Seminars by the 2018 Sydney China Visiting Fellows

China Studies Centre, the University of Sydney

Public Lecture: Convenient Criticism: Local Media and Governance in Urbanising China

Time: 5:30–7:00 pm, Tuesday, 21 August 2018

Location: Room 306 lecture theatre, Old Teacher’s College

Speaker: Dr Dan Chen, Assistant Professor of political science and Asian studies, Elizabethtown College, Pennsylvania

Abstract:  Criticism is typically perceived as inconvenient and therefore censored by authoritarian states. However, controlled critical reporting by the news media can be a powerful tool for autocrats to increase bureaucratic control and improve governance.

 China Studies Reading Group

Time: 2-4pm, Thursday, 30 August 2018

Location: Room 310, Old Teacher’s College

Abstract: The reading group is designed to spark conversations on the recent socioeconomic and political developments in China. It aims to inspire exchange of creative ideas for research and understanding in a friendly and supportive environment.

 Seminar: No production, no consumption confidence? A comparative study of wine drinking in China and tea drinking in Australia

Time: 4-5:30pm, Tuesday, 28 August

Location: Room 306, Old Teachers College

Speaker: Dr Jinghong Zhang, Associate Professor, Centre for Social Sciences, Southern University of Science and Technology

Abstract: In this seminar, the speaker illustrates the paradoxical consumption landscape in both China and Australia, in which there exists the fashionable embracing of a new drinking culture on the one hand, and the rejection of the fashion in local daily life on the other.

Seminar: Making Films, Making Research: The Use of Documentary Films in Academic Research

Time: 1-3pm, Wednesday, 22 August

Location: Room 310, Old Teachers College

Abstract: In this seminar, the speaker will share her experience of making documentary films in anthropological research. This includes comparing the different conducts of the researcher in communicating with informants with or without or camera in the fieldwork, the varying effects of film and text in representation, and the tips of managing time when writing a dissertation meanwhile editing video.