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China’s Quest for “Soft Power” A Public Lecture by Yuezhi Zhao Speakman Lecture Theatre, Clothworkers’ Building Central, University of Leeds Friday, 28 October 4.15 to 5.30 All welcome, free admission – but places are limited, and you are advised to arrive early Presented by the Media Industries Research Centre at the Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds, in association with the ECREA Media Industries and Cultural Production Temporary Working Group* Yuezhi Zhao is Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Political Economy of Global Communication at the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University. She is also Changjiang Lecture Professor at the Communication University of China, Beijiing. Dr. Zhao’s books include Communication and Society: Political Economic and Cultural Analysis (in Chinese, Beijing: Communication University of China Press, 2011), Communication in China: Political Economy, Power, and Conflict (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), and Global Communications: Toward a Transcultural Political Economy (co-edited, Rowman & Littlefield, 2008). From establishing Confucius Institutes all over the world to mounting an advertising blitz in New York’s Time Square, the Chinese state’s multifaceted endeavour to strengthen its “soft power” has been highly visible and the subject of much recent journalistic and scholarly attention. This talk locates the Chinese state’s “soft power” quest within historical and geopolitical contexts and critically examines its profoundly contradictory underpinning political economy and cultural politics. While this campaign’s political and moral imperatives appear self-evident, its structural impediments seem to be insurmountable. Furthermore, there are irreconcilable tensions between a drive to pursue an essentially elitist, technocratic, and culturalist approach to global communication and a capacity to articulate and communicate an alternative global political and social vision that appeals to the vast majority of the world population in a deeply divided and crisis-laden global order. * Media Industries Research Centre<http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/sub1.cfm?pbcrumb=MIRC>, University of Leeds * ECREA Media Industries and Cultural Production Temporary Working Group: http://twg.ecrea.eu/MICP/ To get to the Speakman Lecture Theatre, see the campus map: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/timetable/assets/map/index.htm *ECREA is the European Communication Research and Education Association: http://www.ecrea.eu/ David Hesmondhalgh Head of the Institute of Communications Studies and Professor of Media and Music Industries University of Leeds Director of the Media Industries Research Centre<http://ics.leeds.ac.uk/sub1.cfm?pbcrumb=MIRC> New book: Creative Labour: Media Work in Three Cultural Industries (co-authored with Sarah Baker, Routledge, paperback published March 2011) -------------------------------------------------------- MeCCSA mailing list -------------------------------------------------------- To manage your subscription or unsubscribe from the MECCSA list, please visit: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=MECCSA&A=1 ------------------------------------------------------- MeCCSA is the subject association for the field of media, communication and cultural studies in UK Higher Education. Membership is open to all who teach and research these subjects in HE institutions, via either institutional or individual membership. The field includes film and TV production, journalism, radio, photography, creative writing, publishing, interactive media and the web; and it includes higher education for media practice as well as for media studies. This mailing list is a free service from MeCCSA and is not restricted to members. For further information, please visit: http://www.meccsa.org.uk/ --------------------------------------------------------