LUCC News, October 2026
The October 2026 edition of LUCC's newsletter is out.
You can receive our newsletter via the mailing list - just send an email to china.centre@lancaster.ac.uk
Welcome to the Michaelmas term update from the Lancaster University China Centre.
Today we are excited to host a delegation from Renmin University’s Center for Contemporary Chinese Studies for discussions about the state of the field of Chinese studies. Look out for members of the delegation at today’s event (1-2pm) on China’s global gaming sensation, Black Myth: Wukong, presented by Dr Aiqing Wang of Liverpool University.
We've also recently welcomed Dr Xiaoyun Gong from the School of Economics at Foshan University as a visiting scholar. Dr Gong will present her research next Thursday on Digital Oversight and Local Government Debt in China on November 5.
Research events have continued apace. This term we’ve already heard from LUCC Education Lead Derek Hird, and visiting researchers Wang Jianfeng (Fuzhou University, pictured above) and Hu Hsu (Berkeley), respectively, on Confucian fatherhood, Chinese Communist Party history, and Japan’s surprising influence in the modern reinvention of Neo-Confucian tradition.
This month LUCC’s new International Lead Vittorio Tantucci presented his new work on reciprocity in Chinese LLMs, and the PhD seminar series continued with Jiawei Chen of University of Nottingham Ningbo’s online presentation on relationality in shared decision-making in TCM doctor–patient interactions. The series continues on November 11 with visiting Nankai University PhD candidate Wenshuang Li presenting her work on literary back-translation.
Read on to meet five new additions to LUCC's community, along with new interdisciplinary research from LUCC scholars, and much more.
Upcoming events
30 Oct 2026
Black Myth: Wukong and the evolution of Chinese gaming in global creative industries
Aiqing Wang (Liverpool University / LUCC)
Time and place: 1:00pm to 2:00pm, 30 October, County South C89
~
5 November 2026
Digital Oversight and Local Government Debt in China
Xiaoyun Gong (Foshan University)
Time: 12:00pm to 1:00pm, 5 Nov
Place: Charles Carter A19
~
11 November 2026
Deconstructing Untranslatability of Literary Back-translation: A Case Study on Four Generations under One Roof
Li Wenshuang, Nankai University
Time: 1-2pm, Weds 11 Nov
Place: Bowland North SR13
~
1 December 2026
From Macao to Morecambe Bay: Managing Chinese Migration, 1862-2004
Paul Kreitman, Columbia University
Time: 1.00-2.15pm, Tuesday 1 December 2026
Place: County South B89
~
For details and more upcoming events, see: Events
~
This email was sent by Lancaster University China Centre, a platform bringing together researchers across all disciplines working on, in, and with China and the Sinophone world.
http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/LUCC
Follow us on Twitter @LancasterChina
To unsubscribe, send an email to
with UNSUBCRIBE in the subject heading.
People
LUCC has welcomed five new fellows so far this academic year from across the School of Global Affairs, Lancaster University Management School, School of Social Sciences and beyond.
The LUCC Directorate is also delighted to welcome Dr Vittorio Tantucci as International Lead. In this new role, Vittorio will connect collaborations across disciplines, supporting LUCC as a converging platform through invited talks, collaborative research and international funding initiatives.
Barbara (Basia) Yoxon
Using quantitative methods, Basia’s research investigates how individuals form political judgements in contexts of international conflict and authoritarian rule, contributing to broader debates on public opinion, regime survival, and authoritarian governance.
Nicholas Simpson
Nicholas Simpson is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Social Sciences. His research interests include transnational education, Sino-foreign cooperative universities, English as Medium of Instruction (EMI) education in China/East Asia, and technology integration into these contexts and for English language instruction specifically.
Xiaoyun Gong
Dr Xiaoyun Gong is a Lecturer and Master's Supervisor in the School of Economics at Foshan University. As a LUCC Visiting Scholar in 2026-27, she is working on digital oversight and local government debt risk mitigation.
Eva Li
Dr Eva Li (李卓賢博士) rejoins LUCC as a Non-Resident Fellow after being appointed as Lecturer in Screen Industries at King's College London. Eva specialises in Chinese-language media and cultural politics. Her research interests include audience participation, fandom, and gender and sexual politics in East Asian Sinophone societies. Look out for Eva’s LUCC seminar early in Lent term in January!
Yannan Li
Dr Yannan Li, a graduate of Lancaster University’s School of Global Affairs, explores issues relating to nationalism in contemporary China, especially the impact of China’s state nationalism on its internal affairs and policies, with a focus on the ethnic politics of Mongolians in contemporary China.
-
Profiles of all LUCC’s fellows can be found on our People page.
Research News
Chinese public opinion’s role in the South China Sea: evidence from an expert survey
Andrew Chubb et al.
The prospect of Chinese nationalist public opinion driving a spiral of escalation in the South China Sea has been debated among analysts and policymakers for well over a decade. How do Southeast Asian claimant states and external great powers such as the United States interpret the role of Chinese public opinion in the South China Sea dispute, and how might this affect their policy preferences? In this article with Luc Minh Tuan (Vietnam National University), Pham Thi Yen (Saigon University) and Robin Garcia (WG Global), LUCC’s Andrew Chubb reports the results of a scenario-based survey experiment with international affairs experts in the Philippines, Vietnam and the United States to examine how nationalist sentiment in China influences observers’ risk perceptions and policy preferences in a hypothetical crisis. Experts in the two Southeast Asian claimant countries gave higher initial estimations of China’s resolve, but attached much less significance to Chinese public opinion than US analysts. Effects on preferred policy responses were mixed, but respondents in all three countries became more willing to countenance economic costs if necessary to stand up to China.
Importance of emissions-driven simulation of methane for representation of key atmospheric oxidants
Oliver Wild et al.
Prof. Oliver Wild’s latest paper with LEC colleagues Ryan Hossani, Ye Wang, James Lee (York) and Xuewei Hou of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, examines a major greenhouse gas influencing both climate and atmospheric chemistry. The paper, supported by China’s National Key Research and Development Program, compares a new emission-driven simulation with configurations where methane mixing ratios are prescribed at the surface or throughout the troposphere. The results demonstrate that an emission-driven treatment provides a more complete framework for quantifying long-term methane-hydroxide-ozone responses to emission changes and assessing their impacts on atmospheric chemistry and climate.
Living-apart marriage in China: Trends, educational gradient, and well-being implications
Yang Hu and Qian Yre
In Western societies, living-apart-together partnerships often reflect individual autonomy and are more prevalent among highly educated people. Moving beyond a Western focus, LUCC Nonresident Fellow Yang Hu and Qian Yup examine living-apart marriage in China, where spousal coresidence remains an ideal but spousal residential separation is common. They examine the trends, educational gradient, and well-being implications of livingapart marriage by analyzing nationally representative data from the Chinese General Social Survey (2006–2023). The findings highlight that living-apart marriage in China likely represents a pragmatic compromise under structural constraints, which carries negative well-being implications.
Intuitive deterrence theorists…with feelings? Perceptions of Chinese resolve in a crisis
Barbara Yoxon et al.
Recent experimental research has found citizens to be “intuitive deterrence theorists” who judge the resolve of foreign states based on their capabilities, material stakes, past behavior and costly signals. In Conflict Management and Peace Science, LUCC Fellow Barbara Yoxon, along with Andrew Chubb, Thomas Loughran and Kristina Kironska, argue there are good reasons to expect that subjective feelings toward the specific country in question—variables that are difficult to capture in genericized experimental designs—could also condition such judgements. They test this proposition using original 2022 data from an 11 country survey on China (N = 13,051), and a three-pronged measure of resolve that disaggregates its military, economic and general aspects. On the one hand, citizens’ estimations of China's resolve in a crisis scenario do correlate with their perceptions of its military and economic capabilities, consistent with the expectations of deterrence theory. On the other hand, negative subjective feelings toward China were a similarly powerful predictor of higher estimations of its resolve. The results suggest that where states seek to convey a resolved image to foreign audiences, negatively disposed individuals will be more likely to perceive it, potentially entrenching opposition to compromise.
Outreach & Engagement
LUCC partners with Richardson Institute for Peace Studies
LUCC is proud to cooperate with the Richardson Institute for Peace Studies, the UK’s oldest peace research institute, to provide internships for advanced undergraduate students at Lancaster University. Interns will gain experience working with LUCC scholars across projects on public opinion, international relations, and quantitative approaches to understanding territorial disputes.
Return of tensions in the South China Sea was a matter of time: Andrew Chubb writes for CNA
Writing for CNA News last month, LUCC Director Andrew Chubb analysed the recent flare-up in China-Philippines friction in the fractious South China Sea. Read the op-ed at: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/south-china-sea-philippines-clash-injury-control-6405116
Culture & Community
Building Business Across Borders: Lessons from China, Cambodia and Vietnam
Lancaster University Management School will host an online event on November 5, on "Building Business Across Borders: Lessons from China, Cambodia and Vietnam”. The event takes place at 9am-10.30am - further details at: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/business-and-innovation/for-businesses/events/building-business-across-borders-lessons-from-china-cambodia-and-vietnam/
Mandarin Chinese language classes
The Lancaster University Confucius Institute is offering weekly Chinese Mandarin language classes for staff, students and members of the public. There are a range of classes available for different levels, from beginner to advanced.
The classes will take place weekly for 1.5 hours each week. To find out more, please visit the Lancaster University Confucius Institute website: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/confucius-institute/study/extracurricular-classes/language
Back to News