Schedule | Speakers | Moderators
November 1-2, 2013
USC Davidson Conference Center
Questions? 213-821-4382 / uschina@usc.edu
What do Americans and Chinese “know” about each other and how do they know it? What images do they have of each other’s society and state? Where do these images come from? Why do some endure and others change? How do images vary with age and other factors? How do these perceptions affect the decisions and actions of governments, businesses, civic groups, and individuals?
On November 1-2, 2013, leading academics gathered with pollsters, journalists, diplomats, and entertainment industry practitioners to explore these questions and questions and others at a conference hosted by the USC U.S.-China Institute.
Polls suggest that a slight majority of Americans believe that the values of Chinese and Americans are so different that cooperation to address international problems is impossible. Most Chinese feel the U.S. is working to constrain China’s continued rise. Americans and Chinese have increasingly negative impressions of each other’s countries. Yet, we are visiting each other’s countries more than ever before, becoming ever more intertwined, and are working cooperatively in many different ways to address pressing social, economic, and environmental issues. At the conference we examined how these exchanges affect perceptions along with the even more powerful role played by new and old media, popular entertainment, and political discourse.
Schedule - click here to download the Tinted Lenses conference schedule
Click on the presenter's name below to view a video of their presentation.
Friday, | Registration Opens |
8:50 am | Welcome/Opening Remarks Ernest J. Wilson III, Dean USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Clayton Dube, USC US-China Institute |
9:15 am | Panel 1: Security/Regional Disputes David M. Lampton, Johns Hopkins University Security- Relevant Perceptions in U.S.-China Relations: Elites and Society Tom Hollihan, USC U.S. Media Coverage of the Diaoyu-Senkaku Dispute Discussants June Teufel Dreyer, University of Miami Minxin Pei, Claremont McKenna College |
10:45 am | Break |
11 am | Panel 2: Business Erin Ennis, U.S.-China Business Council American Perceptions of the Business Climate in China Daniel Rosen, Rhodium Group How Chinese Investors and Businesses View the U.S. |
12:40 pm | Lunch |
1:50 pm | Panel 3: Politics, Ideology, Assessing the Other Peter Hays Gries, University of Oklahoma How Liberal and Nationalist Ideologies Shape Mutual Mis/perceptions in US-China Relations Daniel Lynch, USC The Chinese Debate on America's Decline in the 2000s Discussants Zheng Wang, Seton Hall University Xu Wu, Arizona State University |
3:20 pm | Break |
3:35 pm | Panel 4: Public Opinion Surveys Zhang Hui, Horizon Group How Young People in China’s Less Well-Known Cities See America Richard Wike, Pew Research Center China's Image in the U.S. and around the World Discussants Terry Lautz, Syracuse University Chen Na, Fudan University |
5:10 pm | Close of Day 1 |
Saturday, Nov. 2 8 am | Registration Opens |
8:30 am | The Assignment:China Project Clayton Dube |
8:45 am | Panel 5: Chinese and a Black president, Blacks and China Simon Shen, Chinese University of Hong Kong Chinese Students and Barack Obama Robeson Taj Frazier, USC From Mao to Yao: African-American Encounters with China Discussants Sheila Melvin, IHT and Caixin Richard Madsen, University of California, San Diego |
10:20 am | Break |
10:40 am | Panel 6: Film and Television Sherwood Hu, Shanghai Theatre Academy Telling Stories Stanley Rosen, USC Images of China in Recent American Films Zhiwei Xiao, California State University, San Marcos America in Chinese Cinema Discussant Wendy Larson, University of Oregon |
12:20 pm | Closing Clayton Dube |
Chen Na Chen Na teaches about social change, religion and society and other topics at Fudan University. He was trained at Peking University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Temple University. His research interests include the sociology of religion and intercultural communication. His recent work is about the emergence of Confucian congregations in China. He is a co-researcher of the on-going project “Construction of China’s National Image and Development of Cross-Cultural Communication Strategy." | |
June Teufel Dreyer | |
Erin Ennis | |
Robeson Taj Frazier | |
Peter Hays Gries | |
Tom Hollihan Tom Hollihan teaches communication at USC. His research and writing focuses on argumentation, political campaign communication, contemporary rhetorical criticism, and the impact of globalization on public deliberation. His many books include The Dispute Over the Diayou/Senkaku Islands: How Media Narratives Shape Public Opinions and Challenge the Global Order (forthcoming), Uncivil Wars: Political Campaigns in a Media Age, and Arguments and Arguing: The Products and Process of Human Decision Making (with Kevin Baaske). Hollihan has also advised candidates, officials, military leaders, and organization heads. | |
Sherwood Hu Sherwood Hu (胡雪桦) is a noted film and theatre director, scholar, and technological innovator. Educated in China and the U.S., he is dean of the film school at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. His film Amazing 神奇 (which includes NBA stars), is now in Chinese theaters. Other films include Prince of the Himalyas, Lord of Shanghai and Warrior Lanling. His television work includes the 40-part Purple Jade series and ratings champ Fighting Beijing. He created the 360 degree film for the Shanghai Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo. | |
David M. Lampton | |
Wendy Larson | |
Terry Lautz | |
Daniel C. Lynch | |
Richard Madsen Richard Madsen teaches sociology at the University of California, San Diego where he also directs the UC-Fudan Center and is provost of Eleanor Roosevelt College. He's written widely on Chinese and American cultures. His books include include Democracy's Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Develpment in Taiwan, Morality and Power in a Chinese Village, and China and the American Dream. His co-authored or co-edited books Chen Village under Mao and Deng, Unofficial China, Popular China, and Restless China are staples on many course syllabi. | |
Sheila Melvin Sheila Melvin is a regular contributor to the International Herald Tribune and Caixin, though her work has appeared in many other publications. She writes principally on the arts in China. Her books include Rhapsody in Red: How Western Classical Music Became Chinese, a co-authored work which was short-listed for the Saroyan Prize in 2005 and The Little Red Book of China Business. Melvin is now working on a book that explores China’s quest to become a cultural superpower. | |
Minxin Pei | |
Daniel Rosen | |
Stanley Rosen Stanley Rosen has taught political science at USC since 1979. He's headed the East Asian Studies Center and is a member of the US-China Institute's executive committee. His courses range from Chinese politics and Chinese film to socio-political change in East Asian societies. He's published numerous books and articles, including Chinese Politics: State, Society and the Market (co-edited with Peter Hays Gries) and Art, Politics and Commerce in Chinese Cinema (co-edited with Ying Zhu). Other works look the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese legal system, public opinion, youth, gender, and human rights. He is co-editor of Chinese Education and Society. | |
Simon Shen A graduate of Oxford and Yale, Simon Shen is an international relations specialist and is a prominent Hong Kong commentator. He has published more than 70 academic articles and publications in leading journals. He has been a visiting fellow at leading global think tanks such as he Brookings Institution. Shen works on a variety of topics. His scholarship on contemporary anti-Western Chinese nationalism has gained worldwide attention. Shen's public intellectual activity led to government service with the Central Policy Unit of the Hong Kong SAR. | |
Zheng Wang | |
Richard Wike | |
Ernest J. Wilson III | |
Xu Wu | |
Zhiwei Xiao | |
Zhang Hui Zhang Hui (张慧)is the general manager of Horizon Key Information and Data 零点 指标数据 . She earned her doctorate from the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Science. She's carried out research into group culture, patterns of consumption, social change, public services, and public policy. Much of her research has focused on the so-called 1980s and 1990s gneration, on urban elderly, and on working women. She's overseen a number of baseline studies and index projects, including the well-being index, motor vehicle index, and white-collar pressure index. She's been a lead contributor to a number of studies including Everyday China 《日子里的中国》 and We are the '90s Generation 《我们,90后》. |
Eric Heikkila Eric Heikklia has taught at the USC Price School of Public Policy since 1986. An economist by training, Heikkila directs the school’s international initiatives. He’s carried out research in several Chinese regions and has published widely in urban and regional development, urban information systems, and on East Asian cities and cultures. Heikkila co-founded the Pacific Rim Council on Urban Development, an organization which has carried out research and brainstormed about planning choices with a number of important cities in Asia. | |
Gabriel Kahn Gabe Kahn teaches journalism at the USC Annenberg School. He also co-directs the school’s Media, Economics and Entrepreneurship program and heads the future of journalism program at the Annenberg Innovation Lab. Prior to coming to USC, Kahn was a newspaper correspondent and editor. He was The Wall Street Journal’s Los Angeles bureau chief and deputy chief of the Hong Kong bureau and the Rome bureau. He’s reported from more than a dozen countries on three continents. | |
Michael Parks Michael Parks is director of the USC Annenberg journalism program. Prior to coming to USC in 2000, Parks worked as a journalist for more than 30 years. He opened the Baltimore Sun’s Beijing bureau in 1979. He subsequently moved to the Los Angeles Times where he was based in Beijing, Moscow, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, and Jerusalem. Parks received the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting from South Africa. He became editor of the Times in 1997, increasing circulation to nearly 1.2 million. | |
Jian (Jay) Wang Jay Wang teaches strategic communication and public relations at the USC Annenberg School. He also directs the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. He recently edited Soft Power in China: Public Diplomacy through Communication and he is the author of Foreign Advertising in China: Becoming Global, Becoming Local and co-author of China's Window on the World: TV News, Social Knowledge and International Spectacles. Prior to becoming an academic, Wang worked for McKinsey & Company. | |
Aimei Yang Aimei Yang joined the USC Annenberg faculty this fall. She teaches public relations. Her research has been published in leading journals such as Public Relations Review, Journal of International & Intercultural Communication, Mass Communication and Society, and Computers in Human Behavior. Her current research includes examining how Chinese NGOs are helping China enhance its soft power and how public relations associations foster links across borders. |
Here are some of our previous conferences:
2007 The Future of US-China Relations
2008 The Making of American Policy Toward China
2009 Evaluating the Beijing Olympics
2011 The State of the Chinese Economy
2012 China Internet Research Conference
Relating to image making are the following symposiums we've hosted:
2010 US-China Film Co-production Summit (co-sponsored with the Asia Society and other organizations)
2012 Chinese American Film Festival (co-sponsored with EDI Media)
2013 Shanghai Calling Q and A
2013 The Best of Both Worlds: US-China Film Co-production
Much more on China's entertainment industry is available from the institute's Asia Pacific Arts.
Our documentary series Assignment: China examines the work of correspondents for American news organizations in China from the 1940s to today. Several segments in the series are available online at: http://china.usc.edu/assignmentchina.
Our looks at China in American politics include:
Talking Points, October 29, 2010
Talking Points, November 23, 2010
Talking Points, November 9, 2012