Author: GCA Admin

Introduction  

On the occasion of being an invited speaker at the ‘International Conference: Chinese Path to Modernization and Pursuit of Humanity’s Common Values’ held at Xiamen University from April 4th to 6th, 2023, I visited China and engaged in a series of lectures, seminars, and academic exchanges at various universities in Xiamen, Wuhan, Tianjin, and Beijing. In addition to fulfilling our academic duties, I also participated in events and activities aligned with the social missions of the Global China Academy. This account does not include activities related to academic and social missions in Beijing.

Timeline

From April 4-6, I participated in a 3-day conference named ‘International Conference: Chinese Path to Modernization and Pursuit of Humanity’s Common Values’. It was organized by the newly established Institute of Chinese Path to Modernization and Division of Social Sciences at Xiamen University. The conference included three panels: Chinese Path to Modernization and Global Governance, Chinese Path to Modernization and International Communication, and Chinese Path to Modernization and Traditional Chinese Culture, with Panel 3 chaired by Professor ZHANG Yu, Deputy Director of the School of Taiwan Studies. My talk, titled ‘Realization of Goal-Oriented Cooperative Projects, Promoting the Common Value of Mankind: A Corpus-Assisted Analysis of ‘recipropriety’ (lishang-wanglai 互适),’ focused on global society governance, exploring humanity’s common values and differences through corpus-based texts and case analyses of cooperative projects using the concept of ‘recipropriety.’ I aimed to deepen mutual understanding and achieve common project goals by discussing different values and seeking common ground while preserving diversity.

On the evening of April 4th, Professor HU Rong (2nd left in the left photo), Dean of the School of Sociology and Anthropology, hosted an academic exchange meeting. Attendees included myself, Professor Donggen Rui (in the middle of right photo) from Pukyong National University, South Korea, anthropologist Professor GONG Haoqun, and sociologist Associate Professor LU Wei. On afternoon of April 5th, Professor GONG Haoqun (right photo) and I had an in-depth discussion on anthropological issues from a comparative perspective, based on my work and that of some fellow anthropologists on comparing Chinese and non-Chinese societies.

On the afternoon of April 6th, Professor Donggen Rui (right in the left photo) and I met with Professor LI Minghuan (left in the right  photo) from the School of Sociology and Anthropology at Xiamen University. She is the Vice President of the Chinese Overseas History Society and was an invited speaker at a conference I organized in 2013 at LSE.Dr. HE Ruifu (left in the left photo) hosted the tea and lunch meeting. He obtained his PhD on family networks in a rural village in Fujian under Professor Stephan Feuchtwang at City University in 1993 when I worked there. He formerly served as the Deputy District Chief of Siming District, Xiamen City, the Deputy Director of the Research Office of the Xiamen Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and the Executive Vice Chairman of the Xiamen Federation of Social Science Associations. He is the editor of Gulangyu Island Studies, a series of research books. They cover various topics, including the history and cultural relations of Gulangyu Island with countries such as the UK, Germany, and Japan, as well as studies on overseas Chinese and women’s research.

On the morning of April 9th, I delivered a lecture entitled ‘A Corpus-Assisted Social Scientific Approach: A Textual Analysis Methodology in the Era of Big Data’ at the Marxist School of Wuhan University. I shared the background of my involvement with this method. In the era of big data, with the overwhelming presence of massive electronic texts, the traditional quantitative and qualitative analysis methods in social sciences face significant challenges. The presentation by speakers from the ESRC Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science (CASS) at Lancaster University during the 3rd Global China Dialogue in 2016 showcased the effectiveness of the corpus approach in addressing social scientific issues related to climate changes. Inspired and guided by experts from the ESRC CASS, the Global China Institute, which later became the Global China Academy, organized the workshop on Corpus Approaches to Chinese Social Science (CACSS). Three years following the workshop, the Journal of Corpus Approaches to Chinese Social Science (JCACSS, Chinese Edition) was launched, published by Global Century Press and edited by Professor QIAN Yufang at Zhejiang Gongshang University.

To commemorate the 105th anniversary of the birth of China’s distinguished social scientist and pioneer of Marxist sociology, Professor Ding Kequan (1914-1989), and the 110th anniversary of the birth of our country’s famous sociologist, anthropologist, social activist, and Chinese national leader, Professor Fei Xiaotong (1910-2005), I, along with assistance from Professor QIAN Yufang and other colleagues, constructed three corpora. These include the Ding Kequan Collected Works (three volumes), Fei Xiaotong Complete Works (20 volumes), and the Marx and Engels Complete Works (50 volumes) corpus. My lecture aimed to share experiences and provide examples demonstrating how to bridge the disciplines of sociology and applied linguistics. Professor JIN Wei (to my right in the group photo) organized the lecture, and Professor JIAN Fan (to my left in the group photo), the Vice Dean of the Marxist School, chaired the lecture.

On the afternoon of April 9th, I gave a seminar at the Wuhan University Center for Media Development Studies, which is one of the four media studies bases of the Ministry of Education, alongside those at Tsinghua University, Renmin University of China, and Fudan University. The Wuhan University Center founded the Journal of Cross-Cultural Communication Research, where a comprehensive interview article titled ‘The Concept, Practice, and Production of Transculture from a Global Perspective’, conducted by Professor WANG Xin with me, was published in the journal (Vol. 5, 2022).

The seminar was chaired by Professor WU Shiwen (on my right in the bottom photo), Director of the Institute for Health Communication Research at the Wuhan University Center for Media Development Studies. The title of my seminar was Realization of Goal-Oriented Cooperative Projects, Promoting the Common Value of Mankind: A Corpus-Assisted Analysis of ‘recipropriety’ (lishang-wanglai 互适). This is the same title as the presentation I delivered at the Xiamen conference.

Professor XIAO Jun (on the left side of me in the bottom photo), the Deputy Director of both the Centre and Department of Internet Communication at the School of Journalism and Communication, Wuhan University, provided me with a guided tour of the Center, School, and University Campus before and after my talk. Immediately after visiting Xiamen University, I shared my comparative views on these two most beautiful university campuses in China. Both offer a rich blend of natural beauty and architectural elegance. The serene coastal vibes of XMU, combined with the blend of Eastern and Western architectural styles, provide a unique, tranquil environment for study and reflection. In contrast, the lush, blossoming landscapes of WHU, famous for their cherry blossoms and palatial architecture, offer a historically rich and aesthetically pleasing environment. 

On the evening of April 9th, Professor LUO Jiaojiang (2nd left in the top left photo), who is the former Director of the Institute of Social Development at Wuhan University and also the former Vice President of the Global China Institute (the predecessor of GCA), arranged a meeting for me with some colleagues in Wuhan. Together with his colleague, Research Fellow LUO Jun (1st right in the top left photo), and myself, we were awarded the major research project ‘Emergence, Status, and Prospect of Computational Social Science in the Big Data Era’ by the National Social Science Fundation of China, undertaken by Wuhan University in 2016. Professor WANG Tie (on my left in the top left photo), the former Director of the Institute of Information at the Wuhan Academy of Social Science, also attended the meeting.

On the morning of April 10th, outside the building of the School of Sociology, I met with Professor WU Lin (on my right in the bottom left photo), Vice Dean of the School of Sociology, Dr CAI Lei, Associate Professor (1st left in the bottom left photo), and Dr GONG Weigang, Associate Professor (1st right in the bottom left photo). In the lecture room, Professor ZHOU Changcheng (right in the bottom right photo) popped in to meet me before the lecture. He was the Vice Dean of the School of Law, Deputy Director of the Department of Sociology, and President of the Wuhan Sociological Association. I was surprised to see him dressed in gold clothes and a hat on the university campus. We shared common interests during lunchtime.

The lecture was chaired by Professor WU Lin (right in the bottom photo), Vice Dean of the School of Sociology. The title of the lecture was ‘A Corpus-Assisted Social Scientific Approach: A Textual Analysis Methodology in the Era of Big Data,’ the same as the one I delivered at the Marxism School. During the Q&A, Dr CAI Lei shared with everyone that she attended my lecture eight years ago in 2014, when she was a Master’s student in the Department of Sociology. She was very impressed and noted that I returned to the department with a very different topic.

GCA Life Fellow Korean Sociologist Professor HAN Sang-Jin engaged in a series of influential academic activities and projects in Beijing and London in 2016, 2017, and 2023. These activities ranged from in-depth field visits to high-level international dialogues, reflecting Professor Han’s contributions to promoting global academic exchange and cultural understanding. This blog will showcase his efforts in strengthening international cooperation and promoting academic sharing between China and the international community, and reveal the hidden strings that were pulled by Professor Li Qiang (1949-2023).

 

In early January, during her trip to Seoul, GCA’s President, Professor Xiangqun Chang, met with GCA Life Fellow Korean sociologist Professor HAN Sang-Jin from Seoul National University, and his wife, Professor Shim Young-Hee from Hanyang University (left photo above), at Dongmyeong. Professor Han, who is also the Chairman of the Joongmin Foundation for Social Theory (JMF) and the Europe–Asia Research Network (EARN). During the COVID-19 pandemic, Professor Han led a research project that conducted three rounds of global survey questionnaires related to COVID-19 and citizens’ lives, covering 33 metropolitan cities in the world.

Professor Shim made suggestions for places of interest that they normally recommended to their academic guests, such as Gyeongbokgung Palace, the Folk Museum, Bukchon Hanok Village, Insadong, and other places. Professor Han immediately arranged for his PhD student, Jiang Meishan (second from the right in the top right photo), to accompany Professor Chang during her visit to Seoul. The photos in the top right and bottom are of Bukchon Hanok Village and Namsangol Hanok Village.

Professor reminisced about their productive field visit to the Qinghe Community (top row of photos) in Beijing in October 2016, alongside Professor Martin Albrow, Founding and Past Honorary President of the Global China Academy (GCA). This visit was organized by the GCA Council’s former Chinese Chair, Professor Li Qiang (1949–2023), who was then the Dean of the School of Social Sciences at Tsinghua University and President of the Chinese Sociological Association. The group photo at the bottom right was taken after Professor Martin Albrow’s lecture. Professor Chang was to Professor Albrow’s left, Professor Li was to his right, and Professor Han was to Professor Li’s left. The title of Albrow’s lecture was ‘The Challenge of Transculturality for the USA and China’, which was published in China’s Role in a Shared Human Future: Towards Theory for Global Leadership, by Martin Albrow and published by Global Century Press, London, in 2018.

At the 4th Global China Dialogue ‘the Belt and the Road: Transcultural Cooperation for Shared Goals’ in 2017, Professor Han presented a paper titled ‘A Cosmopolitan Interpretation of Fei Xiaotong’s Study of Chinese Culture: How Companies Can Work for the Cultural Project of the Belt and Road’ at Panel III, ‘What are the theoretical and legal bases of the B&R?’ The plenary panelists from left to right in the top right photo are: Dr Linda Yueh CBE, Fellow in Economics at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford University, and Adjunct Professor of Economics at London Business School; Dr Xiaobai Shen, Senior Lecturer in International and Chinese Business at the University of Edinburgh Business School; Dr Yuka Kobayashi, Lecturer in China and International Politics, SOAS, University of London; Professor Han; Professor Jiaming Sun, Professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Texas A&M University-Commerce, USA; and Dr Tan Khee Giap, Co-Director of the Asia Competitiveness Institute (ACI) and Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (Panel Chair). The photos in the bottom row from left to right show Professor Xiangqun Chang in conversation with Professor Han at the British Academy during the Dialogue, and with Professor Han and Professor Shim at King’s College London at the Post-Dialogue workshop: Chinese for Social Science (CSS) at King’s College London on December 2. The second photo from the left in the bottom right features Professor Ann Lee, an adjunct professor at New York University, an internationally recognized leading authority on China’s economic relations, and the CEO of Coteri, USA, jointed the conversation.

While in London, Professor Han and Professor Shim conducted an interview with Professor Lord Anthony Giddens, their third interview with Giddens over the past three decades. These interviews were all published in Confucianism and Reflexive Modernity (2019). From the book title and the author’s name, people might assume it was written by Chinese, especially since the concept of ‘modernization’ has been a keyword in social sciences discourse in China, whereas the world has been using globalization in different forms. Professor Han said that his work was influenced by Giddens’s two early books, The Consequences of Modernity (1990) and Modernity and Self-Identity (1991), and by Ulrich Beck’s books on risk, such as Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (1992) and Reflexive Modernization (1994).  
Han’s book critiques the Asian Value Debate paradigm and advocates for a balance between individual empowerment and community flourishing within the framework of a global risk society, from an enlightened post-Confucianism perspective.

During the meeting in Seoul, Professor Chang told Professor Han that she would visit China in April. Professor Han also planned to visit China in April. They agreed in principle that they should meet again at Tsinghua University if their schedules allowed. On the morning of April 20th, Professor Han and Professor Chang joined a meeting at the Department of Sociology, Tsinghua University. Dr ZHENG Lu chaired the meeting. He is the Deputy Head and Associate Professor of the Department of Sociology and the ‘Rong’ Professor of Data Sciences at Tsinghua University. From left to right in the top right photo are: Dr ZHENG Lu, Professor Chang, Professor LI Qiang, Professor Han, Dr ZHANG Yizhang from the Department of Sociology, and Dr CHEN Yulin from the School of Architecture. In this photo, everyone clenched their fists, a gesture suggested by Professor Han, to express a determination to collaborate among the three parties. This sentiment was echoed in his video greetings at the GCA’s founding ceremony, as presented by Professor LI Qiang (click here to watch). Shortly afterwards, Professor Li waved goodbye to everyone, and Dr Zhao accompanied him as they disappeared from our sight (in the two bottom photos)—a farewell that became eternal……

Note: The photos and text below were updated following Professor Li Qiang’s passing in December 2023.

On 12 December, Professor Xiangqun Chang shared the aforementioned memorial webpage with Professor Han Sang-jin of Sociology from Seoul National University. Immediately, Professor Han set up a small altar at his home to honour the memory of Professor Li Qiang, placing a bunch of white chrysanthemums in front to symbolize his distant remembrance. Furthermore, he held a funeral parlor open all day on Saturday at his institute on the December 16 when LI Qiang’s farewell ceremony was held in Babaoshan, Beijing. He also forwarded us his memorial article written in English. The Chinese-translated version has been published on the Tsinghua University website. The photo on the bottom right, showing the farewell ceremony hall for Li Qiang, was received from Professor Han Sang-jin. This gesture of remembrance and respect from colleagues and friends underscores the profound impact Professor Li had on those around him.

Professor Xiangqun Chang’s reflections on conversations with Professor HAN Sang-Jin, from Seoul to Beijing and then to London, alongside the commemorative gestures in memory of Professor Li Qiang, weave a tapestry of academic solidarity, respect, and mutual learning. The enduring legacy of scholars like Professor Li Qiang, remembered through acts of remembrance and the continuing dialogue among academics, echoes the spirit of global collaboration and intellectual curiosity that defines the Global China Academy. These narratives, captured in photographs, lectures, and shared memories, continue to inspire and guide the path toward a more interconnected and understanding global academic community.

• Click here to view the page ‘Global China Academy’s President Professor Xiangqun Chang’s Academic Activities in Beijing,18-20 April 2023’.
• Click here to view the page ‘The Chinese Chair of the Global China Aacademy Council, Professor LI Qiang, passed away on the 12 December, 2023’.
• Click here to watch a video of Professor LI Qiang’s greeting for the launch of the Global China Academy as an academy at the 7th Global China Dialogue, on December 10th, 2021, at the British Academy.
• Click here to visit the GCA news & Blog section. 

Introduction  

On her trip to accompany her mother returning to China and to help her settle there, Professor Xiangqun Chang visited China from early September to mid-November 2022. During this period, she participated in a series of meetings and activities with related parties there. The description of the activities below aims to enable our global colleagues to meet some of our Chinese colleagues and contacts in China for the purpose of sharing information and networking.    

Timeline

On the 17^th September, a meeting was held in the Tsinghua Science and Technology Building at Tsinghua University, Beijing. It was organized by GCA Trustee Dr Yuan Cheng (front right), Country Manager of Greater China, Russell Reynolds Associates (UK), and Professor LAN Chun of Beijing Foreign Studies University, Executive Editor of the Journal of Chinese for Social Science (JCSS, front left). All the GCA Founding Fellows and Life Fellows participated in the meeting online and offline.

The above photo shows participants in person or online. In-person participants included Professor LI Qiang (rear 2^nd right), Professor XIE Lizhong (front 2^nd right) and Professor Xiangqun Chang (rear right). Online participants (inset) included Professor BING Zheng (top centre), Professor ZHU Guanglei (top left), Professor GU Yueguo (top right), Professor ZHANG Xiaodong (bottom left), Professor ZHANG Letian (bottom centre), former Dean of School of Social Development at Fudan University, former Chinese President of GGPN Global and Global China Institute (GCA’s predecessors) and Honorary Editor of JCACSS (Chinese edition); Dr Qing Cao (bottom right). Many important issues were discussed in the meeting.

Left: In morning of the 18^th September, Professor Chang met Ms ZHANG Haiou (left), former Editor-in-chief of the New World Press, one of GCP’s Chinese partners. The topic of metaverse was discussed.

Right: In the afternoon, Professor Chang had a productive meeting with Professor CHEN Guangjin (left), Director of Institute of Sociology, and Professor FANG Ning (right), Deputy Director of Institute of Political Science, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).

On 19^th September, Professor Chang visited the headquarters of Learning without Borders (LwB, also known as UVIC) in Changsha City, Hunan Province. UVIC funded the first three Global China Dialogues and has been one of the most faithful supporters of GCDs. In the meeting, Philip Hao (3^rd left and far right in the above photos), CEO of the LwB and UVIC, and his colleagues discussed issues for further collaboration with GCA.    

On 21^st September, three meetings were held at Kingswell Hotel at Tongji University.

Left: The first meeting was with Professor WANG Xin (right) and Dr DING Fan (left). Professor Wang interviewed Professor Chang in London in 2018 when she was visiting fellow at University of Westminster and published the interviews in both English and Chinese. Wang is Head of Department of Communication, School of Arts and Media, Tongji University.

Centre: Meeting with Ms ZHANG Yanli (2^nd left), General Secretary of the School, Professor WANG Jianmin (right), Deputy Dean of the School, and Dr DING Fan (left), Head of the Academic Development Division of the School. Ms Zhang showed some photos of the International Conference on Comparative Media Studies, jointly organized by the School and CCPN Global, on the occasion of the Centenary of Tongji University in 2017, when Professor Chang delivered greetings at the Opening session. She accepted the School’s invitation to give a speech at an international conference in person in mid-October.

Right: Meeting with Professor LI Linxue (3^rd right), Dean of the School, Dr WANG Zhili (left) and others. Three meetings covered a total of 10 topics, including collaborations in organizing events, research projects, building a corpus for specific purposes and publications.    

In the evening of 21^st September, Professor Chang arrived in Kaixiangong Village, Qidu Township, Wujiang County, Suzhou City. The renowned Chinese anthropologist and sociologist Fei Xiaotong conducted his fieldwork in the village in 1936, which resulted in his book Peasant Life in China (1938). Based on her thorough fieldwork in the same village, Professor Chang published Guanxi or Li Shang Wanglai ?: Reciprocity, Social Support Networks, Social Creativity in a Chinese Village (in English and Chinese, 2010 and 2011). She has been developping the concept of ‘recipropriety’ and testing it in and outside China. Photos are numbered 1–10 from top to bottom, left to right. Photo 1: Profesor Chang talked to Mr CAI Jianzhong, the General Sectotaery of Qidu Township. Photo 2: Enjoying the Chinese Farmers’ Harvest Festival (CFHF) in the village, the first such festival created by the state. Photo 3: Participating in a Rural Development Forum during the CFHF. Photo 4: Meeting Professor LIU Haoxing, School of Social Development, Fudan University (front left), Dr HUI Haiming, Fomer Director of Policy Studies of Suzhou City (front right), ZHOU Yuguan (rear right), a non-party member who was officially designated ‘General Secretary’ of the village; YAO Fukun (rear centre), Head of both Fei Xiaotong Museum and the village’s Folk Museum and related affairs; XU Guoqi (rear left), former Deputy General Secretary of the village, currently a member of a Special Working Group (zhuanban 专班) that is in charge of major development projects of the village. Photo 5: Professor Liu (front centre) arranged a meeting with former heads of the village and some village groups. Photo 6: SHEN Zhirong (rear right, in black), former General Secretary of the village, who helped Professor Chang conduct her first fieldwork in the village in 1996. Photo 7: An official meeting arranged by the current General Secretary XIA Zhiyao (3^rd left). Photo 8: A discussion about the ‘Special Working Group’ in its office in the village. Photo 9: Dining in Jiangchun Club (江村西餐厅), a Western-style canteen in the village. Photo 10: With YAO Fukun by the Fei Xiaotong statue. Photo 11: With Professor Stephan Feuchtwang, LSE, by Fei’s statue in 2016, when they participated in the international conference to mark the 80^th anniversary of Fei Xiaotong’s fieldwork in the village. 

Based on the above fieldwork, on 15^th October, Professor Chang delivered a speech entitled ‘Reciprocity (Guanxi) or recipropriety (lishang-wanglai): a case of building a community with a shared future for mankind in a Chinese village’, at the international conference ‘China and the World: Exploration and Innovation of Applied Journalism and Media Studies’, Tongji University, Shanghai.  

On 16^th–17^th October, Professor Chang visited Suzhou City, the ‘Heaven City’ in China. She had an enjoyable visit to a Cantonese tea house, Chaoren Fang, which mixed different styles of Chinese calligraphy including ‘kung fu calligraphy’, a kind of performative art, accompanied by Dr HUI Haiming (right). The owner, Mr WANG Kai (2^nd right), believed this is a good way to communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds. They also walked in underdeveloped original residential places in Ming Dynasty in Suzhou City. One wonders if Heaven City can get any better!

On 18^th–21^st October, Professor Chang visited Wuxi City, a historic city over 3,200 years old, with its Grand Canal. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it now has the highest per capita GDP in China.

The visit was arranged by Mr DU Yichao (3^rd right in green, left photo, with his colleagues), PhD candidate in anthropology at University College London. He is also Director of Wuxi New Culture Research Institute.

Centre: Officials and experts from Liangxi District accompanied Professor Chang on visits to places of interest.

Right: For COVID tests and to obtain different codes, Professor Chang’s UK passport was checked everywhere throughout her visit to China. This one was in Wuxi, which was designated a zero-risk city at that time. 

The photo on the left was taken on 12th November 2022 in Shenyang City, while Professor Chang was queueing for a COVID test or nucleic acid testing (核酸检测) on a snowy day. The term ‘doing nucleic acid tests’ (做核酸) has become a catchphrase in people’s daily lives, and the action of ‘doing nucleic acid tests’ has become a way of life in their everyday routines. The nucleic acid testing sites were well-built and well-located. Even a small site was easier to find than a well-known residential area (小区) on a digital map.

Professor Chang’s experiences and skills in learning and using different kinds of health codes became a special memory: from international health codes to provincial, regional, or city-specific ones, and from English to Chinese versions. For non-Chinese passport holders entering Beijing, the English version of the health code (Health Kit) is required. There were different names for health codes, such as Liaoshitong (辽事通) for Liaoning Province, Shengshitong (盛事通) for Shenyang City (Shengjing 盛京 was the capital of the Manchu state during the Qing Dynasty period, which later became the city of Shenyang), Suishenma (随申码) for Shanghai City (Shanghai known as ‘Hu沪,’ also referred to as ‘Shen 申’), Sukangma (苏康码) for Jiangsu Province, and Xikangma (锡康码) for Wuxi City. These codes were necessary for entry at airports and stations. Within any given location, whether it be a hospital, office, shop, restaurant, or any place of interest, the ‘Changsuoma’ (场所码) had to be presented. All the above codes must be dynamic and cannot be photos or screenshots of codes that were prepared earlier. The diversity and ingenuity of these health codes reflect the Chinese people’s adaptive strategies in dealing with COVID-19.

The above tests and codes have ensured that both the virus and people are tightly controlled. Everyone seems to have adapted to this kind of lifestyle. It is truly remarkable how the COVID-19 situation changed dramatically two weeks after she left China. ‘Understanding China and the World,’ one of GCP’s book series, is clearly important and will continue to be so.