Search

Extant literature suggests that firms may gain legitimacy through imitation. But little known is about whom foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) will imitate, given that they have multiple social referents: home-country peers and host-country industry competitors. Drawing upon category theory, we develop a dynamic imitation model and explicate how MNEs' categorization process is affected by social activism, which causes the shift from self-categorization to categorical imperative. We investigate this model in the context of MNE philanthropy and propose that the social movement may delegitimize MNEs' original self-category and change their imitation target. Using a hand-collected dataset of MNEs' philanthropic donation for the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake in China, we find that MNEs imitate their home-country peers first but shift to host-country industry competitors after an online social movement. This is because the online social movement delegitimizes MNEs as a category and suggests host-country industry peers as the new model for comparison. Further, we find that liability of foreignness impedes whereas firm reputation facilitates an MNE's adaptation after the online social movement. Our paper contributes to the literatures on MNEs' imitation behavior and CSR in emerging market. We also contribute to category theory by integrating self-categorization and categorical imperative and highlighting the role of social movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2019, a controversy between the NBA and China broke out. Although their relationship continues today, negative consequences still linger and cloud their future. As a transnational organization, the NBA was involved in a cross-national controversy, aligning with the theory of cross-national conflict shifting. The current study analyzed 703 posts on Weibo and 1,500 tweets by thematic analysis. It revealed diverse themes of online public discussions regarding the NBA–China controversy. It also found that social media speeded up the transmission of cross-national conflict shifting and complicated the cross-national conflict as it shifted back and forth between the home and host countries. Moreover, the study findings showed that when top executives engage in advocacy by taking a public stand on a controversial sociopolitical issue and get involved with cross-national conflicts, it is hard to separate them from the organization they represent. Also, their public stance might lead to public suspicion that they used social advocacy for private interests. Finally, the themes from the social media posts suggested cultural differences and an ideology crash between the host and home countries' publics, which generated grander challenges for transnational organizations to deal with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Immunization is a cornerstone of public health. Despite great success, China's National Immunization Program (NIP) faces challenges, such as the integration of several World Health Organization-recommended vaccines and other systemic issues. The Innovation Laboratory for Vaccine Delivery Research (VaxLab), supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and established in 2021 at Duke Kunshan University, focuses on enhancing China's NIP through research and policy advocacy. This editorial aims to summarize the key findings of the manuscripts published in the collection contributed by VaxLab team and set the future research agenda. Key findings: The collection contains eleven manuscripts discussing China's immunization landscape and strategies to improve coverage, particularly for non-NIP vaccines like human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV), pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine (Hib), and rotavirus vaccines. Key findings include: (i) The COVID-19 vaccination campaign demonstrated China's capacity for rapid, large-scale immunization efforts, suggesting potential for broader vaccine coverage improvements; (ii) Efforts in combating cervical cancer through the HPV vaccine indicate progress but also highlight challenges like vaccine supply and equitable access; (iii) The lag in adopting higher-valent paediatric combination vaccines in China needs attention to address regulatory and health system hurdles; (iv) Disparities in access to non-NIP vaccines underscore the need for government initiatives to improve vaccine coverage, especially for remote areas and marginalized populations; (v) Original studies emphasize the influence of caregivers' knowledge, health workers' financial incentives, and concerns about vaccine efficacy on immunization rates; (vi) Case studies from the Weifang City of China and Indonesia to introduce PCV offer insights on successful vaccine introduction strategies and the impact of innovative financing and government support. Conclusion: The articles emphasize the need for government leadership, strategic policymaking, and public awareness to enhance vaccine coverage and equity. The VaxLab will continue strengthening China's NIP by focusing on vaccine financing, emphasizing diversity, equity, and inclusion, and improving maternal vaccination coverage. Research will extend to Southeast Asian and Western Pacific regions, especially in middle-income countries facing challenges in vaccine financing and delivery. The collective efforts outlined in this collection show a commitment to evolving and adapting immunization strategies to meet global health goals and to provide equitable access to vaccines for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Once a corporate crisis is entangled with a social issue, how consumers make sense of the crisis can be impacted by issue-based opinion polarization. This study investigates the underlying mechanisms as consumers go through this process. This study also examines whether corporate social advocacy (CSA) can be an effective crisis-response strategy for mitigating reputational loss. Design/methodology/approach: Theoretical inquiries were empirically tested using an online experiment (N = 792). The experiment set the context in China, in a working-overtime-issue-related crisis. It had a 2 (online exposure: anti-issue opinion vs. pro-issue opinion) × 2 (CSA: absence vs. presence) between-subject design with a continuous variable (pre-existing issue attitudes) measured before the manipulation. Findings: This study found that pre-existing issue attitudes can be directly and indirectly associated with corporate reputation, for the issue attitudes influence how consumers attribute crisis blame. Such a direct effect of pre-existing issue attitudes varies depending on which polarized opinion consumers were exposed to on social media. This study also found CSA to be a robust crisis response strategy, through multiple mechanisms, in protecting the corporate reputation. Originality/value: Scholars are scarcely aware of the threats that issue-based opinion polarization poses to corporate reputation. This study serves as an early attempt to provide theoretical explanations. In addition to this, this study extends the current conceptual understandings of CSA during corporate crises that involve social issues while adding fresh insights into the established typology of crisis-response strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2021, China's entertainment industry experienced a series of unusual argumentative controversies followed by the creation of the Qing Lang movement initiated by the Chinese government that called for tackling irregularities in the industry. With strong support from the Chinese public, the Qing Lang movement presents an intriguing case to examine a new model of social argument representing both the public and state interest in resolving social problems in the Chinese version of the public sphere. The paper identifies key characteristics defining a reciprocal model of social activism in state-sponsored actions in China exemplified by the Qing Lang movement. The paper also argues for the value of a culture-specific approach to understanding public sphere and social activism and clarifies the function of argument in Chinese society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cervical cancer is a major public health concern in China, accounting for almost one-fifth of the global incidence and mortality. The recently prequalified domestic bivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine offers a practical and feasible preventive measure. In response to the global call for action, the National Health Commission issued an Action Plan to eliminate cervical cancer by 2030, with promotion of the HPV vaccination for school-aged girls as a critical step. Despite this, implementation of the vaccination has been patchy, with very low coverage among eligible girls. To address this, from December 2021 to December 2022, a demonstration project was launched in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, to promote the inclusion of HPV vaccine in local immunisation programme and to address existing barriers to implementation. Using multiple sources of data, this article presents a case study of the demonstration project, analysing its impact on rolling out HPV vaccination among eligible girls and identifying any challenges encountered during implementation. The demonstration project has shown promising results in increasing the HPV vaccination rate, promoting public awareness and acceptance of the domestic HPV vaccine, and establishing a model for quickly scaling up the vaccination at the municipal level. The success of the project can be attributed to several factors, including strong governmental commitment, sufficient funding, multi-sectoral collaboration, ensured vaccine accessibility and affordability, improved vaccination services, and effective health education and communication strategies. Lessons learned from Shenzhen can provide valuable insights for future advocacy and implementation of the vaccination in other areas of China, but challenges must be addressed to achieve universal coverage. These include addressing vaccine hesitancy, expanding the programme to cover a broader age range, and ensuring consistent quality of vaccination services in primary care facilities. Overcoming these challenges will require innovative strategies, public-private partnerships, and sustained funding and resources. Future research should focus on evaluating the long-term effectiveness of the vaccination programme and identifying contextual factors that may impact its implementation in different settings. Overall, the effective control of cervical cancer in China will rely on the "political will" to ensure the incorporation of preventive interventions into policies and universal programme coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In grassroots water environment governance, political–community dialog is an unavoidable issue. Traditional policy analysis tools emphasize top-down stages and sequences, often ignoring the essential role of social factors (organizations, resources, or individuals)—outside the policy subsystem—in policy advocacy. The Advocacy Alliance Framework (ACF) provides a perspective on the role of social factors in policy changes and the interaction mechanism driving the relevant stages and alliances. In this study, we re-examine the key elements of the ACF and extract the grassroots logic of policy advocacy by discussing how actors act from policy divergence to policy learning, constructing an action framework to explain grassroots social policy advocacy in China. We find that policy advocacy depends on the joint influence of multiple elements such as the alliance members, alliance belief system and alliance resources. Therefore, social forces can better intervene in the policy agenda and achieve effective political–community dialog by identifying the relevant elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, with the successive release and implementation of national diagnosis related groups (DRG) policy documents, DRG health insurance payment reform in China has officially entered the practice period. To achieve the balance of income and expenditure and accomplish the goals of DRG reform, hospitals need pharmacists to improve their role as medication experts and contribute to pharmaceutical efforts. This paper reviews and organizes the literature related to the work of clinical pharmacists in the context of DRG at home and abroad, and provides a detailed review of the rules of pharmacist construction, clinical intervention and education and advocacy from the perspective of rational drug use and drug cost control, with the aim of providing pharmacists with a reference pharmacy model for the future large-scale implementation of DRG system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do non-governmental organizations (NGOs) advocate public policies? What impacts their advocacy strategies? Although scholars have addressed these questions in a democratic context, less is known about NGO advocacy under powerful authoritarian regimes. Using China as a case study, we develop an institutional explanation of NGOs' policy advocacy patterns and explore the impacts of NGO autonomy. Using a unique dataset of registered NGOs in three Chinese provinces, we find that NGOs with more autonomy tend to conduct direct negotiations with the government more actively (more political advocacy). However, these more autonomous NGOs are likely to be more hesitant to mobilize society from the bottom up (less social advocacy). These findings enrich our knowledge of social actors' roles in the policymaking process in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on digital activism against sexual misconduct in higher education in China. It demonstrates the dynamic of digital activism in an authoritarian regime, explicating how different stakeholders are involved in addressing sexual violence. While the hashtag #MeToo connotes the transnational effort to use social media to demonstrate the prevalence and magnitude of sexual violence, we also highlight the importance of local experience in the power struggle between grassroots digital advocacy and state institutions and within state institutions such as the news media, universities, and policy-making bodies, with their respective histories and development trajectories. Using social media to fight sexual violence creates possibilities for change in a situation where is difficult to act independently. The study not only contributes to our understanding of the complexity of digital activism against sexual violence in an authoritarian state but also highlights the strengths and weaknesses in each effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding teachers' and students' perceptions of online teaching and learning has been an important and popular research topic. As the COVID-19 outbreak has made online learning the best available option under social distancing and quarantine policies, the conversation on the effectiveness of online learning and its potential to strive in the future continues. However, as this conversation has received relatively less attention in the tourism and hospitality literature, this study investigated the online teaching and learning experiences of university teachers and students respectively the tourism and hospitality programs. Using an online survey distributed in March 2020, data were collected from 117 academic staff members and 491 students from over 15 higher education institutions that offer tourism and hospitality subjects in China. The two data sets (teachers and students) were compared using independent samples t-test and multi-group structural equation modeling. The findings reveal the similarities and differences between the two groups in terms of the factors affecting online teaching and learning satisfaction. Managerial implications are suggested to institutions and educators to enhance teachers' online teaching satisfaction and students' online learning satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While much research stereotypes mass media in authoritarian contexts as mouthpieces of the ruling party, we argue that successful social media–driven activism also requires the support of mass media, even in authoritarian contexts. To investigate the roles of social media and mass media on collective mobilization, we analyzed a case in Guangzhou, China, and conducted in-depth interviews to conceptualize the interconnected relationship between social media and mass media from the perspective of resource mobilization. Findings reveal that social media facilitated the mobilization of participants by providing less fungible and timely resources at the initial stages of collective action. However, it is the more fungible and enduring resources provided by the mass media that sustain the intensity of external pressures to the government. The complementarity between social and mass media in atomized collective action in China is in essence the configuration between exclusive and monopolized resources mediated by a middle-ground discursive mode—"implied truth." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Asian Journal of Women's Studies is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Hong Kong's 'One Country, Two Systems' formula has been hailed as an unprecedented political experiment in the People's Republic of China (PRC) for how it formulates a semi-autonomous jurisdiction within a unitary, single-party state. While the formula has remained constitutionally valid two decades after its implementation, it has been trapped in a tense relationship in actual practice. This article considers the city as a subnational island jurisdiction (SNIJ) and examines its scope for autonomy within and under an authoritarian sovereign state. It argues that the PRC's central government, prompted by the city's rising pro-democracy activism and its nascent pro-independence force, has put intensifying emphasis on the 'one country' principle by blurring the boundaries between the offshore enclave and the mainland through economic integration, connective infrastructures and legal harmonization. As a result, there is an increasingly blurred line between the 'two systems', structured and fostered by the enormous cross-border capital and people flow, although at times moderated and slowed down by local capitalist imperatives and social activism to resist homogenization. Our findings suggest that the contestation between autonomy and sovereign control cannot be read in purely constitutional terms but must be considered within the changing socioeconomic and legal context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on two of the earliest Chinese law students in the United States who deployed their legal knowledge and advocacy skills to fight against the Chinese Exclusion Act and its related laws in the early 1900s. Ho Yow, the fourth Chinese national to ever attend law school in the United States, performed this courageous task as Chinese consul to the United States. His fellow countryman Yeung Fong joined in this battle by conducting a full-fledged systematic study of the racist laws, becoming the first Chinese national who wrote a master's thesis on this controversial topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on music practice of the New Workers Art Troupe (NWAT, xingongrenyishutuan) that is based in Pi Village (picun), Beijing. During last 3-4 years, the troupe has gradually attracted the attention of young scholars and college students due to their public advocacy for the rights and benefits of migrant workers in Mainland China. Given structural marginalization of workers and peasants that ironically contradicts with the officially claimed principles of socialism, the NWAT should not be ignored as far as cultural activism in nowadays Mainland China is concerned. Many researchers have investigated NWAT’s practices according to approaches of various discipline, however, the cultural meanings and social-historical condition of its core art form, music, have been largely neglected. Whereas this neglect acts both as cause and consequence, discourses about the NWAT have gradually been overwhelmed by moral commitment or sympathy to “disadvantaged groups,” which eventually proves nothing more than the coming-being of a moral order dominated by the new-born Chinese middle-class. In order to comprehend the affects the NWAT’s music articulated, what need to be illuminated are not only what they are singing, but also where and how they sing, as well as the cultural mechanism behind their practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The prevention of cognitive impairment is a crucial public health issue, and leisure activities have been studied as the strategy of the cognitive preservation. The aim of the study was to explore the possible relationship between social activity and cognitive function among community-dwelling Chinese elderly in two big cities of Southern China. Participants and methods: Altogether, 557 nondemented older adults aged 60 years and older (73.4±6.5 years) were recruited in the social centers in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. A leisure activity questionnaire was used to measure the social activity participation. Cognitive function was examined using a neuropsychological battery. The association between social activity and cognitive function was analyzed using the multiple linear regression analysis. Results: Social activities had a weak relationship with cognitive performance when measured in terms of overall participation. Attending an interest class had significant association with the Cantonese version of Mini Mental State Examination, the word list learning test, the delayed recall test, and the trail making test. Religious activity showed significant association with the word list learning test and the digit vigilance test. Singing had significant association with the Category Verbal Fluency Test (CVFT) and the trail making test. Conclusion: Some individual social activity items may be associated with better cognitive function among the community Chinese elderly independently of other factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rise of government procurement has transformed the associational landscape in China. In many localities, local states have launched procurement programs to collaborate with NGOs, which in turn provide social services to community residents. While it has been argued that government funding shapes NGOs into compliant service providers, this article contends that state-funded NGOs are able to engage in advocacy through service delivery, a strategy known as ‘service activism’. By examining three NGOs in Guangdong Province, this article argues that NGOs’ success in service activism is determined by their degree of institutional embeddedness in the local state and the nature of their advocacy strategies. While both strongly or weakly embedded relationships can weaken the impact of advocacy, progressive strategies in sensitive issue areas can weaken collaboration and draw repression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By the middle of the 2000s, a new wave of documentary works on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) topics started to appear in China. In contrast with the previous body of LGBTQ documentaries, they are made by filmmakers explicitly identifying as LGBTQ, with many of them closely involved in LGBTQ social activism. Affirming the decidedly ‘activist’ nature of the new wave of documentary filmmaking, this article discusses a selection of contemporary LGBTQ documentaries and their filmmakers in light of recent activist community debates. It does so by employing an activist dichotomy that emerged throughout these debates, a dichotomy centering around the rejection/the embracing of normative politics in LGBTQ visibility strategies. This activist dichotomy, and its subsequent application to documentary film, is reminiscent of and is often related to the opposition that originated and developed in Euro-American contexts between ‘queer’ and ‘homonormative’ approaches to activism and LGBTQ cinema. Emphasizing local filmmaking agency, and paying specific attention to local meaning-making and strategic activist processes, this article highlights the local hybridization of this transnational discourse, and proposes a lens to look at contemporary Chinese LGBTQ documentary filmmaking practices that moves in-between the ‘queer’ and the ‘homonormative’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Zhang Zhen has recently brought Jane M. Gaines’ notion of ‘political mimesis’ to bear on a young lineage of Chinese activist documentaries. This article considers the appropriateness of political mimesis as a critical tool for understanding Chinese activist works, arguing it needs to be heavily qualified. The article proposes that Laura Rascaroli’s theorisation of the essay film can help us understand the critical dialogue Chinese activist documentaries seek to open with viewers, through a close analysis of Hu Jie’s pioneeringSearching for Lin Zhao’s Soul(2004). The article considers how Hu Jie encourages the forging of an emotional bond between viewers and his film’s absent subject – the murdered dissident Lin Zhao – via the filmmaker’s embodied presence on screen. It then analyses how Hu Jie uses a mode of direct, embodied address to insert viewers into a politicised dialogue in the film’s concluding moments, via an act of dialogical interpolation similar to that which Rascaroli describes in relation to the essay film. It is through its emotive representation of a political ‘martyr’ and the interpolation of the viewer into a politicised dialogue relevant to the present thatSearching for Lin Zhao’s Soulachieves is efficacy as an ‘activist’ text. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on a unique survey of non-governmental organization (NGO) practitioners from diverse backgrounds, the article examines how these NGO practitioners view their peers and people alike, and the interconnectedness, unity and solidarity of the NGO sector. The research has found that mutual awareness and trust is strong at the interpersonal level among NGO practitioners, yet their views on the collective existence of an NGO and activism community remain divided. In addition, preliminary statistical analysis shows that particular work experiences such as connections with other NGOs and participation in policy advocacy are associated with the optimism of a shared community of social activism. More importantly, the more one has—or feels one has—having peers across organizations, the more favorably one thinks of the whole activism community. Therefore, the key to ‘becoming a community’ for civil society in China lies in ‘having peers’ for individual activists and NGO practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Using China and India as examples, this article analyses how different regimes influence people’s perceptions of environmental rights. In addition to a literature review and fieldwork, it looks at two documentaries reporting environmental movements in rural China and rural India to investigate the politics of expression in their environmental arenas. In order to enrich the understanding of the grassroots movements in the two countries, the study examines how their common people differ from middle-class activists in the way in which they participate and make alliances in civil society. The findings suggest that the Indian campaigners tend to seek allies in civil society in order to formulate a joint voice in the public sphere, while the Chinese campaigners aim to gain assistance directly from official institutions. The poor communication among the public may result in a shortage of critical discourses in support of people’s movements and weaknesses in the legitimacy of public participation in the environmental arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myanmar's political transition of 2011 was followed by changes in the political and economic realms of society. The transition emboldened social activism, expressed as protests regarding the injustices suffered by people under the military regime. Many of these protests were related to large-scale extractive investments that had little regard for local communities and the environment. After the West lifted most of its sanctions, transnational capital actors who had been absent for the previous two decades returned to the country, many of them offering higher investment standards. In response to the "push" of public pressure and the "pull" of new investments, reformists in the Government of Myanmar (GoM) are now attempting to implement a stronger investment regulatory framework. The GoM's new demands on foreign investments to comply with higher investment standards are strengthened by Chinese state reformer's own nascent efforts to curtail the excesses of that country's state-owned enterprises globally. As a result, prominent SOEs are being pressured to adapt to the new operating environment, resulting in observable changes in investment behaviour. We conclude that reform efforts are challenged by limitations on reformist state actor's autonomy and capacity to regulate investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the increasing volume and significance of research on nonprofit advocacy, most studies have focused on the phenomenon only in Western countries. This article expands the scope of the literature by examining the advocacy activities of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in authoritarian China. This article focuses on three aspects of advocacy behavior: advocacy investment and use of insider and outsider tactics. Data analyses of an original nationwide survey of 267 environmental NGOs and semistructured interviews with 30 highlight how resource and institutional factors-government funding, government affiliation, foundation funding, and peer collaborations-shape NGO advocacy in China. The findings also suggest ways in which institutional actors may enhance NGOs' capacity for policy advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the anti-incinerator protest in Guangzhou in China. It uses the advocacy coalition framework to analyze the dynamics between Guangzhou Municipal Government and the protesters. The research covers the establishment of a Public Consultative and Supervision Committee for Urban Waste Management in Guangzhou, a public consultative mechanism for waste management, which is a new development in the policy-making process in socialist China. The ultimate plan will be to demonstrate how policy adjustment is not determined solely by the outcome of protests but is also affected by both a decentralized political structure and the socio-cultural foundation. Consequently, the discussion also explores the gradual transformation of public participation in China's environmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine opinion leaders’ and organization advocates’ proactive engagement with advocacy campaigns on social networking sites (SNSs). By examining the Empty Plate Movement, a campaign advocating food saving in China, this study compared proactive engagement activities by traditional and virtual opinion leaders, organization advocates, and other participants. Specifically, this study focused on three proactive engagement activities: publishing descriptive and injunctive normative messages and messages showing supportive/adoptive behaviors. The findings reveal organization advocates are the most likely source of descriptive and injunctive normative messages, and the least likely source of messages showing adoptive/supportive behaviors. Virtual opinion leaders are the most likely to publish messages showing adoptive and/or supportive behaviors. Both message features and message sources influence users responses. The findings suggest that organizations practice strategic communication in advocacy. Because of their motivations for self-involvement and online interaction, virtual opinion leaders frequently publish messages about their supportive/adoptive behaviors. The strategic value of SNSs lies in the mimicking process. Practically, this study suggests that virtual opinion leaders and organization advocates are useful to advocacy campaigns on SNSs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Minban (private) secondary schools are a new phenomenon in China, which, theoretically, have greater freedom from government control. In practice, however, their autonomy is still limited, as is shown by this in-depth study of eight minban schools, though they have actively pursued strategies to obtain, defend, and expand their autonomy. Four principal school strategies are identified: isolation, avoidance, advocacy, and capitalization. Choice of strategy depends primarily on school type and its distance from the state. The government has refused to relinquish control by strengthening bureaucratic regulations and institutionalization, which explains the ongoing tension in the schools’ quest for autonomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study advances a notion of counter-spectacle in current-day China by examining a graffiti project carried out in Beijing between 1995 and 2005 titled Dialogue by the artist Zhang Dali (张大力). The essay draws attention to the opportunities and limitations for resistance amid urban spectacle and examines them through a detailed case study in an aspiring “world city.” The paper argues that a theory of urban counter-spectacle that integrates the role of oppositional practices at the intersection of cultural and spatial change can help to explain the unstable nature of China’s contemporary urbanism. More broadly, it expands debates on state-society conflict by demonstrating how urban spaces function as sites of social activism and as alternative fora for contentious politics through the production of meaning in specific spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the patterns of consistency and inconsistency between how India and China advocate democratisation at the global and national levels. Addressing this question through a dualistic framework, we develop a detailed map of the rhetorical promotion of democratic governance by India and China through an analysis of 10 years of foreign affairs speeches, remarks, interviews and statements of political elites of both countries. The article argues that although China has not shied away from declarations on democracy domestically as well as on global governance, the contradictions between the clear and consistent push for democracy and equity at the global level and the highly contingent commitment to democracy at the national level remain highly salient. India’s deficiencies, by way of contrast, come not in the domain of legitimacy but effectiveness. India’s struggle to translate its domestic democratic credibility into more equitable representation at the global institutional level and into a stellar economic model at the domestic level exposes it to criticism in relationship to China. Yet, even with these gaps, the article concludes that India has some comparative advantages over China precisely because it can play a consistent two-level game in terms of the promotion of democracy both at global and state levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the passage of time, technological innovations, different political and societal developments, the definition and forms of political engagements evolve. Facebook has become a form of political engagement that cannot be neglected, often, fostering and reinforcing other forms of political engagements, both new and traditional. The internet has played a transformative role in the development of political engagement and Facebook acts as a catalyst in such transformation. This paper will examine the relation between Facebook and political engagement in Hong Kong. In the semi-democratic, but essentially liberal, Hong Kong, no doubt, Facebook is an emerging indispensible political tool that cannot be undermined within the Hong Kong political arena. Recently, political parties, politicians, activists, those interested in politics in Hong Kong and even the government use the Facebook for different political purposes. It is more common for Hong Kong people to engage in Facebook politically at the cognitive awareness level rather than at the expression level and even less at the action level. Those who hold a more anti-establishment stand tend to have higher levels of Facebook political engagement in Hong Kong. The government mainly ‘soft-sells’ the government policy and shapes the government image in a positive way through its use of Facebook. Political party members in Hong Kong are very strategic in their effort on using Facebook to maximize votes for themselves, while social activists mainly use Facebook for information flow and exchange, promotion of activist acts, explaining their stand, thereby trying to affect the views of others. More importantly, Facebook brings together a group of like-minded activists, building up solidarity among them, thereby increasing their passion for social change. In short, Facebook makes politics more real and nearer to life. Though Facebook brings about change in political engagement in Hong Kong, this should not be exaggerated. Whether Facebook will remain a significant force in Hong Kong political scene depends on whether Facebook continues to enjoy widespread acceptance or becomes even more popular in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay sketches an array of cultural, political, and bureaucratic mechanisms that mediate the Chinese Communist state's relationship with the major types of social protests, in the process exploring how governance and contention have transformed each other in the past six decades. In particular, it spotlights a noteworthy development in recent years: the increasingly salient market nexus between state and protest. While the regime response of making economic concessions to protesters is hardly unique in the context of China's own past, the transition from top-down mandated concession to pervasive bargaining between the state and protesters is a significant break with past patterns. The negotiability of cash and material rewards insinuates a market logic of governance that is made all the more poignant by the singularly formidable fiscal and infrastructural capacities of the current Chinese regime among its authoritarian counterparts worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is an interdisciplinary article, integrating Political Science and Media Studies to examine the roles of alternative media (AM) in civil society. AM plays diverse, overlapping and interacting roles in civil society, namely (1) providing alternative information and to serve as (2) an alternative public sphere, (3) a platform for social activists and civil society organizations, (4) an initiator of public discourse and (5) an agent of civil society activism. This article explores the different roles such media plays by conducting a case study ofIn-media, an online AM in Hong Kong, through an evaluation of its functions in civil society and in the political arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese media organizations do not yet have an established and widely adopted journalistic paradigm. Thus, some journalists believe they should go beyond journalism's conventional roles and participate directly in social advocacy. They practice not only advocacy journalism but also social advocacy by hosting public forums, organizing journalism training camps, and giving various awards to social activists, cultural elites, celebrities, business people, and fellow journalists. This research explores the award-giving practices of several influential Chinese media organizations. It contends that a complex array of forces and factors interact to shape the award-giving practices of contemporary Chinese media. In contemporary China, the marketized and mission-burdened media tend to use the award-giving practice as a means to build their brand image and fulfill their social mission (i.e. advocacy of values). Award giving is also intended to help media organizations network with like-minded representatives of civil society. This analysis thus demonstrates that award-giving practices help build mutual recognition between the media and a specific group of social elites in China and lead to the formation of an alliance of “the weak” when confronting the authoritarian state machine. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The historical role of the prominent Chinese writer, social activist and thinker Lu Xun (1881-1936), is difficult to overestimate. His works influenced social change within China and became recognized internationally. For these and other reasons, he was of particular interest in the Soviet Union. Since 1932, his works have been published in numerous editions in Russian and have received a great deal of scholarly attention in the Soviet Union. Such unprecedented attention was initially based on the idea that he held similar revolutionary sentiments to those prevailing in the Soviet Union. Later, from the second half of the 1960s to the early 1970s, the ideological disagreements between the Soviet Union and China influenced the direction of Lu Xun studies in the Soviet Union. Soviet leader Khrushchev called for peaceful coexistence with the capitalist West, while Mao Zedong stressed the universal character of the proletarian revolution. Lu Xun was highly respected in both the USSR and China, and thus became an influential tool in this polemic. But, for Soviet scholars, this renewed focus on Lu Xun offered an opportunity to provide a new perspective on the writer's works. This paper analyzes how the Sino-Soviet split influenced Russian academics' positions on Lu Xun. The focus is on the three main points of contention in the ideological disagreements between the PRC and the USSR. First, Soviet critics focused on the psychological aspects and individualism in the Lu Xun's works. Second, a special focus on humanistic elements in the writer's ideas can be seen as a result of the Soviet disagreement with the Cultural Revolution's period. Third, by pointing to the internationalist aspects of Lu Xun's writings, Soviet scholars attempted to expose the Sinocentric political attitudes of the ruling circles in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Language & Intercultural Communication is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

China's dynamic urbanisation since 1978 has led to the proliferation of so-called 'urban villages' in many cities. Their development, via a self-help approach by indigenous villagers, delivers low-cost housing and various other social and economic activities. Consequently, urban villages are characterised by growing numbers of buildings and a mix of functions, including residential, industrial, commercial, and public services. These uses enable different activities in urban villages, assimilating migrants into the city by providing an alternative niche for working and living. Variations in land-use diversity in Shenzhen's 318 urban villages were analysed using 2009 data, for more than 333 000 buildings. Four statistical models, including three based on a spatial regimes analysis, are used to explain their land-use diversity. The results reveal that an urban village's land-use pattern is linked to its location in the urban fabric, its phase of development, and the development level of its environs. Different patterns are apparent inside and outside the Special Economic Zone of Shenzhen, suggesting that the current uniform redevelopment policy for urban villages may not be appropriate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the food safety law in China for regulation of the food production, manufacturing and supply chains. Topics discussed include food hygiene law, laws for preventing the food safety problems and public health issues. It also discusses extra-judicial social activism, food borne illness threats and economic development.

The Shanghai Refugee Children Nutritional Aid Committee, formed in 1937, sought to improve refugee children's nutritional health by making and distributing a scientifically tested soybean milk and soybean cakes. By 1942, the Committee had adopted a national platform and changed its moniker to the Chinese Nutritional Aid Council, with plans to open offices and nutrition clinics in Chongqing, Chengdu, Guiyang and Kunming. This paper argues that in linking biomedical understandings of nutrition with social change, this group of Western-trained physicians and young female social workers enacted a new kind of social activism, one which seized upon the food-as-fuel idea and staked the welfare of the nation upon the nutritional health of its citizenry. In contrast to earlier social relief projects promoted by the imperial state and the local philanthropic initiatives of gentry elites, the Chinese Nutritional Aid Committee articulated an image of professional and specialised expertise in the science of nutrition and care. Theirs was a project of modern refashioning in which science played a key and foundational role in crafting their understanding of both relief and the children they aimed to save. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor notes an erratum, discusses models for social activism, and introduces articles in the issue on topics including the impact of the 2008 financial crises on social conditions in Greece, government ownership in China, and financialization.

To what extent do Chinese nonprofit organisations, through advocacy activities, engage citizens in influencing public policies and contribute to the development of a participatory policy process in China? Based on data collected through a mail survey of 203 registered nonprofit organisations, this study examines the advocacy activities of Chinese nonprofits and their contributions to a responsive government. We find that the intensity of advocacy activities by Chinese nonprofits is relatively low and varies by organizational type, by degree of professionalisation, and by dependence on government funding. We find no association between advocacy intensity and the extent to which Chinese nonprofits engage citizens at the organisational level prior to their advocacy efforts. The ineffective marshalling and integration of citizens' interests within Chinese nonprofit organisations might be attributable to the corporatist structure of the institutional and resource environments in which Chinese nonprofit organisations operate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the public art practice of the Chinese performance artist Zhao Bandi, aka the ‘Panda Man’, and situates it in relation to the social activism of the Chinese consumer rights campaigner Wang Hai, aka the ‘Anti-Counterfeiting Hero’. Contextualizing the appropriation strategies of these two unlikely figures within contemporary China’s changing legal, market, and media spheres, this article places global contemporary concerns with authenticity, copyright, counterfeits, and fakes in relation to notions of performativity and behavior. Challenging the expectation that appropriation need resemble oppositional or antagonistic strategies of Western precedent, it argues that Chinese figures like Zhao and Wang presented transformative models for consumption and citizenship in 1990s China, laying the groundwork for today’s public discourse of ‘shanzhai’ − a distinctly self-conscious Chinese claim on appropriation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This methodological note is to introduce new social network analysis (SNA) data sets that can be used to visualize and analyze the global linkages of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC). The results show that first of all, the WUC and Rebiya Kadeer play central roles in mobilizing political activity around the globe. Second, human rights NGOs and other organizations from the Uyghur diaspora pervade the networks of the WUC, and are spearheading the coordination of events and the exchange of information. Third, the WUC is keen on connecting with government representatives and journalists. Fourth, a growing number of links exist between the WUC and news organizations. Such links are most obvious among news organizations situated within the same country, when a Uyghur-related event occurs. A quintessential example is observed in the SNA map, where Japanese press and media showed interest in reporting Uyghur news when WUC Secretary General Dolkun Isa visited Japan to promote the Uyghur issue in 2006. A case study of Uyghur linkages in Australia further demonstrates WUC influence over Uyghur activism in various corners of the world. The purpose of this paper is not only to provide the first visualization and empirical test in regard to WUC networks that China's government and various China observers have believed to exist. With this document, I also demonstrate how a network approach can provide alternate ways for researchers to conduct their respective studies on diasporic networks of Tibetans, Taiwanese, or Chinese. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before the widespread application of Internet, the Chinese government had been closely monitoring information accessed by the general public. This study points out that with either ownership or strong presence within communication and network service providers, the government has been able to censor an extensive amount of information before it reaches the public. Nonetheless, the government has not prevented people from raising their voice through the Internet. Is this tolerance forced by the growing civil society advocacy in China? What have been the impacts and constraints of e-advocacy in China? By analyzing three typical e-advocacy cases, this paper points out that e-advocacy could potentially have impacts on provincial and municipal government decisions toward certain events. It would also scrutinize the major Bullet Board Systems (BBS) and microblogs on Chinese websites and reveals that the constraints of e-advocacy have come from not only governmental control, but also unorganized and emotional behavior of citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study extends previous public relations research that has evaluated how the websites of Northern NGOs facilitate relationship-building (), affect the media agenda (), and gather and disseminate information about civil society activities (). The study explores the relationship-building functions of Chinese ENGOs. The content analysis suggests that Chinese ENGOs’ websites reflect the realities of activism in China. They provide information to members, the public, and the media but these organizations do little to organize their publics to participate in environmental social movements. The findings provide a picture of the early years of the Chinese environmental movement and the use of the Internet in their public relations and advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which investigated the effectiveness of advocacy intervention in improving the depressive symptoms of Chinese women survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). The assessor-blinded randomized controlled trial involved 200 Chinese women 18 years or older who have suffered IPV living in a community center in Hong Kong, China. They were provided empowerment and telephone social support under a 12-week advocacy intervention. The researchers found that advocacy intervention did not produce significant improvement in depressive symptoms.