Global Cultural Shifts Induced by COVID-19

While COVID-19 has reportedly been bringing about numerous changes in geopolitics, economy, health, and security around the world, little has been written about changes in cultural practices it has been bringing about. I hereby unravel such emerging changes in the hope that readers could adapt to such changes

Media Convergence for US–China Competition? Comparative Case Studies of China Media Group and the US Agency for Global Media

The present study provides a comparative analysis of the media convergence of China Media Group and US Agency for Global Media to illustrate the increasing US–China rivalry in international communication. It yields the following tentative findings: Both have been undergoing rigorous development at the technological and operational levels of convergence to enhance international communication; both are made to show more explicit loyalty to its official ideology, and both have become more monolithic via convergence; both have integrated their broadcasting services for an increasingly integrated market of information and news; both seem to be weaponizing itself against each other to fuel rivalry in international communication between the two nations rather than deepening mutual understanding and cooperation for mutual good and global good. The two case studies reveal that media convergence has not been able to liberate journalism from nationalistic constraints and transform it into an instrument to spawn new ideas and disseminate high-quality information and news for global public good

US Media’s Coverage of China’s Handling of COVID-19: Playing the Role of the Fourth Branch of Government or the Fourth Estate?

The present study is an analysis of a sample of reports on China’s handling of COVID-19 by several major US media with a focus on a controversial op-ed by the Wall Street Journal. It is found that instead of covering it objectively as a public health crisis, these media reports tend to adopt the strategy of naming, shaming, blaming, and taming against China. In other words, they seize the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan as an opportunity to serve Trump’s “America First” doctrine by a coordinated attempt to destroy the Chinese dream and arresting China’s ascendency. First, the naming/shaming technique is used to tarnish China’s image as a virus. The op-ed on the Wall Street Journal describes China as “the real sick man of Asia.” In addition, a cluster of ferociously negative names are slung onto China to describe the coronavirus as “the Wuhan virus,” “the Belt & Road Initiative pandemic,” “the China virus,” and so on. Second, the blaming technique is applied. On top of such negative name-calling, these media tend to blame the Chinese leadership, the political system, and finally Chinese food culture for eating pangolins. Finally, the taming technique is used to constrain, isolate, or quarantine China. One goal behind such a China threat strategy is to fan American or foreign businesses to move (back) to the United States out of China. Another goal is to create the public opinion environment that would be conducive to some American groups’ litigations against China. It is concluded that American mainstream media while quarreling with the Trump administration for domestic affairs seem to be colluding with the conservative intellectual base in the United States in supporting Trump’s strategy to knock down and divide China

Anticipating the prevalence of avian influenza subtypes H9 and H5 in live-bird markets.

An ability to forecast the prevalence of specific subtypes of avian influenza viruses (AIV) in live-bird markets would facilitate greatly the implementation of preventative measures designed to minimize poultry losses and human exposure. The minimum requirement for developing predictive quantitative tools is surveillance data of AIV prevalence sampled frequently over several years. Recently, a 4-year time series of monthly sampling of hemagglutinin subtypes 1–13 in ducks, chickens and quail in live-bird markets in southern China has become available. We used these data to investigate whether a simple statistical model, based solely on historical data (variables such as the number of positive samples in host X of subtype Y time t months ago), could accurately predict prevalence of H5 and H9 subtypes in chickens. We also examined the role of ducks and quail in predicting prevalence in chickens within the market setting because between-species transmission is thought to occur within markets but has not been measured. Our best statistical models performed remarkably well at predicting future prevalence (pseudo-R2 = 0.57 for H9 and 0.49 for H5), especially considering the multi-host, multi-subtype nature of AIVs. We did not find prevalence of H5/H9 in ducks or quail to be predictors of prevalence in chickens within the Chinese markets. Our results suggest surveillance protocols that could enable more accurate and timely predictive statistical models. We also discuss which data should be collected to allow the development of mechanistic models.published_or_final_versio

Chinese Communication Studies: Three Paths Converging

This contribution presents the possibilities for anthropological and neo-Marxist media within the hugely expanding sector of Chinese communication studies. China has sourced mostly from the American positivist tradition but is increasingly ­taking on board European critical thinking but it also needs to absorb some of the depth and diversity of indigenous scholarship existing in Chinese. Jia, Lu, and Heisey (2002) presented an influential meta-analysis of every ­example of communication studies in China at that time. The book chapter which talks about the rise of the discipline and scholarship of Chinese communication as an academic discipline (Jia et al., 2014) summarises some of Chinese language scholarship in Chinese and called for the creation of a humanistic tradition of Chinese and East Asia communication studies informed by indigenous perspectives and China’s rich repertoire and vocabulary of concepts– face, guanxi or relations, goutong, harmony, and personhood etc. Concluding that there is a need for all parties to do research on journalism and ­communication/ media in Asia, (particularly in China) from an anthropological ­perspective, this contribution argues that Asian scholars have a responsibility to create Asian approaches to communication and media studies. The effects of global neoliberalism is now being followed by a government response in China ­characterised in part by anti-corruption campaigns and a revival in Marxist approaches. A version of media studies that takes on board all the three elements would find fertile ground in the long run, supporting a more egalitarian and just China

A social constructionist perspective on the Chinese lian/mian (face?) practices

The Chinese face practices lie at the heart of Chinese culture. These practices constitute a systematic grammar of action and a unique way of life which are proving to be incapable of facing the challenges of the modern life of instrumental rationality unless they get transformed. How can such a system of cultural practices get transformed so that the living Chinese tradition and the modern Western culture get creatively and selectively merged? How can Chinese culture emerge as a new and rejuvenated, open and flexible culture both sustainable and adaptable? This dissertation is a search for the answers. This dissertation presents a social constructionist account for the Chinese face practices. It covers their various dimensions such as historical, emotional and consequential. It also offers a social constructionist critique of the generalist theories of face and ethnocultural studies of Chinese face practices. Using a social constructionist tool called Circular Questioning (CQ) together with the case study method, the study generates a tentative model of creative engagement with and grounded transformation of the Chinese face-centered social practices on the basis of the social constructionist critique of the revolutionary and individualistic models of transformation of the Chinese face practices. The study concludes that social constructionists in the Chinese contexts have a dual research agenda. On one hand, they have to curtail the excess of communalism which undermines the individual agency due to the face practices; on the other hand, they need to prevent the onslaught of unrestrained individual agency over community due to the complete abandonment of the face practices in the rush for the individual interests by means of capital, law and technology. It also examines the affordances and constraints of CQ in the Chinese contexts and identifies what the author thinks are the major similarities and differences between the Chinese version of social constructionism and the Western communication version of social construction ism. The examination, comparison and contrast reveal that the Western social constructionism, a constructive modification of the modern Western culture, is one big step closer to Chinese culture than the modern Western culture. The two cultures also have a lot to learn from each other. The study theoretically implies a promising future of intercultural relations between the East and the West which both social constructionists with a research agenda in the East and those in the West can jointly construct

Now, Globalization With Chinese Characteristics – Analysis

China defies containment and pursues globalization with strategy of connections, infrastructure development and modernization of developing nations

Experimental and Simulated Investigation of Lubrication Characteristics of a Water-Lubricated Bearing in a Single-Screw Compressor

Water-lubricated single-screw compressors (WSSCs) have developed rapidly in recent years because they can supply oil-free compressed air at considerably low costs. However, a major technical obstacle is that the conventional bearing arrangement of a star wheel shaft is prone to wear failure, which makes it difficult for WSSCs to run properly for long periods of time. To solve this problem, a star wheel thrust bearing with new liquid groove was proposed in this paper. Pulsating forces (i.e., bearing forces) acting on a star wheel shaft by compressing air were calculated through the dynamic analysis of the star wheel shaft system. A mathematical model of hydraulic water films in the bearing sliding clearance was established to describe the influence of water injection pressure on water film pressure distribution and its bearing capacity. Lubrication characteristics were compared between two types of hydrostatic thrust bearings (HTBs) with different grooves to illustrate that the new structure is more suitable for WSSCs. The reasonability of the proposed model and simulation results were verified using an axial thrust bearing test rig developed by the authors. In addition, variation parameters of hydrostatic film thickness between the sliding surfaces of the star wheel axial thrust bearing were measured. The results show that the instability of the water film thickness and axial vibration of the star wheel were suppressed, thereby avoiding the contact of solid materials between the end face of the axial thrust bearing. This study provides a structural optimization pattern of star wheel axial thrust bearings used in water-lubricated single-screw compressors