Hong Kong Directors Shaping Mainland Movies

Professor Stephen Yiu-Wai Chu’s book Main Melody Films: Hong Kong Directors in Mainland China, was partly prompted by the words of President Xi Jinping at the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 2017 when he said: “Our compatriots in Hong...

Money, Markets and the Rise of Modern China

In the 18th century, the Qing dynasty was at its height: China was a global superpower and its coffers were full. By the end of the next century, all that had changed. While other major regions, in particular Europe and North America, were industrialising, China...

Identity Dramas

Portrayals of gender in popular culture both construct and mirror a society’s ideals of women and men, in which case Chinese dramas are sending decidedly mixed signals, said Dr Song Geng of the School of Chinese, who explores the phenomenon in his new book Televising...

Men Win out in Divorce in China

Divorce in China is, on paper, a gender-neutral matter: couples can apply for what is basically no-fault divorce, domestic violence is a legal condition for divorce, property should be divided evenly, and mediation should be used to find a middle ground. But a new...

China’s Jumpy Take on Tech

In October 2020, Jack Ma Yun, the co-founder of Alibaba Group, gave a speech just days before his company’s FinTech arm, Ant Group, was about to launch the world’s largest IPO. The speech directly challenged the legitimacy of financial regulation in China. Not only...