Upcoming Events
Animation Thinks: A Story of Media Entanglements in China
Online via Zoom
How does animation think? What happens when animation falls in love with other art forms? These are the two guiding questions of the newly published academic monograph Animation Thinks: A Story of Media Entanglements in China (University of California Press, 2026). In this talk, Dr. Panpan Yang traces the perplexing permutations and ramifications of a distinct pattern of imagination in Chinese animation—the remediation of photography, painting, calligraphy, and porcelain. She proposes a form of trans-spatial thinking to examine contemporary Chinese animation: tracing, documenting, and explaining how the meaning of a work shifts as it moves in and out of the film industry, the sphere of contemporary art, and other spaces. The talk also shows how the terrain of contemporary art and media theories has been transformed by one of its newest inhabitants, Chinese animation, stretching our thinking about the spatial locatedness of theories and theorization. This lecture includes material from the published book, material cut during the publication process, rarely seen film clips, untold stories behind the writing of the monograph, and reflections on the prospects and future directions of the rapidly emerging field of Chinese animation studies. READ MORE...
Past Events
Episodic Disembedding: Parachute Lawyers and Local Justice in China
Room 3401 (Lift 2 or Lifts 17-18), 3/F Academic Building
Modernity promises portable expertise: standardized credentials and formal training should allow professionals to work effectively across contexts. We test this promise through Chinese criminal defense lawyers who practice outside their home jurisdictions, whom we call “parachute lawyers.” Analyzing 553,814 criminal cases from 2014 to 2020, we find that parachute lawyers reduce clients’ probability of probation and increase prison sentences compared with local counsel. Elite education offers only modest mitigation, and alumni networks little compensation. Despite China’s unified legal codes, procedures, and bar examination, effective legal practice remains irreducibly local, shaped by jurisdiction-specific “legal microclimates.” READ MORE...
From Easy to Hard Redistribution: Adaptation of China’s Welfare State in the 21st Century
Room 5620 (Lifts 31-32), Academic Building, HKUST
Existing research explains why non-electoral regimes expand welfare provision, yet pays less attention to how the welfare systems adapt when expansion becomes difficult due to structural constraints. This paper argues that China’s welfare state has transitioned from “easy” to “hard” redistribution—a reconfiguration of welfare provision characterized by a decline in group-targeted expansion, a rise of selective cross-group integration, and a persistent dominance of vertical fiscal allocation across regions. Drawing on a corpus of 33,205 policy documents, we employ quantitative text analysis to trace patterns in Chinese welfare policy from 2000 to 2024. We find that since 2014, the government has increasingly emphasized integrating welfare programs across selected groups to facilitate risk pooling and cost sharing, while continuing to prioritize vertical allocation of responsibilities and resources between upper- and lower-level governments over horizontal coordination. These findings demonstrate the adaptation of China’s welfare state on both social and territorial dimensions under tightening fiscal and demographic constraints. READ MORE...