China's development from a traditional society to a technologically advanced, completely modern republic has been extraordinarily rapid. Due to developments since the mid-1980s, Chinese daily life for many has jumped directly from that constrained by an agricultural economy to that liberated by the information age. In Perspectives on Communication in the People's Republic of China, James Schnell chronicles these changes and their impact on mass communication. He looks closely at Chinese newspaper reports and television programs and listens to government officials and people in the street, providing readers with an insider's view of the current state of communication in China, from the political to the personal. Grouped under the major categories of politics, education, and health are observations gleaned from Schnell's nine visits to China as a visiting scholar and military attach. Ethnographic case studies are supported by examples from the media and supplemented with extensive references. Schnell concludes his fascinating look at contemporary China with an examination of cross-cultural communication on the most sophisticated level: that between President Clinton and Chinese officials during Clinton's 1998 visit to China. This book is must reading for students of Asian studies with an interest in communications and is ideal supplementary reading for courses in both communications and Asian studies.

As a country in transition, Chinese news discourse has quite distinctive characteristics, and more so given the power of state media in society. With China’s engagement in world affairs and its massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) now in place, Western media coverage of China has dramatically increased. Against this backdrop, news dissemination and discourse demonstrate a need for academia to give perspectives with interdisciplinary approaches. Chinese News Discourse presents original research from academics in China and the West, showing theoretical, methodological and practical dimensions between news media and discourse. The book focuses on Chinese news discourse by examining what new modern features it demonstrates in contrast and comparison to news discourses in other countries in the coverage of such hot topics as the BRI or the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China, just to name a few. This book is a useful resource for scholars and students of discourse, language, media and communication studies, as well as translation studies.

From a modern perspective, journalism is highly relevant to modern society, along with the emergence of mass printing system and professionalisation. This book, however, expands the meaning of journalism and views it as a social process. It will not only explore the roots and development of Chinese journalism and communication, but also demonstrate how Chinese journalism and communication interact and struggle with social culture and politics. Arranged in chronological order mainly, this book examines the initial development of Chinese journalism in ancient times in chapter 1, which from then manifested strong political attributes. After the Opium War in 1840, missionaries and businessmen from the West started to set up newspapers and periodicals in China, which brought about the birth of China’s modern journalism industry. Then China’s private newspapers and political party’s press are studied, which are closely linked with political revolutions and have a far-reaching impact on modern Chinese society. What happened to Chinese journalism and communication after the founding of People’s Republic of China in 1949? This book reviews the newspaper reforms, and studies the great negative impacts brought by "Cultural Revolution". Noteworthy news phenomena after the reform and opening-up are also covered. This book will appeal to scholars and students in journalism, communication and Chinese studies. Readers interested in Chinese society and modern Chinese history will also be attracted by it.

Many researchers and China observers would agree that understanding how China pursues global communication is critical for assessing its growing soft power. While soft power as a concept has, in many ways, become almost inextricably linked with the PRC's (People's Republic of China) international diplomacy of the twenty-first century, the specific role of global media within soft power diplomacy and the corresponding influence of Western mediated public diplomacy within China is a lacuna that has remained largely unexplored. Moreover, the different Chinese and Western perspectives on the influence of global media and public diplomacy on Sino-Western relations, and the changing role of global media on this crucial aspect of international politics, have not yet been critically examined. This volume presents a broad social science audience with recent innovative scholarship and research findings on global media and public diplomacy concerning Sino-Western relations. It focuses on the implicit nexus between global media and public diplomacy, and their actual utilisation in and impact on the shifting relationships between China and the West. Special attention is given to the changing nature of globalised media in both China and Western nations, and how globalised media is influencing, shaping and changing international politics. The contributions delve deeply into both theory and practice, and focus especially upon the analysis of several key aspects of the issue from both Chinese and Western perspectives. This combination of approaches distinguishes the volume from most other published works on the topic, and greatly enriches our knowledge base in this important contemporary field.

How have Westerners seen the People's Republic of China over the years? The question raises many important issues, which this book aims to present, analyze and explain. The basic conclusion is that Western perspectives are somewhat more complex than simply viewing China's realities. Involved also are politics and power relations, trends in journalism and scholarship, as well as individual and group personalities and psychologies.Based on extensive personal experiences in China dating back to 1964 and wide-ranging travel in Tibet and ethnic regions since the 1980s, the author attempts to distinguish trends in different Western countries. However, most of the material will concern the United States, which has been the dominant contributor to Western perspectives during the whole period of concern to this book.The perspectives are taken up by topic, including politics, economy, society, and ethnic minorities. Inherent in each topic is the way cultures see and react towards each other. Images and perspectives can affect policy, and have done so many times in the past, which adds to the importance of this book. It also takes up questions of the sources of Western perspectives, both in terms of direct sources, such as newspapers, television or the internet, and deeper ones, such as social values and temperament.

Emphasizing the global nature of Indian and Chinese film, television, and digital media, Reorienting Global Communication: Indian and Chinese Media Beyond Borders provides a diverse mix of alternative perspectives that collectively shift the discussion of media globalization away from Hollywood and New York. Linked by a shared history of colonialism, state socialism, large diasporas, and recent market liberalization, India and China are poised to become twenty-first-century world powers. While both enjoy a rich ensemble of religious iconography, legends, and folk traditions, Indian and Chinese producers and consumers are today challenged to find modes of expression that are culturally authentic and commercially viable in an increasingly globalized media environment. Essays cover topics such as the influence of transnational Indian families on the narrative elements of Bollywood productions, the rise of made-in-China blockbusters, the development of pan-Asian cinema, and migrants' use of the Internet to maintain connections with their homelands. Contributors are Michael Curtin, Chua Beng Huat, Shanti Kumar, Chin-Chuan Lee, Madhavi Mallapragada, Divya C. McMillin, Sreya Mitra, Sujata Moorti, Zhongdang Pan, Aswin Punathambekar, Jack Linchuan Qiu, Hemant Shah, Lakshmi Srinivas, Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh, and Yuezhi Zhao.

Despite the significant progress it had achieved in the past 60 years, especially in the past 30 years since Deng Xiaoping's reform initiatives in the late 1970s, China faces daunting challenges today. These challenges include, among others, a rigid political system that does not match economic vibrancy, uneven economic growth and widening income gap, a graying population, environmental degradation, potential social instability, ethnic tensions and separatist movement, poor international image, and military modernization. Based on papers originally presented at an international conference held at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania to mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China (PRC), this book provides an up-to-date, comprehensive, and authoritative assessment of the PRC's political, economic, social, ethnic, energy, security, military, diplomatic and other developments and challenges today. Contributed by scholars and experts in political science, international relations, economics, public administration, history, mass communication, psychology, and diplomacy, the book focuses on the efforts needed by China to grow in a sustainable manner and to become a respected global power. With each chapter addressing a different and yet an inter-related issue of the PRC's development, this book aims to make a significant contribution to the understanding of key challenges the country faces today as it strives to become a global power.