Chinese Soft Power Around the World

Описание: 1 p.m. PDT, Thursday, April 28, 2022 (Virtual): Chinese Soft Power Around the World

This talk will introduce a new publication titled “Chinese Soft Power” – the first book in the Cambridge Elements Global China series. Western media routinely depict China’s soft power efforts as ineffective, and policymakers treat them as sharp power or as offensive influence operations. Rather than definitively proclaim Chinese soft power as either a success or a failure, Maria Repnikova examines China’s complex and often contradictory soft power performance. She shares the official visions for various projects and dissects how they actually work on the ground. Chinese initiatives are at once ambitious and deliberately adaptive to local contexts, and yet they remain contested and perceived with mixed credibility, especially amongst external audiences.

Speakers:
Maria Repnikova, Assistant Professor of Global Communication, Georgia State University
Richard Madsen, Director, Fudan-UC Center on Contemporary China; Distinguished Professor of Sociology, UC San Diego (Moderator)

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This webinar series is organized by the 21st Century China Center at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. For more information on China activities, as well as recordings of previous webinars, please visit china.ucsd.edu.

Maria Repnikova from Georgia State University examines China’s complex and often contradictory deployment of soft power performance. She will dissect various projects and once ambitious Chinese initiatives yet perceived with mixed credibility. Through numerous examples, she will illustrate the ambitious and adaptive initiatives and examine the reactions and contestations they elicit.

Bio:
Maria Repnikova is an expert on Chinese political communication and an assistant professor in Global Communication at Georgia State University. She has written widely on China's media politics, including propaganda, journalism practices and soft power. In addition to her work on China, she has also carried out comparative work on media politics in China and Russia and is currently completing a monograph on Chinese soft power in Africa.

Book link: https://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Power-...

Richard Madsen has been called “one of the modern-day founders of the study of Chinese religion.” He recently edited a volume entitled “The Sinicization of Chinese Religions: From Above and Below,” examining the meaning and practice of the ongoing campaign to “Sinicize'' religious organizations in China. Madsen is the author of 15 books on Chinese culture, U.S. society and U.S.-China relations, including the landmark studies “Chen Village under Mao and Deng,” its sequel “Chen Village: Revolution to Globalization,” “China and American Dream” and “China's Catholics: Tragedy and Hope in an Emerging Civil Society.” His works have explored a variety of vital themes in Chinese and Taiwanese civil society, exposing fascinating insights into often under-studied and difficult to research groups. Madsen directs the Fudan-UC Center on Contemporary China.