Contemporary Chinese education on screen: representations of Chinese educational experience in screen media from the 1980s to the 2000s

During China’s reform era from the 1980s to the 2000s, popular films addressed institutional transformations and the effects of change on Chinese people’s ordinary lives. This included transformations in the sphere of education, including the impact of key policies such as the restoration of the uni...

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Main Author: Wang, Ying
Format: Thesis (University of Nottingham only)
Language:English
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/78035/
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author Wang, Ying
author_facet Wang, Ying
author_sort Wang, Ying
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description During China’s reform era from the 1980s to the 2000s, popular films addressed institutional transformations and the effects of change on Chinese people’s ordinary lives. This included transformations in the sphere of education, including the impact of key policies such as the restoration of the university entrance exam, the Opening-Up policy, urban and rural educational policies, and study abroad policies. Throughout a key period of social, political and economic transition in China, this thesis investigates screen media works from the 1980s to the 2000s as a site for dramatizing the experience of educational policy change. Using a case study approach, this thesis examines how screen representations negotiate cultural values around education in different periods of China’s economic transformation. Examining socio-economic dynamics and policy contexts within key reform era decades, it argues that screen media becomes a site where divergent educational experiences are represented, and ideological negotiations of value and self are worked through. By analysing strategic pairings of Chinese popular film and television series from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s – illuminating different educational situations, school stages and policy settings – the thesis considers how Chinese cultural values of ambiguity, sacrifice, and the identity of self within interpersonal relationships, are used to represent different attitudes towards changes in Chinese education, which speak in turn to differing attitudes towards changes in China more broadly. In critical terms, the thesis demonstrates how institutional transformations, enacted through educational policy, are dramatized as individual stories and personalized experiences. In this way, the dissertation offers insights into the cultural and ideological work of popular screen media bridging official policy with everyday Chinese life.
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spelling nottingham-780352025-02-28T15:20:47Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/78035/ Contemporary Chinese education on screen: representations of Chinese educational experience in screen media from the 1980s to the 2000s Wang, Ying During China’s reform era from the 1980s to the 2000s, popular films addressed institutional transformations and the effects of change on Chinese people’s ordinary lives. This included transformations in the sphere of education, including the impact of key policies such as the restoration of the university entrance exam, the Opening-Up policy, urban and rural educational policies, and study abroad policies. Throughout a key period of social, political and economic transition in China, this thesis investigates screen media works from the 1980s to the 2000s as a site for dramatizing the experience of educational policy change. Using a case study approach, this thesis examines how screen representations negotiate cultural values around education in different periods of China’s economic transformation. Examining socio-economic dynamics and policy contexts within key reform era decades, it argues that screen media becomes a site where divergent educational experiences are represented, and ideological negotiations of value and self are worked through. By analysing strategic pairings of Chinese popular film and television series from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s – illuminating different educational situations, school stages and policy settings – the thesis considers how Chinese cultural values of ambiguity, sacrifice, and the identity of self within interpersonal relationships, are used to represent different attitudes towards changes in Chinese education, which speak in turn to differing attitudes towards changes in China more broadly. In critical terms, the thesis demonstrates how institutional transformations, enacted through educational policy, are dramatized as individual stories and personalized experiences. In this way, the dissertation offers insights into the cultural and ideological work of popular screen media bridging official policy with everyday Chinese life. 2024-07-20 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/78035/1/Ying%20Wang%20%E2%80%93%2014316182%20%E2%80%93%20PhD%20thesis_to%20submit.pdf Wang, Ying (2024) Contemporary Chinese education on screen: representations of Chinese educational experience in screen media from the 1980s to the 2000s. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. education China cinematic representation
spellingShingle education
China
cinematic representation
Wang, Ying
Contemporary Chinese education on screen: representations of Chinese educational experience in screen media from the 1980s to the 2000s
title Contemporary Chinese education on screen: representations of Chinese educational experience in screen media from the 1980s to the 2000s
title_full Contemporary Chinese education on screen: representations of Chinese educational experience in screen media from the 1980s to the 2000s
title_fullStr Contemporary Chinese education on screen: representations of Chinese educational experience in screen media from the 1980s to the 2000s
title_full_unstemmed Contemporary Chinese education on screen: representations of Chinese educational experience in screen media from the 1980s to the 2000s
title_short Contemporary Chinese education on screen: representations of Chinese educational experience in screen media from the 1980s to the 2000s
title_sort contemporary chinese education on screen: representations of chinese educational experience in screen media from the 1980s to the 2000s
topic education
China
cinematic representation
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/78035/