Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Melbourne
Date: Thursday 10 September 2020
Time: 12.00-1.00 pm AEST
Registration is essential Webinar Registration Link
Chinese President Xi Jinping recently made a remark calling for the public to stop food waste and promoting thrift. This has stimulated considerable speculation on the driving factors behind the initiative, the so-called “Clean Your Plate” Campaign 2.0.
Is this a response to real food security concerns in the context of the covid-19 pandemic and trade tensions with the United States? Have China’s recent devastating floods added to these concerns? Whereas China’s “Clean Your Plate” campaign started in 2013, this recent call for reducing food waste has brought the campaign to a new stage. What are the differences in approach, objectives and anticipated impacts for the market and people in China? On a different front, the mainstream media inside China responded to the call by condemning and banning livestreaming shows involving binge eating, criticising them for misleading consumers and promoting food waste. Are Chinese eating influencers really to blame for promoting over-consumption? Can we anticipate any resistance from the public to this campaign?
This roundtable discussion explores these differing perspectives. Our invited experts debate the questions, drawing on their insights in areas of Chinese food security, social media, and political campaigns. The session will also be opened to the audience for comments and questions. Chaired by Professor Mark Wang, Director of the Centre for Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Melbourne.
About the panel
Dr Scott Waldron, University of Queensland
Scott grew up on a mixed farming property in western Queensland, has an undergraduate degree in Asian studies and a PhD in agricultural economics.
At UQ he has conducted 25 agricultural development projects in China, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. His role in the projects is to improve rural incomes, value chain functioning and policy settings. A related research theme is agricultural trade in the region. The research is highly collaborative and cross-disciplinary and aims to build relationships and capacity with partner agencies and students.
Scott worked for the Economist Intelligence Unit in Beijing, graduated from the Nanjing-Hopkins Centre for Advanced Chinese and American Studies and is fluent in Chinese. In China he has: collaborated with 20 research and government organisations; conducted fieldwork at country level and below for at least 30 months especially in Western China; and provided technical assistance in trade negotiations on beef and wool. He has written eight books on China, two have been translated into Chinese and he has published in The China Journal and China Quarterly.
Dr Delia Lin, University of Melbourne
Delia Lin is Senior lecturer in Chinese Studies in the Asia Institute, University of Melbourne. Her research focuses on political discourse, ideology and patterns of governance under the Chinese Communist Party, with a special interest in the role imperial Confucian-Legalist statecraft plays in Chinese governance today. Her monograph Civilising Citizens in Post-Mao China: Understanding the Rhetoric of Suzhi (Routledge 2017) examines how the discourse of human quality and shame are entrenched into Chinese politics today.
Associate Professor Haiqing Yu, RMIT University
A/Professor Haiqing Yu is an ARC Future Fellow and Vice-Chancellor’s Principal Research Fellow with the Technology, Communication, and Policy Lab at the Digital Ethnography Research Centre, RMIT University. She is also an Associate Investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. Haiqing is a critical media studies scholar with expertise on Chinese digital media, communication and culture and their sociopolitical and cultural impact in China, Australia and the Asia Pacific. She has published in the areas of digital media and internet studies, social studies of technology and digital economy, journalism, gender, sexuality, disability, youth culture, health communication, diaspora studies, and Chinese studies. She is currently working on projects related to China’s digital expansion and influence in Australasia, Chinese-language digital/social media in Australia, the social implications of China’s social credit system, and social studies of digital technologies and entrepreneurship in the Chinese context.