China's Global Impact

Conference Website: http://wiki.vm.rub.de/uvu/index.php/China's_Global_Impact. - Secure part of the website: (access for organizing committee only).

Chinese Studies Conference at UVU, March 23-25, 2012

Submission deadlines

(no extensions, if not ready, send draft, but keep deadline)

• Jan 29 Call for papers sent out: additional speakers needed!
• Feb 6 topic, speaker photo for website and evtl. proceedings
• Feb 13 abstracts (150 words), c.v. (100 words), c.v. (1 page)
• Feb 27 paper drafts due (for presentation of 20 minutes, i.e. approx. 7 pages without footnotes and references)
• Mar 5 internal review decision
• Mar 12 final papers due, will be submitted to same reviewers again for final approval
• Mar 20 discussants’ notes due
• Mar 23-24 conference
• Mar 25 hiking excursion to nearby mountains
• May 31 submission of revised papers for proceedings
• Jul 31 proceedings

Schedule

Friday, March 23, 2012

8:30-8:45 Opening

I China’s Economical Impact

8:45-10:15 Panel 1: The historical and geographical macro perspective: Involution and De-Involution, Innovation and India

• Stefan Messmann (Budapest, Hungary): China and India in comparison - Questioning the sustainability of China as the world’s economic engine

10:15-10:30 Break

10:30 – 12:00 Panel 2: Know-How Transfer, case studies of a medium sized Western enterprise and a Chinese global player

• David McArthur (Orem, USA): Inside China’s “Growth Engine:” How international technology transfer is done and how it changes people, firms, and countries
• Hui Xu (Tianjin, China): Analysis on Impact of Marketing Dynamic Capabilities of the Chinese International Enterprise Huawei against the Value of Stakeholders

12:00 – 1:00 Lunch Break

1:00 – 2:30 Panel 3: Issues in Contemporary Chinese Economy and an Outlook

• Jonathan H. Westover (Orem, USA): Comparative Worker Attitudes and Human Capital Leadership Strategies in the US and China
• Junhua Zhang (Hangzhou, China): Re-writing the history of conventional capitalism – China’s necessity of restructuring its economy due to a shrinking WTO-dividend

2:30 – 2:45 Break

II China’s Cultural Impact

2:45 – 4:15 Panel 4: Invisioning China: Sinologists in transition and the international Perception of the Chinese Film

• Kirk Larsen (Provo, USA): China’s global impact in modern history
• Greg Lewis (Ogden, Utah): The impact of the Chinese film on the international film [invited paper, not yet confirmed]

Saturday, March 24, 2012

II China’s Cultural Impact

8:30-10:00 Panel 5: The world speaks Chinese - China’s Softpower, Cultural Melting-Pots, and Dual Immersion Programs

• Martin Woesler (Orem, USA): The new ‘super softpower’: China’s Cultural impact in the U.S. and Europe
• Alexander Yuan (Orem, USA): International teaching of Chinese language and culture

10:00-10:15 Break

10:15 – 11:45 Panel 6: China as a leading factor in web literature, comparative writers’ fates and the global validity of Chinese poetry asthetics

• Li Guo (Logan, Utah): Two worlds, one soul: Comparing the life narratives about interwar Ding Ling and Simona de Beauvoir
• Fusheng Wu (SLC, Utah): The need for Chinese poetry in our globalized world, with a focus on Tao Qian

11:45 – 12:45 Lunch Break

III China’s Political Impact

12:45 – 2:15 Panel 7: Chinese nationalism, modernization and foreign policy

• Ivan Willis Rasmussen (Medford, USA): Chinese nationalism and the potential for Northeast Asian regional integration
• Eric Hyer (Provo, Utah): The influence of Chinese perceptions of the US on US-China relations - Global impact of Chinese foreign policy and international relations and conflicts

2:15 – 2:30 Break

2:30 – 3:30 Panel 8: Perception of China in Western Media

• Jingdong Liang (Orem, USA): China’s changing perception in Western media reports [invited paper, not yet confirmed]
• Daria Berg (St. Gallen, Switzerland): Discourses among Chinese intellectuals, which become more and more part of the global public sphere [invited paper, not yet confirmed]

3:30 – 3:45 Break

3:45 – 4:15 Interdisciplinary Panel Discussion: China’s impact on world economy, politics and culture

confirmed participants so far: Stefan Messmann, David McArthur, Susan Hui XU, Junhua ZHANG, Kirk Larsen, Martin Woesler, Alexander Yuan, Li Guo, Fusheng Wu, Ivan Willis Rasmussen, Eric Hyer

4:15 – 4:30 Final Remarks, official end of conference

Sunday, March 25, 2012

9:00 – 9:30 Breakfast

9:30 – 1:00 pm Hiking excursion to nearby mountain

afternoon Individual return, airport shuttle service

Abstracts

Section I: China’s Economic Impact

► Innovation as a key factor for China’s future - China’s role in historical perspective J. Kent Millington (Hefei, China / Orem, Utah) After 1500 years of astonishing discoveries in science, technology, and navigation, China turned inward at the start of the Ming dynasty in the 15th Century. Today’s rise in innovation and economic strength is a return to its former glory and dignity. China is rapidly moving from the country of cheap production to one of significant technological innovation. China’s scientists are taking their place among world leaders in nanotechnology, sustainable energy, and materials innovations. To facilitate this emergence, China is modernizing its legal system to accommodate intellectual property and legal contract concerns, changing its emphasis on entrepreneurship and innovation, and promoting broader ownership rights. Evidence of these changes and examples of technical innovations will be given. China’s emerging leadership in some areas of technology will be highlighted. China’s innovative past is now being tied to its innovative future as the creative genius of its people is being encouraged and liberated.

► The legacies of involution and de-involution. Theoretical and Practical Implications of China's Development Experience at the Example of Chongqing Philip C. C. Huang (Los Angeles, USA) Theoretical and Practical Implications of China's Development Experience and the New Example of Chongqing In the view of neo-liberal “new institutional economics,” China development in the Reform period has been driven by the rise of private firms and related laws. Walder/Qian, on the other hand, stress instead the role of local governments’ township and village enterprises. But neither approach can explain what happened in the last two decades, when the main engine of development shifted to the local governments’ efforts to “draw in businesses and investment Hampton Inn Hotels” by provisions of low-cost land and support, special subsidies and tax privileges, and circumventing of labour rules and environmental protection. Those informal practices have accounted for both China’s GDP growth and its mounting social and environmental crises. This paper employs historical and theoretical analyses to call for a new understanding of China’s development experience and its implications. The paper then examines China’s latest “Chongqing experiment”, which relies on government-owned firms to fund social equity and infrastructural construction. Conceptualized as the “third hand,” it is unlike the first hand, or Adam Smith’s “invisible hand,” and also the second hand, or the visible hand of government tinkerings with the market. It uses market appreciated state assets to fund social equity and infrastructural construction. This third hand is no simple government monopoly, but must compete against other localities and outside competitors. It has been strikingly successful thus far, and may well become a new “model” of equitable development for China.

► China and India in comparison – Questioning the sustainability of China as the world’s economic engine Stefan Messmann (Budapest, Hungary) In the 21st century the competition for the position of the most powerful economic nation of the world will be carried out between China and India. Since the end of the Mao era in China in 1976, China introduced serious political, economic and legal reforms resulting in substantial economic growth and relative wealth of the Chinese population. Thus, in 1980 the average income of a Chinese was half of that of an Indian. Today, China overtook by far her Indian competitor: the average per capita income in China today is more than $7,500 p.a. and thus doubles the average Indian income. China is estimated to reach about 18% of the world GDP in the next 5-10 years, India only 6%. Chinese population is stagnating at around 1.3 billion, Indian’s population being roughly 700 million in 1980, reaches 1.2 billion today. By 2020 there will be assumingly more Indians than Chinese. The advantage of India could lay in her population growth, but it could also be a hitch for her further development. While in China sees 8 to 10 million quite well educated newcomers on the labour market every year, in India these are more than 13 million (tendency increasing) and their education is still rather poor. Besides, in India the privatization of inefficient state owned enterprises is slow, the legal system unreformed, the poverty increasing, the economic growth is legging behind of that of China’s and the still existing cast system continues to be disadvantageous to the country’s further economic growth. These are the indications of the sustainability of the Chinese advantage in the coming years in comparison to India.

► Inside China’s “Growth Engine:” How international technology transfer is done and how it changes people, firms, and countries David N. McArthur (Orem, USA) Since the opening of the Chinese market in the 1980s, Western companies have moved their production technology to subsidiaries and controlled joint venture partners in China. On the heels of successful offshoring, many of these companies now understand themselves as international firms, who move production technology within their international network of subsidiaries, rather than as manufacturers as they had previously. In general, when talking about the Chinese economical miracle, one neglects the role of the international firms, which have not only initiated a one-way know-how transfer and now profit from their exports from China and the emerging Chinese market. The main value creation in China is still done by these international firms. As they direct their direct foreign investment into their Chinese subsidiaries they change the capabilities of workers, teams, subsidiaries, and Chinese competitors. What will happen, when another region becomes the new hotspot for Foreign Direct Investments? What role do different units in their networks play, and how do they interact? How do managers perceive their units' roles, act out their perceptions, and manage disagreement and change in unit roles? How does the cultural environment influence these units? These questions will be answered with a focus on China.

► Analysis on Impact of Marketing Dynamic Capabilities of the Chinese International Enterprise Huawei against the Value of Stakeholders Hui Xu (Tianjin, China) Marketing dynamic capabilities is not only the organizational resources to obtain and maintain competitive advantage when the enterprises faced turbulent environment, but also an important foundation for value creation, and thus has a positive impact on the value network of stakeholders. In this study, based on the marketing dynamic capabilities theory and value of stakeholder theory, the paper uses single case study approach, takes Chinese company Huawei as the study object, and the main line of the study is the relation between value creation and marketing dynamic capabilities which embed in core business processes-product development management, supply chain management and customer relationship management. From the perspective of the three management processes, the paper identify the value creation characteristics, which is helpful for exploring the marketing dynamic capabilities’ impact against stakeholders’ value.

► Comparative Worker Attitudes and Human Capital Leadership Strategies in the US and China Jonathan H. Westover (Orem, Utah) Effective Human Resource Management (HRM) is essential to providing increased value to all organizational stakeholders and enhancing an organization’s strategic competitive advantage, requiring a broad awareness and understanding of a wide variety of psychological, economic, organizational, and social concepts, issues and cross-cultural and global phenomena. Furthermore, “globalization" represents a wide range of complex processes in our modern world and these processes have wide sweeping impacts on the international political economy, international capitalism, and the ability for organizations of all types to gain and maintain a competitive advantage and successfully compete in an increasingly global economy. Furthermore, increasing "globalization" over the past several decades has changed the dynamics of an increasingly international labor force, how organizations compete for this labor, their internal labor dynamics, and ultimately how they do business. Moreover, in this increasingly hyper-competitive and shifting global marketplace, with the emergence of the technology and service-oriented knowledge organization, firms are fighting to stay lean and flexible in an effort to satisfy increasingly diverse and specialized consumer demand around the world, requiring enhanced levels of organizational flexibility and innovation. Within such a dynamic globalized context, firms must continually ask themselves (1) how to maximize the human capital potential of workers to enhance their ability to perform and add value in a hyper-intensive competitive global marketplace, and (2) how the organization can effectively foster a continuous learning and innovation culture, thus enabling them to train the rising generation of knowledge workers with the knowledge, skills, and the ability to perform and add value in a hyper-intensive competitive global marketplace. This presentation will explore these questions as they relate to the comparative work contexts of the U.S. and China, with a focus on comparative worker attitudes and human capital leadership strategies.

► Re-writing the history of conventional capitalism – China’s necessity of restructuring its economy due to a shrinking WTO-dividend Junhua Zhang (Hangzhou, China) China is in a phase of restructuring of its economy. For more than two decades, China has been a great beneficiary of economic globalization thanks to its extremely, sometimes also enthusiastic exploitation of its comparative advantage (in modern liberal sense). Having seen that the country‘s “WTO-dividend” has been shrinking, China’s leadership is forced to create more “competitive advantage” (Michael Porter) by turning the “world’s factory” into a country with more cutting edge technologies in some key sectors. China’s ambitious plan for high-speed rail has been regarded (at least by the Chinese ruling elites) as a successful story for a recipient of technology transfer and a fast-food styled “digesting” of latest exogenous technology. Despite of the tragedy of July 23, China’s practice in building its own high-speed rail and even exporting the new product has induced a series of questions as well as uncertainties regarding “innovative capacities”, “technology transfer” and a late-comer country’s development strategy. Definitively, China is re-writing the rule of the conventional capitalism this way. The question is how and to what extent. In this presentation variables will be worked out to see under which conditions an authoritarian approach will fail or succeed.

Section II: China’s Cultural Impact ► China’s global impact in modern history Kirk Larsen (Provo, USA) [invited paper, not yet confirmed]

► The new ‘super softpower’: China’s Cultural impact in the U.S. and Europe with a focus on language policy Martin Woesler (Orem, Utah) In recent language immersion programs many U.S. and European students attend half of their courses in Chinese, although statistics reveal Chinese takes 1.6 times longer to master than a Western language. There is no direct domination of Chinese, parents choose it voluntarily to offer their children better job opportunities in a China-dominated global economy. China profits from know-how transfer in university partnerships and joint ventures. It invests a fortune and sends teachers overseas, grants funds for over 500 dependent Confucius Institutes, which differ from Goethe Institutes in criticism and dependency. With the U.S. rise to power, its culture became appealing. English, fast food, prolific U.S. films and a range of popular culture congested the world. Today, popularized elements of Chinese culture - Kung-fu, eating with chopsticks, esoteric interpretation of yin and yang, the decorative use of Chinese characters etc. – fascinate as exotic. Being so distant from Western culture, can Chinese culture become dominant? Does the cultural flow from Europe to China reverse? Is all this a threat to the West?

► International teaching of Chinese language and culture Alexander G. Yuan (Orem, USA)

Section III: China’s Political Impact ► Chinese nationalism and the potential for Northeast Asian regional integration Ivan Willis Rasmussen (Medford, Massachusetts) Along with the Middle East and South Asia, Northeast Asia remains one of the least integrated regions. The benefits of integration are significant: Economic success through regional projects can be seen in Europe with the EU, Southeast Asia with ASEAN, and even in the emerging African efforts with the AU. Trade barriers and social tensions have been mitigated, even erased with these efforts even though progress was not inevitable. Longstanding historical conflicts are typically cited as explanation for ‘stunted’ Northeast Asian integration along with a limited level of bilateral normalization of relations (Rozman). Despite the limits and challenges of cooperation leading to integration, the potential exists in several formal and informal mechanisms such as the Six Party Talks and Free Trade Agreements between China, South Korea, and Japan. Framed as a ‘win-win’ for all states involved, integration offers the possibility of increasing the already strong Northeast Asian economic dynamism (Kühnhardt). At the center of any regional project would be China; the historical legacy of the Chinese tribute system as a form of regional economic interaction complicates any project. Additionally, the modern manifestation of Chinese nationalism acts as an obstacle to integration. The following study will examine the potential for Northeast Asian regional integration in the context of increasing Chinese nationalism and shifting Chinese foreign policy. The author will argue that while nationalism does create several salient obstacles for integration, economic jingoism in China could be harnessed as a tool that invigorates public support for regional efforts.

► The influence of Chinese perception of the US on US-China relations Eric Hyer (Provo, Utah)

► Fusheng Wu (SLC, Utah) Fusheng Wu (SLC, Utah): The need for Chinese poetry in our globalized world, with a focus on Tao Qian