Week 4 - Cultural Exchange/Environmental Hopes (February 21)

[Crystal Hsia]

Hi Folks,

This week, we'll look at China's efforts to promote interest in and consumption of its culture and cultural products and we'll examine the mega-challenge of our time: combatting climate change. Three tasks: 1) watch the lecture once it is available, 2) read and watch at least two selections from among the recommended materials, and 3) post a link to and discuss an article relating to this week's topics. (You might want to attach the article if it may be difficult for others to access.)

Lecture: Feeling the Heat

 

 

Below are several readings and video links. Please read at least one of the readings and watch at least one of the videos. Please share your thoughts on whichever materials you looked at including if and how you might use a portion of them with your own students.

Culture/Soft Power

Maria Repnikova, "Rethinking China's Soft Power: 'Pragmatic" Enticements of Confucius Institutes in Ethiopia," China Quarterly, 2022. (pdf below) (Prof. Repnikova also spoke about a new book on soft power.)
Dams et al, China's Soft Power in Europe," 2022.
Zhang and Wu, "Media Representations of the Belt and Road Initiative," Critical Arts, 2018. (pdf below)
Elaine Yau, "Chinese TV series grow in popularity overseas but movies are another story," South China Morning Post, April 7, 2021. (via link or pdf below)
"Co-producing with the CCP," China Media Project, Feb. 17, 2023. (via link or pdf below)

Video
Stan Rosen, "China's Efforts to Build its Soft Power," 2018.

Environment
World Bank, China Climate and Development Report, 2022 (full report | overview)
Fu Xiyao, "China's would-be parents and their climate concerns," China Dialogue, Feb. 10, 2023.
Sam Geall and Adrian Ely, "Narratives and Pathways toward an Ecological Civilization in Contemporary China," China Quarterly, 2018. (pdf below)
William Laurence, "The Dark Legacy of China's Drive for Global Resources," Yale Environment 360, 2017.
Niu Yuhan, "People power: monitoring pollution in China," China Dialogue, Jan. 25, 2023. (You might also find this presentation by Xu Xin of interest on this subject of transparency and accountatiblity.)

Video:
Josh Goldstein, How the World's Trash Ends up In China's Rivers, 2013;  Recycling Beijing, 2021.
Documentary Plastic China is available for rent.
Matthew Kahn (and Zheng Siqi), Blue Skiies over Beijing, Princeton University Press, 2016.
Angel Hsu and Genia Kostka, "Is China Going Green?," 2021.
Kyle Obermann, Documenting China's Wild Places, 2021.

For future consideration:
USC resources on China and the Environment
Trump administration (2017-2021) critique on China's environmental record.

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[clay dube]

Hollywood has long wanted to access the Chinese film market, now the world's largest. Here is a new article about the hope:
Patrick Breski, "Is China's Film Sector Opening Its Doors to the World Again?," The Hollywood Reporter, Feb. 17, 2023.

A couple years ago, we hosted a discussion of the complicated China-hollywood relationship: https://china.usc.edu/video-made-hollywood-censored-beijing

[Courtney Caldwell]

I read the article by Elaine Yau about the success of Chinese TV, but not film overseas. I found it interesting that it seems the relatability of the themes presented in Chinese TV series are what makes it easier for it to cross international borders whereas the themes in Chinese film tend to be too nationalistic to be successful. This point wasn't completely surprising though considering the conversations we have been having about nationalism over the past weeks. 

Now, what I did find to be quite fascinating though is that one of the reasons film hasn't been as widely accepted has to do with the Chinese being painted as saviors and looking down upon other cultures/people. Why I found this interesting is because it made me consider how much other countries, including the US do this too and yet have been successful globally. I think in part it may have something to do with the actors and how well known they are, as according to the article many Chinese film stars are stars in China but have yet to become well known abroad.

I'm interested to know if Film/TV is an industry that Xi Xinping really cares about getting to a point of crossing international borders, or if it's simply about a spreading and thus better understanding of Chinese culture that's the goal through Film/TV. 

[Courtney Caldwell]

I chose to watch the documentary, "Plastic China." I found it both fascinating and heartbreaking - If you look it up, the one line description on IMDB says "a portrait of poverty, ambition, and hope set in a world of waste." That is completely true - first, I found it interesting that China imports (or imported, I am unsure if the ban was lifted) plastic waste from other countries like the U.S. and U.K. It's supposed to be a mutually beneficial agreement (cheaper to export the waste for UK and US, and better quality materials than found domestically in China) but ultimately at what cost? The documentary followed a farmer, who ran this recycling workshop and repeatedly kept saying "i'm just a farmer, this is what I have to do to survive." But he (Jun) employs another family who travelled great distances from their rural village home to work in the factory for about $5 a day. 

One of the biggest themes of the documentary is yes on the poverty surrounding this business - everyone is barely getting by, and it makes me wonder how beneficial the business truly is to the country? The people in the documentary are really living in great poverty, but also feel they have no other options. 

Particularly heartbreaking but also heartwarming is the focus on the children. Heartbreaking that the children are not able to go to school though it's clear they want to because the family simply cannot afford it. The owner of the factory is able to send his son to school, but not without a lot of thought (and money) going into it. He said at one point that education of his children comes first. His employee on the other hand, his daughter is 11 and unable to attend school. While he WANTS for his daughter to be educated, he simply does not see a way to make it happen unless they return to their rural village. It really made me stop to consider a few things. One, I was wondering about access to education in China - is it free everywhere? Or is it only free in cities perhaps as a way to keep a steady workforce elsewhere? This focus on the children was particularly heartwarming though because no matter what, they were VERY focused on family - aside from some arguments, they found joy daily, and found treasure among the waste, even ways to learn outside of school. It was quite a story of resilience, but left me wondering about this "mutually beneficial" agreement to import waste - is it truly beneficial or simply beneficial to those higher up in society? It seems to really not benefit those processing it...

[Courtney Caldwell]

For the task to share an article, I was interested to look more into the consequences of the importing of plastic to China, but also the consequences of banning imports on both China and the world. Most information I found was quite dated, China had implemented a ban in 2018 on most imports of plastic waste. But I found this article from 2022 which addresses some of the things I was wondering about. Firstly, the processing of plastic waste is very detrimental to the environment, and this article actually states its supposed to create more carbon emissions than coal by 2030. Secondly, it states how NOT importing is having positive effects on China because it's allowing them to cut down on their carbon emissions, but also it's causing western countries to build their own plans for waste management that does not rely on others. 

I think it will be interesting to see how this ban does actually impact China as one of the worlds biggest producers, but also polluters. I'm wondering how this will help them cut down their carbon emissions by 2030 or beyond. 

 

[Isaac Esquivel]

Hello Courtney, I watched Josh Goldstein, How the World's Trash Ends up In China's Rivers, 2013, and there are a lot of parallels to what you mentioned on your post.  It is most definitely disheartning that people live in this level of poverty, just making enough money to get by, and often performing tasks that are detrimental to the environment and, by extension, their health.  

In his lecture, Goldstein focuses on the status of the individuals doing the labor intensive task of processing the world's plastics.  To answer your question on if this business was lucrative, Goldstein claims it was to the tune of 2.3 billion dollars annually.  However, the workers themselves were often used by their bosses and the larger corporations and were often on the losing end of local governance. 

Goldstein ends his lecture shedding light on how local government used these workers as pawns and when it no longer became convenient, they shut down the entire operation and moved it elsewere, destroying the local economy and discarting the workers altogether.  If I'm not mistaken, he mentioned that these were migrant workers.  All in all, it brings to light how lopsided the worker and employer relationship is in that industry in that part of the world.

[Victoria Jacks]

In the article "China's would be parents and their climate concerns", it's interesting to see that youth around the world are thinking and feeling the same way.  They have little hope for the future of "their world," and the planet.  The article focuses on China's youth, however, I hear the same thoughts from young people in the USA and Europe; they do not want to bring children into this world given the current current conditions which they perceive as getting worse.  And, similar to the opinions of the Chinese youth in the article, the young people I speak to feel  that climate concerns, while urgent,  are not the principal reason for not having children; economic concerns figure first.  I know so many young adults here (my sons included) who do not have hope for the world's future; they continually worry about political instability, wars over natural resources like water, food shortages etc.  Much like Emma, the 27 year old investor in the article who said "I always imagine the world will already be burning by then...".  My sons (29 & 31) start discussions with "your generation will be the last to have access to generational wealth and a retirement plan...."  ,"my generation will see wars over water and food supplies..."  "There's no way I'm bringing a child into this world..."   

In my classroom:  I would use this article to focus on the emotional similarities between human beings, with the goal of realizing the connections that exist between different cultural groups. The youngest group interviewed for this article was 20 years old, and everyone had, at least a college degree.   My students are 12 - 14, and do not come from educated backgrounds.  90% of my students are Latino, and 10% are black.  The majority of my students are very concerned about the environment, and the toxins being poured into their world, BUT, they still have hope for the future, and the majority want to have children one day.   I don't know if this hope is a result of their youth or of their lack of in depth knowledge of the worldwide effects of such serious topics.  Problably a mix of both.  Nevertheless, for my classroom it is a great way to highlight the humanity of foreign culture,s which they can connect to their own. My guiding questions would be; What can youth do to change these circumstances? Do you agree/disagree with their dire predictions?  How can we use social media positively to connect with others who have the same concerns as we do?  How can we start a "global action" movement for change?

One last point: Only 173 climate-concerned people were surveyed.  It would be interesting to conduct a survey of less educated people to see if they have the same concerns, and attitudes towards reproduction, in order to understand how prevalent this feeling is throughout all of China's youth.  If this attitude is wide spread, how will the government of China react?  Especially in light of the previous 1 child policy.

[Jerrica Keane]

https://chinadialogue.net/en/climate/china-would-be-parents-climate-concerns/ 

This article discussed the increasing concern by potential parents about the impact a climate crisis might have on their unborn children. I found the article to be a bit narrow in scope as they only surveyed 173 people who were primarily young, educated women, living in urban areas. While this is an important demographic, I think the study would have more validity if they surveyed more people from varying backgrounds. 

Overall, the connection between the climate crisis and choosing to have children is a valid one. The article highlighted concerns over increased competition for scarce resources as population increase, food insecurity and other impacts of the degradation of the environment. An interesting idea presented was " “I feel that instead of saying ‘choice’, we can go one step further and ask whether climate change fundamentally impacts fertility.". I think this is a fundamental question as fertility issues have been increasing. Correlation between fertility and environmental changes would be important to study. 

Overall, we all have a part to play in keeping our environment healthy for future generations. The article showcased another survey response about how we can combat increased climate concerns. Respondents said the top three ways to address climate change are recycling, reducing waste and mindful purchasing of products with less carbon footprints. A question I have is how do we increase awareness and understanding about recycling, reducing waste and carbon footprints. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of control over other countries but we should be able to make a positive impact within our borders. In the Bay Area, there is a culture of recycling, but when I have traveled to other states there is an obvious lack of recycling. It is important for the United States to ensure that there is uniformity between the states in their ability to recycle.

[Jerrica Keane]

I watched the video by Kyle Obermann where he is interviewed and showcasts China's nature. I really, really enjoyed listening to how he described the beauty of China, the policy behind national parks and the issues people in rural China face. His photos were stunning and it is amazing how both Pandas and snow leopards share a climate. I had no idea that China had such natural beauty. Additionally. Ktyle explains how the Chinese government in 2018 established a national park administration to manage the parks more closely and as a result, more parks were formally recognized. I think it is important to preserve and protect natural environments around the world so this is a great step forward. 

Worth noting is his discussion of the difference between the education levels and health quality of east and west China. Namely, that eastern China has a higher quality of life than those living in western China. Additionally, he commentary about how 99% of the rural population living around nature reserves live in poverty. I appreciated his empathy and understanding as he explained the lack of economic opportunity for people living in these areas. Most people in this circumstance rely on poaching animals and/or forestry to make a living. However, as more national parks are formally recognized, poaching becomes outlawed. Kyle explained how people rely on poaching for survival so they continue to do it regardless of environmental, moral or legal consequences. It is a complex issue because poaching laws are essential, yet people need to survive. I wonder what the consequence is for illegal poaching? What animals are they poaching? And who is supporting the market for poaching animals?

[Jerrica Keane]

Question: what is the culture of recycling and climate awareness in China? 

I found interesting to learn from the lecture that China is a leader in renewable energy and I wonder how much that goal and value of renewable energy exists at the grassroot level. Are people more conscious of their carbon footprint because of the heavy population density in Chinese cities? Or is it the opposite because there are so many people? 

[Courtney Caldwell]

Though I knew from previous work I did from the week, the animation regarding national carbon emissions was quite astonishing. China, by over DOUBLE the amount of the US in the #2 spot, is by far the largest emitter of carbon emissions. In the lecture around the same spot, it's mentioned that as of about 7-8 years ago, about 4000 people per day were dying prematurely due to air pollution. This is a horrific statistic, and takes me back actually to when I traveled on my Fulbright. We were given a warning about air quality in Beijing prior to travel, but it's something that is quite wild to experience. The high rates of pollution seem to be reserved of course for more industrialized parts of the country, as well as the coal producing Inner Mongolia (we also went to Mongolia where it was a bit evident, but less so than in Beijing). 

With China investing heavily in renewable sources of energy, I'm wondering how long it will take to see changes in the air quality and emissions in the country? Actually this prompted me to look more into this and I found this article on how the renewable energy projects actually need more policy support to get up and running. However, it does say Xi plans to cap carbon emissions by 2030. This however takes me back to the documentary I watched this week and just makes me wonder what the fallout will be for those in more rural areas who are working to survive in industries that are contributing to pollution, what does it mean for their livelihood? 

 

[Kirstjen Pollock]

I'm wondering if environmentalism is a major focus of the curriculum at your schools? My school (based in Hong Kong) has taken a sustainability pledge, and our students are inundated with information and opportunities to take action to improve the environment, from working in the (HK) school garden and doing beach clean ups in HK, to implementing changes on my (Hangzhou) campus in terms of daily consumption. All of my students are currently taking a class in which they weigh the benefits of EVs in terms of reduced carbon emissions vs the hidden/ignored environmental costs associated with battery production and disposal (Volt Rush is a good book to peruse on the topic). With all of these measures, however, the students seem mostly have learned how to pay lip service to environmentalism but are also somewhat inured to the negative effects of pollution. 

The most visible concern to people in China is air pollution. I'm happy today because the air quality was really good yesterday afternoon, and the AQI forecast for today looks pretty good as well. Over the weekend, however, I couldn't run outside and I redirected my students' plans for a Sunday afternoon football game (30 mins max, and avoid playing with high intensity!). 

Though most adults here are concerned about air quality and pollution, available data is not at all what the article "People Power" seems to suggest. I can only access a reliable AQI via VPN, and my AQI does not report numbers as high as one of my colleague's, who accesses hers off campus by a different VPN. When I report high numbers to my children's sports coaches, I am often met with surprise. That being said, Hangzhou has taken many initiatives to improve emissions, such as implementing electric buses, a share bike system (which has created another level of pollution -- who knew bike pollution was a thing?), and an ever-expanding metro system. https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/new-green-chapter-chinas-fabled-lakeside-city

Just as my students know how to pay lip service to environmentalism, it's hard to know how much action is truly being taken by governments on environmental issues, vs how much is being said, and vs how much needs to be taken.  

[Brendon McGirr]

As a film nerd, I jumped at the chance to listen to the discussion on film censorship in China. This is a trend I have noticed a lot more recently in the last decade, with decisions of casting, posters, and scenes being decided by how or even if they would play in China. The one section that really stuck out to me was the call for a unified response to combat Chinese censorship, because it will only get harder as China continues to grow economically. I believe China's growth combined with the financial hit studios took due to the Covid restrictions have made it so that China's vision for movies is here to stay. I found this article stating that while the frequent movie goers (those who attend 3+ a month) are back to pre Covid levels, infrequent movie goers are still down, and there does not seem to be a positive outlook of it growing at least in the short term

 https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/research/frequent-us-movie-goers-are-back-infrequent-attendees-not-so-much

 

With that said, it makes more sense than ever for Western movie studios to tailor towards China's market. The mention of just slight changes (a Chinese bank card at an ATM, a Chinese beverage company's can in the background) shows that this does not necessarily have to alter the story to connect. I am also curious how Chinese cinema continues to grow, and how that will be viewed by Hollywood. While not breaking into American markets yet, foreign films are starting to gain traction in America. RRR is a great example of this, an Indian movie that found an audience in America.

 

While thinking about this session, I was reminded of the incident between the Houston Rockets in the NBA with comments about Hong Kong in 2019. I found a video that goes over the relationship between the NBA and China, and even found a familar face in it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHpFjtuAYLQ&ab_channel=Vox

[Victoria Jacks]

In focusing on these very important environmental issues, I am struck by the fact that this global issue is continually separated into its individual culprits; the charts, graphs and articles highlight and separate national polluters, almost pitting once against the other - who is worse, how much each pollutes in this area, how much effort each puts into renewable energy etc.. Climate change is a global issue that affects everyone, everywhere regardless of how and where the pollution is created.  Where is the effort, at the level of national governments to work colaboratively with each other nations to combat climate change while still securing economic growth for all? The G-7 Summit, Paris accords etc. present the data, and come up with proclamations/solutions but then break down into finger pointing when it comes to taking action.  Scientists and citizens around the world understand that the problems and solutions are global, but nations refuse to act in that way. It’s a very myopic and destructive point of view from these polluting nations.   On saving the environment collaboration needs to trump nationalism.

[Jeric Pediglorio]

The Chinese Dream, Belt and Road Initiative and the future of education: A philosophical postscript

Michael A. Peters Beijing Normal University, Beijing, PR China

The author said that he had tried to indicate both the significance of education for the future and the principles that lie behind the philosophy of the BRI as the new Silk Road, focusing on the following:

1.Chinese infrastructuralism – the new Chinese development model – ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ infrastructure (i) roads, rail & ports, transport hubs (ii) knowledge networks, ‘technology transfer’ & services (iii) people-to -people (education & ideas exchanges);

 

2.Philosophy of Openness – economy (trade), society (education, science, tourism), philosophy (interculturalism, world diplomacy), OA, open science, open education;

 

3.Interconnectivity – digitization, speed & compression, the new 5G digital Silk Road;

 

4.Eurasia as a geopolitical concept led by Sino-Russian rapproachementFootnote2;

 

5.China as an emerging techno-state based on AI, 5G, ML, quantum computing etc;

 

6.The civilizational state and civilizational dialogue and learning, and the future of humanity;

 

7.A communicational and media model of education: Content, Code, Infrastructure with discrimination among data, information, knowledge and wisdom;

 

8.‘Educating the Future’ – analysis of the philosophical narratives (Marxist, Confucian, Liberal) that comprise the Chinese Dream, and future Dreams (the Green Dream, the World Diplomacy Dream, the Space Dream, Science Dream, and the Dream of the Bio-Informational Becoming.

 

It was an attempt to build a philosophical approach to the Chinese Dream through the analysis of narrative (narratology) and the BRI highlighting the future significance of education as an emerging cultural and economic evolutionary development. This is, of course, both speculative and imaginative, and draws strongly on an approach from political economy that in the coming years I hope to develop as a philosophy of education.

 

Postscript: education the future

In this final chapter, he pulled together the various themes articulated in this book, to briefly comment on the notion of ‘educating the future’ for China. I use the phrase ‘educating the future’ in a number of separate but interrelated ways:

 

1.Most obviously ‘educating the future’ is a straightforward argument about educating future generations of Chinese students. Indeed, the future depends upon releasing the talents and collective intelligence of the Chinese mind, which is a civilizational concept. This is not an argument about human capital but rather a semiotic view of creative intellectual labour under conditions of increasing connectivity.

 

2.There is also a second less obvious application that is more content-driven about the curriculum (in a broad sense) of the future, that is, a schema for promotion of constructive narratives that make sense of the past by reading the future. This is a national narratological resource essential for the Chinese Dream. It is imaginary and populist and acts to share a national vision.

 

3.The third sense is used in the plain sense to suggest that the Chinese Dream, indeed any national dream, requires ‘education’ of the entire population at the level of content and coda. This national education requires an openness and freedom to imagine, to experiment and also to work at national consensus through CCP guidance that aids the process of thinking about China’s future. In the West this has often taken the form of a sci-fi dystopian reminder about what digital or robotic futures might become, as well as the utopian stories we tell ourselves about the future.

 

4.‘Educating the future’ is also about teaching the populace to dream, to engage in dreaming and to understand dreaming as consisting in the repository of national symbols and culture that are part of an inherited cultural framework that includes ‘core values’ not in an essentialist sense but in an historical, pragmatic and materialist sense: these are the ruling images; this is the reservoir of poetry, philosophy and literature that are the resources for civilizational dreaming.

 

5.There is also a sense that not only encourages the local population to dream in this way but to translate this into substantial terms for others to understand – the Chinese Dream for foreigners. This surely is an educative process that already takes place through Confucius and language institutes but also through art and literature.

 

In an era of disruptive innovations and new digital technologies, of widening inequalities and ecological collapse, traditional pedagogical models and educational systems are not designed to prepare our youth to contribute to civilizational dialogue. Revolutionary transformation at the civilizational level includes eradicating poverty, promoting global enlightenment and even becoming a multi-planetary species. The promotion of a species-wide mission – what I call ‘education for the future of humanity’ includes ‘Teaching for Dialogue Among Civilizations’

 

[Author]

Posts