Michael·H·Prosser

China Continuing: Xiamen Communication Conference: Dec. 28-30, 2005
Michael Prosser (michaelhprosser@yahoo.com)

The “Chinese Communication Studies: Reaching Out and Bringing In” Joint Conference in Xiamen, China, December 28-30, 2005 had the subtheme “Chinese Communication Studies in the Global Contexts: Past, Present and Future.” It was co-organized by the Association for Chinese Communication Studies (ACCS), the Chinese Association of Communication (CAC), the Chinese Communication Association (CCA) and as host the Department of Journalism and Communication at Xiamen Univiversity. The keynote speaker was Martha Watson, President of NCA, with the topic “Reaching Out, Bringing In: Communication Studies When the World Is Flat.” Her former Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland, Shuming Lu served as her host. About 70 delegates, plus post graduate students from Xiamen University, were in attendance. About 20 from the US who had been identified on the original program were not in attendance. (Some listed below might have been among those who were identified in the program, but who did not attend the conference.)

Plenary speakers included Zhang Guoliang of Fudan University, “Communication Studies in Mainland China”; Weng Shieu-chi of Taiwan National Chengchi University, “Historical Development and Characteristics of Communication Studies in Taiwan”; Chen Long of Hong Kong Baptist University, “Communication Studies in Hong Kong”; and Shuming Lu of Brooklyn College of CUNY, “Communication Studies in the US by Chinese Scholars” (a very thorough overview of the Chinese research in the US).

Wenshan Jia had organized a long round table on “Journalism and Communication Education in Contemporary China: Retrospect and Prospect.” In his absence, the round table discussion was held as one of an hour and sessions. Participants included: Steve Kulich, Director of the new Intercultural Studies Center at Shanghai International Studies University; Xu Shi of Zhejiang University; Lu Xin-An of Shippensburg University, me, and Esther-Ives Williams of San Gabriel High School in California. Her paper gave an especially useful view of the problems that the many Chinese students enrolled in her high school face because of the cultural differences between their homes in China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan and being in a multicultural and multilingual high school in California.

The second simultaneous session, “China and Global Communication,” included Zhang Shutian (one of the seven new MA’s in intercultural communication) and Steve Kulich of Shanghai International Studies University; Bu Zhong of the University of Maryland; Rama M. Tunuguntla of Grambling State University and two others speaking in Chinese. Simultaneous session three, “Chinese Culture and Communication Practies,” included Zhang Rui, a post graduate at Shanghai International Studies University representing Steve Kulich; Chang Hui-Ching of the University of Illinois at Chicago; Lu Xin-An of Shippensburg University; and Wu Dongying Doreen of Hong Kong Polytechnic University. (Steve Kulich was scheduled in all three of the first three simultaneous sessions, and Lu Xin-An was listed in two of these simultaneous sessions.)

Session Four “Chinese Media Studies (Online Communication) included jointly Tao Sun of Emerson College; Zhang Bu of the University of Maryland; and Zhang Jun of the Horizon Group in Beijing; Yu Zhang of the State University of New York (?); Chen Yanru of Xiamen Universtiy
(and others speaking entirely in Chinese). Session Five a simultaneous session, “Chinese Media Studies (Mass Media and Journalism), included John W.l Williams of Principia College; Xi Chen of Virginia Polytechnic and State University; jointly Senjie Yan of East Stroudsburg University and Zhang Cui, University of Macao; jointly Zhang Yan Bing of the University of Kansas, Yi Song of the University of Kansas, and Christy Leilani Jenson Carver of the University of Kansas, plus two speaking entirely in Chinese. The sixth simultaneous session, “Rhetoric and Politics in China,” included Michelle Murray (postgraduate student) of the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Lin-Lee Lee of the National Kaohsiung Normal University of Taiwan; Huang Shaorong of the University of Cincinnati..

The three simultaneous sessions on December 30 included: Session 7: “Comparative Studies in Communication” with Lucy Lu Xing of DePaul University; Ronald Gordon and Wang Xiu of the University of Hawaii at Hilo; Todd L. Sandel of the University of Oklahoma, Chung-Hui Liang of the National Chiao Tung University of Taiwan, Wen-Yu Chao and Hao-Wen Chang both of the University of Oklahoma; Zhang Shutian of Shanghai International Studies University; Zuoming Wang of the Cornell University; and Chen Yihai (?). Session 8: “Media in Taiwan” with an entirely Chinese language presentation; and Session 8: “:Shanghai International Studies University Intercultural Communication Students’ Work in Progress,” with second year post graduates Zhang Rui, Wei Wei, Yao Jian, and Lili Zhang; and first year post graduates Zhao Zhao and Liu Tianhong. All of the 7 SISU post graduates presenting papers at the conference used power point. Steve Kulich and I represented the only university which had specifically brought post graduate students to the conference, and this session, with helpful constructive comments by Lu Xin-An and John Williams, could serve as a model for post graduate student paper presentations in future Chinese conferences. SISU students represented the only Chinese university English department, and all others came from communication departments. While Xiamen University, as the host, did not have any post graduate students presenting papers, typically, the Chinese host institution has a number of post graduate students as paper presenters, not always of the highest quality, but still demonstrating the potential contributions of the conference host’s post graduates. A considerable part of the conference, particularly the discussions and question and answer periods, were held entirely in Chinese.

This is my sixth Chinese conference that I have attended: three intercultural communication conferences (2001-Xia’an, 2003-Xiangtan, 2005-Nanjing); a language, culture, and English as a second language conference (2004-Harbin); a journalism and mass media conference (2004-Beijing); and this conference. In China, .media conferences tend to be highly statistical and quantitative while the intercultural and language based conferences tend to be qualitative research. This conference appeared to have a relatively balanced use of both qualitative and quantitative research methods.

The Second International Conference on Multicultural Discourses will be held at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, April 13-17, 2007. For additional information, please contact discourses@zju.edu.cn or mdiscourses@yahoo.com The conference website is http://www.shixu.com/institute-conference .The Chinese Intercultural Communication Association and the Association for Chinese Communication Studies (ACCS) will hold a joint conference at Harbin Institute of Technology in July 2007.

Michael Prosser, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, Department of English, Shanghai International Studies University