LSE Global China Working Group seminars on “Visualising China’s Story in Museum Exhibitions: Insights from the Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan.”

Date & time: 

Wednesday 28 February 2024 17.00pm-18.30pm GMT

Venue: 

This seminar will be hosted in hybrid format:

Zoom (https://lse.zoom.us/j/82109719675)

In-person at LSE Connaught House 7.05, LSE

Speaker: 

Giulia Sciorati (LSE Fellow, Department of International Relations)

Abstract: 

Since the launch of the “Tell the China Story Well” (Jianghao Zhongguo gushi 讲好中国故事) campaign, the study of China’s self-representations to foreign audiences has been placed under the spotlight. Scholars drew connections between the campaign and the country’s discursive power (Huayu quan 话语权), central to China’s outward communication against China threat theory.

However, investigations of China’s discursive power through visual self-representation have remained at the margins of the research. This limitation is particularly prominent today when compared with what scholars have identified as the “visual turn” of the Communist Party of China (CPC) – i.e. the CPC’s reliance on visual political communication.

The study aims to start filling this gap by investigating exhibitions held by museums outside China in collaboration with Chinese institutions. I argue that museum exhibitions are a potentially effective tool for promoting specific self-representations because they a) target foreigners with a pre-existing interest in the country and/or its cultural products, and b) are seemingly distant from political élites and political messages to the target audiences.

Drawing from the insights of the social-constructivist school of International Relations theory and, thus, considering the “world as our making”, the study seeks answers to the questions: which representations of China are presented in museum exhibitions overseas? Which ideas and values are associated with China? Which history and whose historical interpretations are displayed? Answering these questions will offer a more comprehensive understanding of how China exercises discursive power abroad.

To answer these questions, I will present the preliminary findings of a study on the Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan (CSM) in Almaty, which has hosted five exhibitions in collaboration with Chinese institutions since 2009. In light of the centrality of the neighbourhood in China’s foreign policy and the country’s awareness of its negative reputation among Kazakh civil society, the CSM is a crucial case for how China uses visualities to present an alternative self-representation to foreign audiences.

By examining catalogues and other archival materials and interviewing CSM staff involved in the exhibitions, the research findings will offer empirical evidence on how visualities are used to construct specific visual discourses on China and present them to target audiences, thus strengthening the country’s discursive power by other means.

Bio: 

Giulia Sciorati is an LSE Fellow specialising in China/Global South within the Department of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to joining LSE, she worked on the project “The Belt and Road Initiative and the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on China’s Global Projection” (BRIICoPIC) as a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Humanities at the University of Trento, Italy. She has also taught modules on Chinese contemporary history, International Relations, and International Security at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, the University of Pavia, and the School of International Studies at the University of Trento. In a different capacity, Giulia serves as an Associate Research Fellow in the China Programme of the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI). Her research primarily focuses on the political use of heritage and shared historical memory in foreign policy, specifically emphasising China and Central Asian countries.

This seminar is organized by LSE Global China working group. It is for PhD researchers and early career scholars at LSE and beyond working on China and global south related studies. It is a forum for discussions and questions on China in development contexts. Researchers from all theoretical backgrounds and methodological traditions are welcome. The WT 2024 seminars are supported by LSE-Fudan Global Public Policy Hub.