HICCS 2025

This panel explores pivotal moments and strategies in Chinese political and diplomatic history, from the 1911 “Luanzhou Armed Remonstrance” to ancient tributary systems and evolving China-U.S. relations through historical and future lenses.

Yi Luo
Northwest University, Associate Professor

Title:
Abortive Military Dictatorship: A New Explanation for the 1911 “Luanzhou Armed Remonstrance”

Abstract:
During the 1911 Revolution, some northern army officers used force to request the Qing dynasty to adopt constitutional reforms, an event known as the “Luanzhou Armed Remonstrance”. The key figures leading this mutiny were Zhang Shaozeng, Wu Luzhen, and Lan Tianwei, all graduates of the Japanese Military Academy and renowned as the “Three Military Stars”. Faced with imminent military pressure, the Qing dynasty had to immediately implement constitutional reforms and set up a British-style constitutional monarchy. However, the “Three Military Stars” did not withdraw their troops. Instead, they actively planned a military advance on Beijing, but ultimately met with failure. Unlike previous interpretations, the “Luanzhou Armed Remonstrance” was neither a constitutionalist armed petition nor an anti-Manchu revolutionary uprising disguised as “loyalty to the emperor”, but rather an unsuccessful attempt by a group of modern military personnel with nationalist ideas to establish a military dictatorship through force.

Xiaoyu Meng
Shanghai International Studies University, Ph.D Candidate

Title:
Threat cognition, aim for order and maintenance strategy of ancient Chinese tributary order

Abstract:
The tributary order formed in ancient East Asia, although spanning thousands of years, was often disrupted and challenged. In ancient China, as a suzerain state, there were motives to adopt appropriate strategies to maintain the tributary order in terms of moral responsibility and interest protection. However, history shows that under the same situation, rulers would adopt different maintaining strategies, like war, compellence, sanction, huai-jou (to cherish and to soften), and appeasement. So this paper focuses on exploring what factors affect the choice of maintaining strategies and what is the logic behind it, hoping to enrich the theoretical content of traditional Chinese foreign policy, further clarify the behavior logic of ancient China in foreign relations and its impact on contemporary Chinese diplomacy. Most of the existing studies on the maintenance of tributary order explain why the tributary order can continue for thousands of years, and why actors were willing to join the tributary order. Some studies related to specific maintaining strategies are also faced with many problems such as vague concepts and not detailed classification of types, so that the explanatory power is insufficient. Through the sorting and comparative analysis of cases of order maintenance between the Ming and Qing dynasties and typical tributary states, this article finds that the threat perception faced by ancient Chinese rulers towards the tributary order and their aim of the tributary order influenced the choice of maintenance strategies. Under the guidance of the principle of ritual(li) , they worked hard to balance the costs and benefits of order, achieving a balance between compliance with ritual and pragmatism.

Leigh-Wai Doo
Foundations for Islands of Harmony, Chair of Board of Directors

Title:
China – US: Different Perspectives in the Context of the Times. SUN Yat-Sen and Hawaii’s Sen Yet YOUNG in 3 phases: 100 years past, today, and 25 years forward.

Abstract:
Hawaii’s Sen Yet YOUNG is an American celebrated in China. He or the Rosamond Biplane which he designed and built a century ago is pictured in over 30 locations across China, including Taiwan, but there is no recognition of him in America. Why? (Photo of Honolulu star bulletin article of that caption). Might Hawaii’s Sen Yet YOUNG be a new channel building world peace between America and China? What does the context of the changing times tell us in three phases?

This panel investigates the experiences and challenges of Chinese migrants globally, addressing responses to racism in Canada, language ideologies among first-generation immigrants, the dynamics of new Chinese migration to Thailand, and issues of citizenship and inequality in contemporary China.

Weiguo Zhang
University of Toronto, Associate Professor

Title:
Responding to Racism by Chinese Immigrants in Canada

Abstract:
We seek to explore the responses of individual Chinese immigrants to racism and consider the structural and cultural factors that shape these responses. Our study utilizes thematic analysis of nine focus group discussions involving 48 participants, encompassing individuals of varying genders and age groups in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada, conducted between December 2021 and January 2022. Our findings reveal that (a) responses to racism among participants ranged from doing nothing to employing strategies such as avoidance, withdrawal, seeking assistance, reporting incidents, educating perpetrators, or directly confronting perpetrators; (b) contrary to stereotypes depicting Chinese immigrants as passive and non-confrontational, some individuals displayed direct, active, and assertive responses to instances of racism, albeit rarely resorting to violence. We contend that the resistance of Chinese immigrants to racism is nuanced and contextualized, shaped by a blend of cultural influences from both their home and host societies, while also constrained by their marginalized status and limited power within a systemically racist host society.

Fang Xu
University of California Berkeley, Continuing Lecturer

Title:
"You need to speak better English than Americans!”: First-generation Chinese immigrants’ language ideologies from a trans-sectional perspective

Abstract:
This paper is part of a larger California-based project examining non-native English speaking, first-generation immigrants’ language practices, language attitudes, and language ideologies, all with an eye towards the notion, “be American, speak English.” This paper focuses on 170 cases of first-generation immigrants from Asian countries and regions who speak a variant of Chinese language astheir mother tongue. The interviews were collected through an undergraduate sociolinguistics course between 2017 and 2022. Through a trans-sectional lens, this study aims to show the complexity of their translanguaging experience, and how embodied raciolinguistic ideology persistently sets them apart from identifying as American. In examining such a phenomenon among transnational, multilingual subjects, a trans-sectional approach not only embraces the multitude and palimpsests of the subjects’ opinions and experiences, also frees researchers from our own monoglot ideology. For non-white and non-native English speaker Chinese immigrants, they do not “look American,” but in their mind, they can try to sound American, i.e. speak English with an American accent, to seek and acquire acceptance. Their legal status, educational level, professional career, financial capacity or lifestyle notwithstanding, they are aware that they can never truly belong, when in their own minds, being American means being white and possessing the “correct” linguistic capital to be recognized as a native speaker – native speaker as “a static, monolithic, and privileged inner-circle norm against which all others are evaluated” (Aneja 2016, pp. 361). According to the trans-sectional indexicality, first-generation immigrants’ experiences tell a story of constant negotiation, struggle, and reconciliation to the fact that individual agency can only achieve so much when Americanness is mostly misconceptualized and internalized as a racio-ethnic category in U.S. society. (Refer to the speaker's profile page for full abstract)

Siripetch Trisanawadee
Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University, Assistant Professor

Title:
The New Chinese Migrants in Thailand

Abstract:
Concerns about the political and economic situation in China are the driving reason behind the current surge of Chinese migration to Thailand, which is the subject of this inquiry. This increase in Chinese migration to Thailand has been observed in recent years. According to the conclusions of the study, 45.71 percent of Chinese business owners who were surveyed had already left China or were making plans to leave the country. This information was derived from the survey information. Concerns about the country's weak rule of law and the absence of clear business regulations were cited as the grounds for their withdrawal from the country. Furthermore, 42.86 percent of the respondents expressed high levels of anxiety, while 35.71 percent exhibited moderate levels of concern [1].
The hunger for better economic opportunities overseas and the demand for Chinese workers to staff overseas companies by the Chinese government are two of the most major factors that are driving this migration. There are a number of other factors that are also driving this movement. Additionally, domestic job opportunities have become less appealing as a consequence of the increasing competition and the declining starting income for Chinese graduates [1]. Also, the
competition has increased. (Refer to the speaker's profile page for full abstract)

Alexsia Chan
Hamilton College, Associate Professor of Government

Title:
Pliable Citizenship and Migrant Inequality in the Xi Jinping Era

Abstract:
Why has urban public service provision for migrant workers remained uneven and devolved to local governments in China? This is especially puzzling given that this has continued at the same time Xi Jinping has centralized authority in many other policy areas, both domestic and foreign. His administration has ushered in an anti-corruption campaign, Belt and Road Initiative projects, and a greater commitment to improving the quality of life of Chinese citizens. But while he has poured resources in the first two, the last remains left to local governments to formulate and implement policies for outsiders living and working in their cities.
I argue that public service provision for migrants remains patchy and devolved to local government control because inequality serves the state. There has been more continuity than change between administrations in this particular governance issue. Local authorities enact social control through the contingent delivery of social services, and these practices have continued apace under Xi because they work well enough to support other state goals, namely economic development and social stability. It allows the central government to claim commitments to increasing equality while municipal governments can maintain a labor force for whom they do not have to provide the full set of services. However, decentralized benefits are not designed to improve the overall welfare of a group of people defined by their movement and mobility. (Refer to the speaker's profile page for full abstract)

This panel examines diverse educational paradigms, from historical controversies in mission schools and early Chinese student journeys to innovative teaching practices in study-abroad programs and the impact of AI on academic information literacy.

Chit Shing So
Graduate School of Global Studies, Doshisha University, Ph.D Candidate

Title:
There Is No Necessity Constraining Us to Teach English to Those Native Youth: The ABCFM and the Controversy of English Education in the 1840s China's Mission School

Abstract:
Before the establishment of Tongwen Guan by the Qing government in 1862, which symbolized that China officially recognized the study of European languages as essential to the country, missionaries were one of the significant groups that taught the Chinese study of European languages. As early as 1839, since Samul R. Brown (1810-1880), an American missionary, took charge of the school of the Morrison Education Society, English had become an important part of missionaries to teach Chinese students. After that, the teaching of English was adopted by American missionaries and became one of the common lessons of the American Mission Schools in China. Nevertheless, not all the missionaries and home boards agreed that teaching English in the Mission schools was appropriate. In the former research, however, some theories, such as J. K. Fairbank's "Impact-response" and Paul A. Cohen's "Self-reflection," tried to focus on the Chinese side and discussed how the Chinese adopted and rejected Western knowledge. There was insufficient attention to the attitude of the Westerners, especially how and why some of the Westerners were against the Chinese studying Western knowledge, which also affected the Chinese, besides the factors of the Chinese side. This article is going to elucidate the controversy of English education in the 1840s China's Mission School, by using the manuscript from the archives of the ABCFM. It indicates how the study of foreign languages, especially English, in China was disturbed by the Westerner side, and reconsiders the outer influence towards the modernization (or Westernization) of China. (Refer to the speaker's profile page for full abstract)

Veronica Fu
University of Virginia, East Asian Collections Librarian

Title:
Reclaiming the Past: Uncovering the Educational Journey of Pu-Kao Chen, a Century-Earlier Chinese Student

Abstract:
Existing research on Boxer Indemnity Scholars often focuses on collective experiences or prominent individuals. This study departs from this trend by examining the educational journey of Pu-Kao Chen, a less prominent figure. Through in-depth archival analysis of personal writings, university records, and contemporary accounts, this research reconstructs Chen's academic path, highlighting his challenges and successes as a pioneering Chinese international student. By focusing on Chen's experiences, this study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the diverse trajectories of early Chinese students in the United States, shedding light on a frequently overlooked segment of this population.

Hua Dong
Northeastern University, Coordinator of Chinese Language Program
Lauren Collins
University of Colorado Boulder, Assistant Teaching Professor

Title:
Collaborative Course Design: Engaging Students in Place-Based Learning in Faculty-Led Study-Abroad Programs

Abstract:
This paper examines the impact of engaging students as active participants in their own learning through faculty-led study abroad programs in Taiwan, highlighting how this approach deepens student learning and fosters stronger connections with the local community. Using two case studies from summer 2023 and 2024—a three-week program focused on “Memory and the Politics of Heritage” and a five-week program on “Taiwan: Language, Culture, and Society”— the presenters demonstrate how experiential learning projects that require students to plan and lead activities in the host country cultivate critical thinking, cultural empathy, creativity, group care, and flexibility.
This session will present practical strategies for implementing collaborative course design and field-based learning, addressing the challenges and successes encountered in these programs. By sharing rubrics, instructions, and student evaluations, we aim to offer insights into the transformative potential of experiential learning in study abroad settings and to inspire the integration of similar projects into other curricula. (Refer to the speaker's profile page for full abstract)

Shuqi Ye
University of Minnesota, East Asian Collections Librarian

Title:
Artificial Intelligence and Information Literacy in the Era of Academic Database-Enhanced Generative AI: Emerging Challenges, Novel Approaches, and Future Directions

Abstract:
In library science, information literacy refers to the ability to effectively use and evaluate information for research, problem-solving, decision-making, and communication. Key strategies for information literacy include evaluating information sources, employing effective search techniques, verifying accuracy, and understanding ethical considerations in information use. Librarians often work with educators to provide workshops and instruction to help students become familiar with these strategies and to develop critical thinking and reading skills. These existing information literacy strategies are increasingly challenged by the rapid development of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). The evolving landscape makes it more difficult to evaluate and verify information sources, and prompt engineering is beginning to replace traditional search strategies. Additionally, there is an urgent need to develop strategies for the ethical use of GenAI-generated information. The introduction of generative AI tools supported by academic databases brings both challenges and opportunities to academia and academic research. This paper presents a pioneering analysis of these new tools, focusing on the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database, a leading platform for academic search in China and among overseas users in Chinese Studies. In March 2024, CNKI launched CNKI SMART, a generative AI tool that is designed to perform tasks including analyzing materials, generating reports, summaries, and literature reviews, drafting research outlines, and copyediting. The advent of CNKI SMART and other academic database-anchored GenAI tools are transforming researchers’ and students’ search strategies and information behaviors. (Refer to the speaker's profile page for full abstract)

This panel delves into narratives and environments shaping contemporary China, from the moral underpinnings of small business owners in Yiwu and the construction of matchmaking narratives to the role of age-friendly neighborhoods in protecting older adults.

Zhou Yi
Department of Sociology, Fudan University, Professor

Title:
Bitterness Narrative: The Moral Foundation of Small Business Owners in Yiwu, China

Abstract:
Many small business owners in China attribute their success to their “bitter experiences,” yet there has been limited research investigating the nature and the moral foundation of this “bitterness narrative.” Based on oral history interviews with 123 Yiwu merchants, this study finds several facts about their bitterness narratives. First, the triple traumas of hunger, responsibility, and identity experienced during the decade of the Cultural Revolution, when the village collective economy collapsed, turned the narrative of “exchanging feathers for sugar” into a bitter one. Second, the bitterness narrative went through four stages of change: the “bitterness” of disembedding from the village collective economy and venturing alone as a peddler, the “bitterness” of seeking relationships and re-embedding in kinship networks, the “bitterness” of cutting off kinship networks when the business was about to expand, and the “half bitterness” of the accelerated kinship severance laid with the joy of returning to the institutional security provided by the government. The four bitterness narratives were all centered on relationship embedding or disembedding, so the nature of the bitterness was the relational structure. Third, their bitterness narratives were impacted by the ethical-moral concepts in the surrounding environment. Small business owners proactively aligned themselves with the dominant moral values, which contributed to their economic success. What they emphasized was not only Chinese traditional values such as “the affinity between suffering and success” and “the loyalty to the authority” but also neo-liberal values that people should be free in a globalized market. Focusing on the moral-cultural factors of these small business owners’ structural and economic behavior underlying their bitterness narratives, this study echoes the Strong Cultural Program that calls for the cultural accounts of the structure and the structural accounts of the culture.

Shichao Du
Fudan University, Assistant Professor

Title:
The Process of Narrative Persuasion: The Making of Matchmaking in China

Abstract:
The matchmaking market in China is a public space where parents with unmarried adult children congregate and scout for potential sons- or daughters-in-law. Although the practice of matchmaking is drawing more and more international and intellectual attention, less is known about how this public practice of mate selection is legitimized and gets its prevalence. This study frames the matchmaking practice as a process of narrative persuasion where parents strategically replace their children’s individualized narrative of marriage with their public narrative. Drawing on interview data, this study qualitatively examines this narrative persuasion process. Results show that parents and professional matchmakers problematize the individualized narrative and then leverage the cultural tool of filial piety, with economic incentives attached, to reconnect their children’s mate selection behavior to the public narrative. As a result, young adults are successfully persuaded to participate in matchmaking activities. The findings imply that matchmaking in China is not only a marital practice but also an intergeneration process full of cultural strategies.

Chunyu Wang
Chongqing University, Associate Professor

Title:
Can living in an age-friendly neighborhood environment protect older adults from falls in China?

Abstract:
Falls pose a significant threat to the health and well-being of older adults, particularly in China, where fall-related injuries are alarmingly prevalent. Based on a Longitudinal survey in China, the study examines the relationship between the quality of age-friendliness of neighborhood environment and the occurrence of falls among older adults. The study employed a complementary log-log regression model to explore this association. The results revealed a non-linear relationship between the age-friendliness of neighborhoods and fall risks. Improving age-friendliness reduces falls when low, but risks increase slightly once a certain threshold is reached. This highlights the need for a balanced approach to creating age-friendly environments. The study also reveals that the protective effect is stronger in urban areas and for older adults living alone, emphasizing the importance of targeted interventions for these vulnerable groups. The study underscores the need for a comprehensive approach to fall prevention, incorporating both environmental modifications and targeted interventions for vulnerable populations. Fostering age-friendly neighborhoods can create safer and more supportive environments for older adults, ultimately improving their quality of life and reducing the burden of fall-related injuries.