The Digital Modern Languages seminar series (https://digitalmodernlanguages.wordpress.com/) will restart in 2022 with our newly expanded convening team that reflects a wider range of expertise in relation to different language, research and teaching contexts. In addition to and Paul Spence (King’s College London) and Naomi Wells (School of Advanced Study), the new convenors are Joe Dale (independent languages consultant), Orhan Elmaz (St Andrews), Saskia Huc-Hepher (Westminster) and Xuan Wang (Cardiff).

Please find below the details of the first seminar. This is a free online event but advance registration at the following link is essential to be given access to the Zoom link:https://modernlanguages.sas.ac.uk/events/event/25682.

Tibet, Economic Development and the Affective Politics of Online State Media in the PRC - Séagh Kehoe (University of Westminster)

Wednesday 26 January 2022, 4-5pm GMT

Abstract: Chinese state media coverage about Tibet has long been dominated by stories about state-led economic growth. In recent years, the focus of these stories has shifted from macro-level descriptions of infrastructure, science and technology, income, and education, to a more granular approach that foregrounds dramatized and emotionalized narratives of individual Tibetans engaging in and reaping the benefits of economic development. Seeking to understand this trend, this paper examines the increasing production and circulation of affect in online state media stories about economic development in Tibet. Through a selection of texts, videos and social media posts, it analyses how and why repeated references to hardship, happiness and gratitude have come to characterize these stories and how they work to valorize Tibetan diligence, self-responsibility, and patriotism, obscure structural inequalities and consolidate Chinese rule over Tibet. In doing so, this paper shows the increasingly sophisticated and creative ways in which the state has harnessed the power of affect and new media to manage public opinion about Tibet in the PRC and reinforce political power.  

Speaker bio: Dr Séagh Kehoe is a Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Westminster. Their research interests include Chinese media representations of ethnicity and race, gender and sexuality, nationalism, and military. They have published in China Quarterly, positions, Media, Culture & Society, and Asian Ethnicity, and are co-editor of Cultural China: The Contemporary China Review 2020.

You can stay up-to-date on future events in the series via our website (https://digitalmodernlanguages.wordpress.com/), Twitter account (@digmodlang) and JISC email list (https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=DIGITALMODERNLANGUAGES

Dr Naomi Wells

Lecturer in Italian and Spanish with Digital Humanities/Co-Director of the Doctoral Centre

Institute of Modern Languages Research/Digital Humanities Research Hub

School of Advanced Study | University of London

Senate House | Malet Street | London WC1E 7HU | UK

Email: naomi.wells@sas.ac.uk

http://modernlanguages.sas.ac.uk/

https://digitalmodernlanguages.wordpress.com/