Cultural Expression and Subjectivity of Chinese Peasants

Cultural Expression and Subjectivity of Chinese Peasants PDF Author: Sha Yao
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000410153
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
As the famous sociologist Fei Xiaotong argued, “the real life of most Chinese can only be seen in the villages.” Peasants not only comprise a significant part of the Chinese population but represent a distinctive culture and one that is expressed in its own particular way. This makes for an important area of study for scholars in communication studies. This volume investigates how Chinese peasants express their culture and adapt to social change. The author’s research consists of participant observation and interviews of shadow puppetry artists in Guanzhong, China, illustrating how peasant artists have adapted to the historical and social changes since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. He discovers that Chinese peasants integrate urban popular culture with their own aesthetic criteria, even if the mainstream discourse of the Chinese community overlooks the subjectivity of peasants. He goes on to put forwards a creative analytical framework for the studies of the dynamics of “subject-time-space.” Scholars and students of anthropology, sociology, and communication studies, especially rural communication studies, will find this an ideal case study.

Cultural Expression and Subjectivity of Chinese Peasants

Cultural Expression and Subjectivity of Chinese Peasants PDF Author: Sha Yao
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000410153
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 182

Get Book Here

Book Description
As the famous sociologist Fei Xiaotong argued, “the real life of most Chinese can only be seen in the villages.” Peasants not only comprise a significant part of the Chinese population but represent a distinctive culture and one that is expressed in its own particular way. This makes for an important area of study for scholars in communication studies. This volume investigates how Chinese peasants express their culture and adapt to social change. The author’s research consists of participant observation and interviews of shadow puppetry artists in Guanzhong, China, illustrating how peasant artists have adapted to the historical and social changes since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. He discovers that Chinese peasants integrate urban popular culture with their own aesthetic criteria, even if the mainstream discourse of the Chinese community overlooks the subjectivity of peasants. He goes on to put forwards a creative analytical framework for the studies of the dynamics of “subject-time-space.” Scholars and students of anthropology, sociology, and communication studies, especially rural communication studies, will find this an ideal case study.

Imagined China

Imagined China PDF Author: Wang Haizhou
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000576000
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
This book explores how Chinese films constructed an image of China in the 1980s through analyzing the characters, composition of space, and conflict patterns of the films. It also examines the relationship between the representations in Chinese cinema and the realities of Chinese society. The study analyzes the imagery, metaphors, and cultural values of Chinese films in the 1980s to discover the common creative focus of Chinese film directors at the time. It also examines the specific creative elements and cultural significance of Chinese cinema in the 1980s. This book is neither a “period history” of Chinese cinema in the 80s, nor a thematic study of the “fifth generation”. Rather, it is an analysis of films as narrative texts that reflected on history. It uses the perspectives revealed by characters, narrative patterns, and conflicts in films of the 1980s to examine how the era was perceived at that time as well as how China’s national future and individuals’ personal futures were being conceptualized. This title will be a valuable resource for scholars and students of Chinese Studies, Contemporary China Studies, Film Studies, and those who are interested in Chinese culture and society in general.

Social Mentality and Public Opinion in China

Social Mentality and Public Opinion in China PDF Author: Fanbin Zeng
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000848787
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 143

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Book Description
This book explores the relationship between social mentality, public opinion, media, and other factors through mixed methods in China, especially since the 21st century. The book deploys qualitative and quantitative research and adopts a multi-disciplinary perspective and diverse research methods. The studies are built on and contribute to the burgeoning literature seeking to anatomise the relationship between social mentality, media, and public opinion from the point of view of sociology and communication. It also aims to explore how media can be used to appease public opinion. As the first systematic study of the interconnection between social mentality and public opinion, this book provides empirical support and a theoretical framework for both areas. It will thus be a great read for students and scholars of communication, sociology, and social psychology, especially for those with a focus on China and new media.

Rural-Urban Migration in China

Rural-Urban Migration in China PDF Author: Zheng Xin
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000834484
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 357

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Book Description
This book attempts to document and analyse the complicated role new media play in the adaptation and integration of China’s new generation of migrant workers. By analysing the interviews and observations of more than 500 migrant workers under the age of 25 between 2010 and 2015, the author tries to understand how new media shape the experiences of this significant group of people at different stages of their lives. This study profiles the daily life of this new generation of migrant workers and examines the intricate connections between media and the reconstruction of migrant workers’ identity, as well as their urban life adaptation and social inclusion. Not only is their interaction with new media a key factor in decisions to migrate to the city in the first place, but it continues to play a crucial role in how their outlook on life, sense of identity, lifestyle, personal relationships, and aspirations change as they navigate their new environment. These findings reveal the impact of new media on China’s accelerating urbanization and modernization. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of contemporary China studies, and those who are interested in the urbanization of China in general.

Documentaries and China’s National Image

Documentaries and China’s National Image PDF Author: Chen Yi
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000629481
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
Emphasizing the role of documentary in shaping a nation-state’s image, demonstrating social development and promoting cultural exchanges, this book examines the changes in China’s national image in documentaries at home and abroad since 1949. Based on theoretical frameworks of media sociology, political economy of communication and cultural studies, the book traces the development of Chinese documentary and discusses social transformation and cultural representation embodied in documentaries related to China. It is revealed how these works witness, reflect and interact with social transitions in all aspects of a modernizing China, as well as how documentary production struggles among and mediates between technology, market, ideology, social forces and professionalism. In terms of future prospects of documentary in an era when media convergence is burgeoning, the author explores feasible paths to further promotion of cross-cultural communication and China’s national image, by analyzing documentary aesthetics and representative cases of documentary practice. The title will appeal to scholars and students interested in culture and communication, documentary, film, media and Chinese society.

Environmental Risk Communication in China

Environmental Risk Communication in China PDF Author: Jia Dai
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000454096
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
The role of media is becoming increasingly important as globalization has developed. Given fast social transformation and technological development in China, the consequent environmental and health risks demand citizens integrate the communication and prevention of such risks as a significant part of their daily life. This book systematically discusses the communication process of typical environmental risk issues, and the complex interaction among multiple actors, including the public, media, experts, non-governmental organizations, and government in contemporary China. From a media-centered perspective, it applies major theories in the field of environmental and risk communication, and uses a variety of empirical research methods to unravel the complicated and unique experience of communication and governance. Combining theoretical reflections with real-life examples of Chinese scenarios, the authors not only encourage a dialogue between Western and Chinese academia but also inspire students and practitioners to apply risk communication theories to solving real-life problems. The book will appeal to students, scholars, and practitioners of risk and environmental communication studies.

Infectious Inequalities

Infectious Inequalities PDF Author: Qijun Han
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000540804
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
This book explores societal vulnerabilities highlighted within cinema and develops an interpretive framework for understanding the depiction of societal responses to epidemic disease outbreaks across cinematic history. Drawing on a large database of twentieth- and twenty-first-century films depicting epidemics, the study looks into issues including trust, distrust, and mistrust; different epidemic experiences down the lines of expertise, gender, and wealth; and the difficulties in visualizing the invisible pathogen on screen. The authors argue that epidemics have long been presented in cinema as forming a point of cohesion for the communities portrayed, as individuals and groups “from below” represented as characters in these films find solidarity in battling a common enemy of elite institutions and authority figures. Throughout the book, a central question is also posed: “cohesion for whom?”, which sheds light on the fortunes of those characters that are excluded from these expressions of collective solidarity. This book is a valuable reference for scholars and students of film studies and visual studies as well as academic and general readers interested in topics of films and history, and disease and society. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

The Nanjing Massacre and the Making of Mediated Trauma

The Nanjing Massacre and the Making of Mediated Trauma PDF Author: Hongtao Li
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000427862
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
Drawing on cultural trauma theory, this book investigates how collective memory of the Nanjing Massacre is fashioned in China and how the mass media, political power and public praxis jointly shape the politics and culture of memory in contemporary China. Allowing for the dimensions of history and different mediating spaces, the authors first conduct textual analysis of news reports from traditional media since the event took place, revealing that the significance of the Massacre was initially portrayed as a local incident before its construction as a national trauma and finally a collective memory. In a study of physical and online memorial spaces, including the Memorial Hall, commemorative activities on the Internet and new media platforms, the book unveils the production and reproduction of trauma narratives as well as how these narratives have been challenged. The final part further studies the interactions between media and other institutional settings while exploring issues of global memory and reconciliation in East Asia. The title will be an essential read for anyone interested in memory studies, media and communication, and particularly the collective memory of the Nanjing Massacre.

Spaces of Their Own

Spaces of Their Own PDF Author: Mayfair Mei-hui Yang
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 9780816631469
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
How are the public and political lives of Chinese women constrained by states and economies? And how have pockets of women's consciousness come to be produced in and disseminated from this traditionally masculine milieu? The essays in this volume examine the possibilities for a public sphere for Chinese women, one that would both emerge from concrete historical situations and local contexts and cut across the political boundaries separating the Mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the West. The challenges of this project are taken up in essays on the legacy of state feminism on the Mainland as contrasted with a grassroots women's movement challenging the state in Taiwan; on the role of the capitalist consumer economy in the emerging lesbian movement in Taiwan; and on the increased trafficking of women as brides, prostitutes, and mistresses between the Mainland and wealthy male patrons in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The writers' examples of masculine domination in the media include the reformulation of Chinese women in Fifth Generation films for a transnational Western male film audience and the portrayal of Mainland women in Taiwanese and Hong Kong media. The contributors also consider male nationalism as it is revealed through both international sports coverage on television and in a Chinese television drama. Other works examine a women's museum, a telephone hotline in Beijing, the films of Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui, the transnational contacts of a Taiwanese feminist organization, the diaspora of Mainland women writers, and the differences between Chinese and Western feminist themes.

Knowledge Workers in the Information Society

Knowledge Workers in the Information Society PDF Author: Catherine McKercher
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739117811
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
Knowledge Workers in the Information Society addresses the changing nature of work, workers, and their organizations in the media, information, and knowledge industries. These knowledge workers include journalists, broadcasters, librarians, filmmakers and animators, government workers, and employees in the telecommunications and high tech sectors. Technological change has become relentless. Corporate concentration has created new pressures to rationalize work and eliminate stages in the labor process. Globalization and advances in telecommunications have made real the prospect that knowledge work will follow manufacturing labor to parts of the world with low wages, poor working conditions, and little unionization. McKercher and Mosco bring together scholars from numerous disciplines to examine knowledge workers from a genuinely global perspective.