CALL FOR PAPERS
Special issue for Critical Arts, Routledge / UNISA Press
Guest Editors: Doreen D. WU, MAO Sihui
Theme: Media Discourses and Cultural Globalization: A Chinese Perspective
In this age of accelerated globalization and
digitalization, the role and the power of the
media in representing a particular culture,
people or locality are all too great to be
ignored as the media reflects, constructs and
transforms social practice. In this special
issue, we wish to call attention to an
investigation of the discursive practice of the
media in its relationship with cultural
globalization in contemporary China. Here the
termâ??globalizationâ?? refers to the concurrent
dual process of West-dominated globalization
(together with the various conflicting
discourses thus generated) and resistant
non-Western localization in terms of economy and
culture, images and discourses, opportunities, risks and challenges.
There have been three general tendencies in
conceptualizing cultural change, transformation
and globalization in contemporary China: 1) the
liberal perspective, 2) the critical
perspective, 3) the developmental perspective.
The liberal perspective views cultural
globalization as a result of the triumph of the
capitalist economies and of the Western
democracies around the world. To the holders of
the liberal perspective, to be part of the
globalized world is not only feasible but also
desirable and the asymmetrical relationships
among different cultures are often ignored. The
manifestation of the liberal perspective can
also be observed in our approaches of academic
inquiry, i.e., in our intellectual subjugation
to the Western or Eurocentric approaches, to
exclusive and universalizing concepts, values,
theories, and methods and even research
questions. In contrast to the liberal
perspective, the critical perspective challenges
cultural imperialism from the West, warns
against the homogenizing effect of Western
culture and advocates reasserting oneâ??s
cultural autonomy. The manifestation of the
critical perspective can also be observed in our
approaches of academic inquiry, i.e., in our
emphases in drawing on the local intellectual
legacy, to counter the generalization and
universalization of Eurocentric concepts and
values (see Shi-xu 2007 & 2008). The third
perspective, the developmental perspective,
which can also be called the glocalization
perspective, conceptualizes cultural
globalization as a process of
â??glocalizationâ??â??as a dialectical process
between the global and the local forces in
cultural change and formation. Wu (2008) extends
the notion of glocalization by Robertson (1995)
and proposes a glocalization perspective which
entails a set of principles/tenets in our
approach to researching media discourses in
contemporary China. First, it entails that we
devote our attention to the issues related to
the push and the pull of the global and the
local in Cultural China in the age of
globalization, e.g., the issues of competition,
conflict and struggle between the global/the
Western/the modern and the local/the Eastern/the
traditional forces in cultural change and
exchange. Furthermore, the glocalization
perspective entails that we devote our attention
to understand and explain the intricate process
as well as the outcomes of any possible creative
confrontations or hybridizations between the
global/the Western/the modern and the local/the
Eastern/the traditional elements that have led
or will lead to cultural blending, reinvention
and emergence of new discourses in contemporary
China. The manifestation of the
glocalization/developmental perspective can also
be observed in our approaches of academic
inquiry, i.e., in our attempt not to be confined
to a singular perspective that favours either a
Western/Eurocentric or a Chinese/Sinocentric
mentality in our investigations of diverse media
discourses and globalization in contemporary China (see Mao 2008).
As editors of this theme issue, we wish to call
attention to researching the diverse voices,
thoughts, and other linguistic-symbolic
activities in the various media domains of
contemporary China and Greater China1 that
reflect the concerns and aspirations of
contemporary Chinese culture. We encourage
endeavours in drawing on methods and approaches
from different disciplines, from different
cultures, and/or from both local/Chinese and
global/western intellectual traditions. We
welcome informed research work on the following areas/topics:
1) New development(s) in Chinese media studies
2) The public and the private in Chinese cyberspace
3) Media and Chinese identity in the 21st century
4) Contemporary Chinese cinema
5) Comparative studies of cinemas and media discourses in Greater China*
6) Culture, consumption, and Chinese advertising
7) Conflict and crisis management in Chinese media
8) Critique of approaches to media discourse analysis
9) And any other important theoretical and
practical issues relating to most recent
changes/developments in the Chinese media.
Deadline for abstract submission: September 30th 2009
Deadline for full paper submission: March 1st 2010
For enquiries and submissions, please contact:
a) Doreen D. WU, email:
<mailto:(ctdwu /at/ inet.polyu.edu.hk)>(ctdwu /at/ inet.polyu.edu.hk)
Dept of Chinese and Bilingual Studies, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University,
Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong
b) MAO Sihui, email: <mailto:(maosihui /at/ yahoo.com)>(maosihui /at/ yahoo.com)
MPI-Bell Centre of English, Macao Polytechnic Institute, Macao
* â??Greater Chinaâ?? here refers to the
cultural communities of practice across mainland
China, Hong Kong, Macao, and/or Taiwan.
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