On September 2nd, 2021, the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) announced new regulations around banning ‘effeminate men’ from Chinese media. This was a new step in the crackdown on...Show moreOn September 2nd, 2021, the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) announced new regulations around banning ‘effeminate men’ from Chinese media. This was a new step in the crackdown on the Chinese entertainment industry. Two weeks later, on September 16th, the NRTA announced that danmei dramas, also known as dangai, would be boycotted from that moment on. Danmei is a genre mostly written by and for women, and it depicts a romantic relationship between men. Dangai is a drama or film adaptation of danmei novels. This thesis will be about the Chinese government’s recently changing views on gender roles due to the tightening of censorship policies on gender roles in Chinese historical dramas. The thesis will focus specifically on historical dramas since this is a genre with growing interest from a large audience all over the world that is now targeted by censorship.Show less
In this thesis, I have found that while China claims to remain neutral between Ukraine and Russia, China’s news media, "Xinhua News Agency" and "China Daily", seem to present a clear antagonist...Show moreIn this thesis, I have found that while China claims to remain neutral between Ukraine and Russia, China’s news media, "Xinhua News Agency" and "China Daily", seem to present a clear antagonist between the countries, namely the U.S. Through several discursive techniques, the two news organizations present the U.S. as a cunning actor that drags others into a ‘proxy war’.Show less
This thesis compares the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics with the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Guided by various shot and sequence protocols and a relevant...Show moreThis thesis compares the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympics with the opening ceremony of the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Guided by various shot and sequence protocols and a relevant literature study, this thesis shows that mass events like the Olympics are a way of legitimizing the Chinese Communist Party. Furthermore this thesis shows that the opening ceremony of 2022 was less nationalistic and more toned down than that of 2008 by focussing on and explaining some major topics like Covid-19, gender equality and political and cultural circumstances.Show less
In the People's Republic of China, the state takes a didactic approach towards the diffusion of media and forbids the depiction of homoerotic relationships on the big and small screen. Chinese web...Show moreIn the People's Republic of China, the state takes a didactic approach towards the diffusion of media and forbids the depiction of homoerotic relationships on the big and small screen. Chinese web series "The Untamed" (Chen Qing Ling 陈情令) however adapts a web novel containing an explicit homoerotic romance to public acclaim. This exploratory study examines how the directors of this series navigated government censorship and conveyed the homoerotic subtext between the two protagonists. In order to answer this, the thesis makes use of visual discourse analysis (divided into the layers of the image, the soundscape and the montage) on shot protocols as outlined as in Schneider (2012) while also building upon the theoretical frameworks of Van Leeuwen (1996; 2008), Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006) and Iedema (2004). The analysis is contextualized by a literature review spanning the topics of the history of homosexuality in China, the importance of representation and television, homosexual representation in the Chinese media landscape to end with the topic of the state approach to media and censorship mechanisms of web series. The thesis concludes that the directors successfully depicted homoerotic subtext by using a wide range of audio-visual and narrative techniques while leaving enough space for deniability, which might bring about more adaptations of such materials and influence public opinion about homosexual individuals.Show less
Newspapers all around the world have been reporting on the COVID-19 epidemic very frequently. Every newspaper however, has constructed their own narrative on the crisis, as well as on how the...Show moreNewspapers all around the world have been reporting on the COVID-19 epidemic very frequently. Every newspaper however, has constructed their own narrative on the crisis, as well as on how the People's Republic of China dealt with it. This thesis will show how "The Guardian" and the "People's Daily" have each constructed their own distinct narratives on the COVID-19 epidemic in China.Show less
China’s growing relevance on the digital world stage, and in the global economic system in general, calls for an analysis of its policies regarding blockchain technology. This thesis provides an...Show moreChina’s growing relevance on the digital world stage, and in the global economic system in general, calls for an analysis of its policies regarding blockchain technology. This thesis provides an analysis of a Chinese blockchain platform, NEO, to understand to what extent China’s blockchain policies serve its agenda for global leadership in the area of technological development.Show less
The People’s Republic of China has had an increase in economy, population, and military for the past three decades, becoming one of the most dominant powers in Asia. Therefore, the relationship...Show moreThe People’s Republic of China has had an increase in economy, population, and military for the past three decades, becoming one of the most dominant powers in Asia. Therefore, the relationship between The United States of America and The People’s Republic of China has been covered extensively by the media, especially when it concerned the territorial dispute of the South China Sea in 2001. The media uses frames to show different perspectives of an event or issue. This thesis concerns itself with how the media in China and the United States framed their position and the South China Sea island dispute. To uncover the frames, a qualitative, inductive frame analysis is conducted on a set of articles from the New York Times, Washington Post, China Daily, and People’s Daily, from the span of 2011 to 2012. Uncovered were seven different frames. Four from the New York Times and Washington Post and three from China Daily and People’s Daily. In The New York Times and Washington Post, the United States was mostly framed as an ally to the smaller and militarily weaker ASEAN States, with a special focus on the Philippines. The second frame established the Chinese position in the dispute, which unlike the United States had a more ‘negative’ connotation. It concentrated on the aggression that came from China’s action within the South China Sea dispute. These frames were the opposite in the Chinese media outlets. China was deemed the peaceful power, while the interference of the United States has led to participant countries becoming more aggressive in their actions against China. While American media, concentrates on presenting the South China Sea dispute as a tense and long-standing issue, Chinese media looks at it, as a new way to increase and deepen regional ties. Both countries shine a positive frame on their actions, while simultaneously casting the other in the role of aggressor or villain.Show less
The Social Credit System (SCS) constitutes an incredibly extensive overarching plan by the Chinese government to be implemented in China. One of the main issues that the plan aims to target is to...Show moreThe Social Credit System (SCS) constitutes an incredibly extensive overarching plan by the Chinese government to be implemented in China. One of the main issues that the plan aims to target is to raise the levels of trust-keeping and sincerity within Chinese society. Considering the recent incidents of food scandals or negligence towards road traffic victims in China often described as the crisis of morality or so-called "moral crisis", it poses a question whether the Social Credit System can be considered as a certain response of the government to the low levels of social trust and moral behavior. By analyzing the founding document of SCS, this thesis explores what kind of values the plan of SCS promotes and whether and how does it respond to the low social trust.Show less
In China’s far northwestern region of Xinjiang, the Chinese government and the Muslim Uyghurs are entangled in a conflict that has seen a rise in violence in the last two decades. The pinnacle of...Show moreIn China’s far northwestern region of Xinjiang, the Chinese government and the Muslim Uyghurs are entangled in a conflict that has seen a rise in violence in the last two decades. The pinnacle of this violence were the Urumqi riots, a violent outburst between Uyghurs and Han Chinese during which 197 lost their lives. This thesis researches how the state controlled news agency Xinhua has covered the conflict before and after the Urumqi riots by analysing English language news articles on the conflict and analysing discrepancies by utilizing a ‘discourse analysis’. The results of the research show that Xinhua has taken a more delicate approach to referring to the Uyghur conflict but the underlying focus of ‘cracking down’ on expressions of resistance remain in news coverage on the conflict.Show less
Censorship is a theme that plays a major role in the Chinese online, but also offline society. In order to maintain the status quo of the stability of their regime, the Chinese Communist Party...Show moreCensorship is a theme that plays a major role in the Chinese online, but also offline society. In order to maintain the status quo of the stability of their regime, the Chinese Communist Party ensures that, by issuing heavy guidelines, the online communities are unable to mobilize against the central government. In this thesis, I discussed the representation of the hashtag #十九大 by Weibo, in collaboration with the People’s Daily, during the 19th National Congress. I found the topic of this project to be of importance, since I consider online censorship in China to be necessary of researching on a case-to-case basis, to assess what instantiations of censorship practices we might find across China’s online spheres. This thesis used a comparative method, involving the hashtag page on Weibo and the storage database of censored posts on Freeweibo. I found out that not only the guidelines of the central government are to blame for the restriction of free speech, but also that the company Sina and a moral sense of self-censorship are important factors that play a role in the game.Show less
This thesis analysis how the Hong Kong identity is constructed in the film 'Ten Years', by means of a discourse analysis. Since the handover of sovereignty, Hong Kong is no longer part of the...Show moreThis thesis analysis how the Hong Kong identity is constructed in the film 'Ten Years', by means of a discourse analysis. Since the handover of sovereignty, Hong Kong is no longer part of the British Empire, but instead is part of China. Great Britain influenced Hong Kong during the colonial period, and the film depicts that as different from Mainland China.Show less
