies Matter in China and the Rest of the World, published by Princeton University Press in 2020. She has authored over thirty academic articles in English, Chinese, and French, mainly on Confucianism and comparative philosophy, published in Philosophy & Social Criticism, China Review, and Jung Journal, among others.

10 March 2025

The Confucian Communist Comeback in Contemporary China

Research Seminar (co-host with Lancaster University Confucius Institute)

Speaker: Professor Daniel A. Bell (Hong Kong University)

Date and time: 12:30 - 1:30 pm, Monday, 10 March

Place: Welcome Centre Lecture Theatre 2

Please register via the link: Academic Seminar with Professor Daniel A Bell

Few Chinese intellectuals and political reformers turned to Confucianism and Communism for political inspiration at the end of the twentieth century. But both traditions have mounted remarkable comebacks in mainland China. What explains the return of Confucianism and Communism? And what are the implications for Chinese academia and the political system? Drawing on his recent book 'The Dean of Shandong: Confessions of a Minor Bureaucrat at a Chinese University' (Princeton, 2023) - selected as a book of the year by the Financial Times in 2023 - Daniel A. Bell will attempt to answer these questions.

Speaker bio: Daniel A. Bell (貝淡寧) is Professor, Chair of Political Theory with the Faculty of Law at the University of Hong Kong. He served as Dean of the School of Political Science and Public Administration at Shandong University (Qingdao) from 2017 to 2022. His books include The Dean of Shandong (2023), Just Hierarchy (co-authored with Wang Pei, 2020), and The China Model (2015).

13 February 2025

Chinese EVs Going Global?

Research Roundtable

Date and time: 11.30-1pm, 13 February 2025 (this event is limited to LUCC fellows and CaMoRe members)

In 2025, LUCC (Lancaster University China Centre) is running an open seminar series on ‘Chinese Electric Vehicles Going Global?’, organized by David Tyfield (LEC), Andrew Chubb and Philippe Major (PPR) and Dennis Zuev (formerly in Sociology). The goal is to use the seminars as a process of informative input into the formulation of a major research project, with the specific focus and project team still to be decided over the course of the seminar series.

11 February 2025

From Golden Age to Derisking to What? Tracing the Evolution of UK's China Policy

Research Seminar (co-host with Lancaster University Confucius Institute)

Speaker: Professor Shaun Breslin (University of Warwick)

Time: 11:30 am - 1:00 pm, Tuesday, 11 February

Place: Bowland North SR23

Please register via the link: Academic Seminar with Professor Shaun Breslin

The speed at which dominant discourses about the nature and consequences of economic interdependence with China has shifted in the UK is quite remarkable. To be sure, dissatisfaction with what became known as the “Osborne Doctrine” was evident long before Osborne and Cameron stood down in 2016; and notably from within their own party. But in terms of the dominant governments discourse, in not much more than years – maybe even less – the idea of a golden age of Sino-UK relations gave way to the idea of a China challenge to UK national security. Explaining this shift entails thinking about how narratives are developed and disseminated in UK politics. It also entails thinking about domestic political changes in China and the UK, and also in the broader international environment that the bilateral relationship exists within.

In essence, its seems that the UK, like every other country, wants all the benefits of dealing with a rising China, with none of problems or downsides. This is in many respects the whole point of “de-risking” (as opposed to de-coupling) economic relations. There are different ways of trying to do this, but its not clear how successful any of them might be, and how much they would cost. There is also the question of whether actively derisking would make it harder to deal with China in those issue areas where some sort of cooperation seems more appropriate than conflict. This perhaps explains the logic behind Sunak’s “robust pragmatism” and Labour’s “progressive realism”, as successive government’s try to navigate at times conflicting priorities and impulses.'

Speaker bio: Shaun Breslin is Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom, Co-Editor of The Pacific Review, and currently the academic lead on the EU funded project, EuroHub4Sino. He is the author of China Risen: Studying Chinese Global Power (Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2021), China and the Global Political Economy (Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2007), Mao (Harlow: Longman, 2000, first edition 1998), and China in the 1980s: Centre-Province Relations in a Reforming Socialist State (Basingstoke: Macmillan and New York: St Martins, 1996).