Communication, Culture and Rural Revitalization in China
Thursday 4 May 2023
12:30pm-1:00pm FREE lunch, 1:00pm-2:00pm seminar
PODCAST available here.
Drawing upon extensive fieldwork and nearly ten years of participatory action research in Jinyun County, Zhejiang Province, this talk explores the role of communication and culture in Xi-era China’s drive to revitalize the countryside after decades of GDP-driven, uneven, and urban-centric development. China’s cutting-edge modern communication infrastructures and deep-rooted agrarian traditions serve as revealing sites for analyzing the possibilities and limits of the Chinese state’s rural revitalization strategy, while Zhejiang as the party-state’s chosen demonstration zone for achieving modernization and common prosperity offers a unique vantage point for a critical examination of the place of the rural in China’s overall developmental trajectory.
Speaker: Professor Yuezhi Zhao (Simon Fraser University, Canada and Tsinghua University, China).
Chair: Professor Bingchun Meng (Co-Director of LSE-Fudan Public Policy Centre, Director of LSE PhD Academy).
Venue: CBG 2.06