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USC and China in the News, May and June 2015
China-related news stories featuring University of Southern California faculty, students, staff, and programs.
May 4, 2015
June 22, 2015: Environmental Research Web
Gen Li, a graduate student working with USC Prof. Joshua West, has found that dams, including those on the Yangzi River in China, can help to lock up carbon, thus reducing climate change. Sediment, which captures carbon before it is released into the atmosphere, accumulates ten times faster behind the Three Gorges Dam than it does on the continental shelf.
June 21, 2015: Xinhua News Agency
A widely reprinted article about the Shanghai International Film Festival included mention of a new screenwriting class launched by Shanghai University of Science and Technology and the USC School of Cinematic Arts and noted that the youngest student in the program was just 15 years old.
June 20, 2015: South China Morning Post
USC School of Cinematic Arts faculty visited in China as part of a screenwriting program offered in conjunction with Shanghai Technology University. Yin Jie, provost of Shanghai Tech said that screenwriting is one of the weak links in the Chinese film industry. The summer program costs each student $5,000.
June 19, 2015: China News Network 中国新闻网 via People’s Daily 人民日报
A story about how students spend their summer holiday focused on a USC grad with the surname Lu. Lu noted that you have to get out and explore. Last year he travelled around, eventually meeting the woman who is now his girlfriend, in Houston. Lu’s girlfriend just graduated this year.
June 16, 2015: Huaxia Net
A story about the visit of Taiwan presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen to the United States included comments from Clayton Dube of the USC U.S.-China Institute. Dube said that the U.S. expects both sides of the Taiwan strait to work to maintain peace and stability in the region.
June 15, 2015: East Day (Shanghai)
USC’s screenwriting program at Shanghai Technology University was featured. The program enrolls twenty students and runs from June 19 to September 25. Elizabeth Daley, dean of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, was quoted: “Every successful film begins from the script…. China has so many great stories to tell and these stories can inspire people around the world.”
June 10, 2015: Columbia Journalism Review
Michael Parks of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism was among those interviewed in an article about efforts by mainstream US media to reach non-English-speaking audiences. He noted that partnerships with ethnic media could pose problems. He was quoted as noting, “you’ve got to find the right partner and be aware of how that operation works, but also what baggage they bring. Chinese-language publications could have different ideologies.”
June 10, 2015: Global Times 环球时报 via Phoenix 凤凰网
A fundraising campaign has been launched to support the legal defense of USC alum Zhang Hao, a professor at Tianjin University, who is charged with the theft of intellectual property from two American companies.
June 8, 2015: Liberation Daily 解放日报
An article noted the intensive course the USC School of Cinematic Arts is running at Shanghai University of Science and Technology. The article detailed the history of SCA and its noted alumni and faculty.
June 6, 2015: Philadelphia Inquirer
An article about Priscilla Jacujan’s argument that the U.S. must confront China in the South China Sea was illustrated with an image taken from the 2010 USC U.S.-China Institute documentary The South China Sea: Troubled Waters.
June 5, 2015: Los Angeles Magazine
An article about Amy Duan and her Los Angeles Chinese food web portal Chihuo.org included comments from Clayton Dube of the USC U.S.-China Institute. Dube noted that the site is geared towards younger visitors and newer immigrants from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
June 3, 2015: Wenwei News (Hong Kong)
An article about Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party candidate for president, included comments from Clayton Dube of the USC U.S.-China Institute. Dube was among those meeting with Tsai. The meeting was off the record, but Dube said that Tsai offered reasonable ideas for cross-strait relation.
June 3, 2015: OC Register
An article about LT Global Investments, a Chinese developer involved in major projects in Anaheim and elsewhere, noted that Max Yang, the company’s CEO and son of founder Longfei Yang, is a USC alum. LT Global has plans to spend $500 million on a project near Angel stadium.
May 31, 2015
Clayton Dube of the USC U.S.-China Institute moderated a discussion between Tsai Ing-wen, the Democratic Progressive Party’s nominee for president of Taiwan, and area academics. Other USC scholars joining the discussion included Tom Hollihan, Joyce Mann, Patricia Riley, Stanley Rosen, and Joanna Yu. Dube later spoke at a press briefing and his comments were reported in a wide variety of publications including the Taipei Times and the Voice of America.
May 26, 2015: The Diplomat
USC political scientist Stanley Rosen published an op-ed, “Hollywood in China: Selling Out or Cashing In.” Rosen cites instances where Hollywood filmmakers have sought to flatter or avoid offending China. He noted that while Hollywood companies have forged partnerships with Chinese ones, they’ve done little to facilitate the success of Chinese films in the U.S. Rosen argued that Chinese state censorship and propaganda requirements “virtually guarantees a result counterproductive to state intentions. By contrast, Hollywood makes ‘high concept’ films that are meant to have universal appeal, across all cultures, with profit virtually its only motive.” The article was also published in the Sydney Morning Herald.
May 21, 2015: Xinhua News Agency
Tianjin University rejected charges that its faculty stole technology from U.S. companies and used it to set up a production facility under the university. It condemned the arrest in Los Angeles of Zhang Hao by U.S. authorities. Zhang and another of the accused Tianjin University professors, Pang Wei, earned doctorates at USC.
May 20, 2015: Reuters
An article on the competition to build California’s high speed railroad included comments from the USC U.S.-China Institute’s Clayton Dube. He said that the Chinese would probably be willing to build the project for less than the Japanese might charge in order to become established in such a prestigious market.
May 19, 2015: Los Angeles Times
In a widely reported story, three USC alumni were among those accused by the U.S. government of having stolen trade secrets from Avago Technologies and Skyworks Solutions and using them to build a film bulk acoustic resonator fabrication facility in Tianjin. Wei Pang, Hao Zhang, and Huisui Zhang attended USC. Pang and Zhang subsequently became professors at Tianjin University. Hao Zhang is in U.S. custody, the other five are believed to be in China.
May 17, 2015: China News Network 中国新闻网
USC’s graduation, including the graduation of a number of students from China, was covered in an article. Engineering graduate Xia Bin, finance graduate Tang Cheng, and engineering graduate Yang Xiaohui were among those interviewed.
May 3, 2015: Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Stanley Rosen, USC political scientist, was interviewed about China’s efforts to build its soft power. “The Chinese film industry is really domestically-based, “ Rosen said. “They’d love to have success overseas. It hasn’t happened… partly because the films are in Chinese, they have Chinese historical and cultural components, they don’t resonate well with the outside world.”
May 1, 2015: BBC
The USC U.S.-China Institute’s Clayton Dube was interviewed about the competition between China and Japan to get contracts to help build high speed rail in China. Dube noted that while Japan has the longer history of high speed rail, the Chinese have built the most high speed rail.
May 1, 2015: Phoenix Satellite Television 凤凰网
It was reported that USC alum and USC trustee Fu Chengyu 傅成玉 will retire, having headed two of China’s three largest oil companies. Fu heads Sinopec (中国石油化工集团) and previously headed CNOOC (中国海洋石油有限公司).
Media inquiries? Please call us at 213-821-4382 or write to us at uschina@usc.edu.
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