Contact Info:
Russell Leong, Director, U.S./China Media Program (310) 206-2892 o Email: rleong@ucla.edu
"Beijing on Barack: China's Elite Students and Professors Look at Obama and Future
U.S.-China Relations"
Presented by UCLA's U.S./China Media Program
(http://www.uschinamediabrief.com) of the
UCLA ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES CENTER
LOS ANGELES - History was made in November when Sen. Barack H. Obama was elected to
become the 44th president of the United States. Now, with the Jan. 20 inauguration ahead,
change is coming not just to the White House but to relationships the U.S. has with other
nations around the world, including China.
As a result, the following question was posed by Professor Russell C. Leong, director of
UCLA's U.S./China Media Brief, to students of English and international relations at the
China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing: "What do Chinese youth think about the next
U.S. president and Sino-U.S. relations?"
The prestigious university, founded in 1955 at the suggestion of China's premier, Zhou
Enlai (1898-1976), trains China's elite students to become future diplomats and trains
foreign service officers from developing nations.
The students' professor is Wang Hui, a recent Fulbright scholar and M.A. graduate of the
UCLA's Asian American Studies Department. Professor Wang agreed to interview 20 of her
undergraduate students during the pre-and post-election period about their feelings
toward the young president-elect.
Wang's findings and pair of student essays in their entirety, together with commentaries
by her colleagues, including Professor Sun Jisheng, dean of English and professor of
International Studies at the university, will be posted before the Jan. 20 presidential
inauguration on the UCLA's www.uschinamediabrief.com, whose mission is to present more
balanced and accurate views of U.S.-China relations working with its affiliate media and
university hubs in Beijing, Taipei and Hong Kong.
As Wang told Leong during a presentation of the U.S./China Media Program in Beijing
during this election period, "In the Chinese world where seniority and experience count
heavily, it's exciting for our youth to witness how a young guy smashed all barriers and
beat his experienced rival to govern one of the biggest powers. Obama's image, closely
associated with youth, hope and change, as the media portrayed, caters to the imagination
of younger people."
Furthermore, even Chinese students at Beijing's elite universities can feel uneasy about
their own future. Wang continued: "Chinese youth who are faced with the same problems
that once troubled Obama, like sense of displacement, confusion about future and lack of
confidence in a vehemently competitive society, may draw inspiration from Obama on how to
transform themselves into confident and competent people." Two undergraduate students
majoring in English and International relations from China Foreign Affairs University
also contribute essays: they are Li Yang, and Chu Yaozhu.
More candid insights into the Chinese response are provided in an interview with
Professor Luo Xuanmin, the Tsinghua University translator of Obama's "The Audacity of
Hope," a bestseller in China.
The New York Times Olympics blog called the U.S./China Media Brief "a handy guide for
anyone to peruse Š Perhaps the most useful is the brief's concise explanation of the
Sino-American argument over human rights."
These latest findings are part of the work of the media program, funded by
philanthropists Walter and Shirley Wang, who have pledged $1 million to UCLA's Asian
American Studies Center to establish the nation's first program and endowed academic
chair focused on U.S.-China relations and Chinese American studies.
"UCLA's Asian American Studies Center is the premier research institution on these issues
in the nation and the world," Walter Wang said. "Shirley and I are impressed by the
quality, range and impact of its scholarship and significant policy research and by the
positive contributions it has made and can continue to make in the years ahead.
"Effective communication is one of the biggest barriers to achieving greater
understanding and appreciation of U.S.-China relations, and mass media is a vital vehicle
for changing perceptions," Shirley Wang said. "By educating the public about the
historical significance of these cultures and the important economic, social and
political changes they have helped create, we can enhance cross-cultural communication
and achieve a deeper understanding."
Walter Wang is president and chief executive officer of JM Eagle, the world's largest
plastic pipe manufacturer. Shirley Wang, who graduated from UCLA in 1990 with a
bachelor's degree in communication studies, is CEO of Plastpro, a leading manufacturer of
fiberglass doors and home products. |
