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[ecrea] CFP: Media Discourses and Cultural Globalization: a Chinese Perspective

Fri Jun 19 11:42:50 GMT 2009



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.




Critical Arts: A Journal of South-North Cultural Studies



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Critical Arts Home Page: <http://ccms.ukzn.ac.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id1&Itemid?>http://ccms.ukzn.ac.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id1&Itemid?



Critical Arts has niched itself in terms of conceptual freshness, textured writing, and experiential analysis

which draws readers into its articles, its narrative

themes and its theoretical explorations. Articles published in Critical Arts are universal in reach while retaining a particularity of context, specificity of content and relevance of topic. We invite articles which have the potential to influence the ways in which disciplines represented by cultural and media studies think about themselves in terms of critical dialogues generated within the South-North relationship, with special reference to Africa. How do people, institutions and constituencies cope within, resist and engage this relational nexus?



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Nico Carpentier (Phd)
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
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