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Zhang Weiwei (professor)

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Zhang Weiwei
张维为
Zhang Weiwei in 2021
Born (1958-12-25) December 25, 1958 (age 65)
Alma mater
Notable workThe China Wave: Rise of a Civilizational State
SchoolChinese exceptionalism
InstitutionsChina Institute, Fudan University
ThesisIdeological Trends and Economic Reform in China, (1978-1993) (1994)
Doctoral advisorGilbert Etienne
Main interests
Developing nations
Governance
International political economy
Nation-building and democratization
Strategic and security issues
Notable ideas
Arab Winter
The End of the End of History[1]

Zhang Weiwei (simplified Chinese: 张维为; traditional Chinese: 張維為; pinyin: Zhāng Wéiwèi) is a Chinese professor of international relations at Fudan University and the director of its China Institute.[2][3][4] Zhang is also an Internet celebrity,[5] spreading his political ideas through online video platforms such as Xigua Video, Bilibili, TikTok and YouTube.[6]

Zhang is a strong defender of China's political and economic system. Therefore, he is favored by Chinese leader Xi Jinping.[7] Some of his political views, such as the "Superiority of the China Model" and the OBOR is "an unprecedented change in five thousand years", have been criticized by scholars such as Xiang Lanxin for not being in line with historical facts.[8]

Early life

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Zhang is the youngest of six siblings in his family. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), his older siblings all went to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps while he stayed in Shanghai because of a policy. In 1975, at the age of 17, he was recruited into the No.2 Shanghai Carving Factory (上海雕刻二厂) as a worker and jade carving apprentice.[9]

Education

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Soon after, the college entrance examinations resumed with the end of the Cultural Revolution, and in 1977 Zhang was admitted to the foreign languages department of Fudan University, where he persuaded the dean to sit in on courses in international politics. From 1981 to 1983, Zhang was a postgraduate student at Beijing Foreign Studies University, studying translation.

In 1988, Zhang went to the University of Geneva's Graduate Institute of International Studies for a master's degree in international relations (1990) and then pursued a PhD, which he received in 1994.

Career

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Interpreter

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From 1983 to 1988, Zhang was one of many English interpreters of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, worked for some Chinese leaders, including Deng Xiaoping[10][11] and Li Peng, in the mid-1980s.[12]

Academia

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Zhang has written extensively in English and Chinese on People's Republic of China's economic and political reform, China's development model and comparative politics. He expanded on the concept of a civilization state with his book The China Wave: Rise of a Civilizational State (2012).[13]

Zhang is a Senior research fellow at the Chunqiu Institute, a think tank in Shanghai.

Zhang is the head of Fudan University's China Institute.[14]: 201 

TV

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Since 2019, Zhang has been the host of "This is China" (这就是中国), a lecture on the virtues of the Chinese government, launched by Dragon Television, a state-run TV channel.[15]

Reception

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Zhang's Bilibili channel has more than 540,000 subscribers as of 2024.

The New York Times characterized Zhang as a propagandist-academic.[16]

Political views

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External videos
video icon Is Democracy Wrong for China? (Al Jazeera, 2015)
video icon Is China an Alternative to Western democracy? (The Nexus Institute, 2018)
video icon - Dialogue between Kishore Mahbubani and Zhang WeiWei (Guan Video, 2018)
video icon - Dialogue with Zhang WeiWei (The Munk Debates, 2020)
video icon - Self-Confidence Matters: A Chinese Perspective on The Rise of China(Zhang Weiwei, 2021)

Zhang emphasizes what he sees as the unique features of China's political practices and culture.[14]: 200  He encourages Chinese to develop "self-confidence" in these areas and to "no longer be subservient to the Western discourse."[17] According to Zhang, Chinese should be more vocal in praising their country's system and its benefits tell China's story with pride in order to increase its discourse power.[14]: 200 

Zhang preaches eradicating the influence of China's "Spiritual Americans," by which he refers to Chinese, particularly intellectual elites, who he deems as having been "infiltrated" in the 1980s by Western discourse, standards, and the Western sense of culture.[17] According to Zhang:[17]

One of the most common forms of Western discourse and cultural infiltration of China is to instill certain ‘aesthetic standards’ (审美标准) into Chinese intellectual elites through various forms of exchange or awards, and then to use these Westernized intellectual elites to monopolize Chinese aesthetic standards, and even Chinese standards in the humanities, arts, and social sciences – in this way achieving a kind of ‘cultural training’ and ‘ideological hegemony’ (意识形态霸权) over China.

Zhang describes the Western system as having its own merits and defects, "but its systemic defects now start to eat away its strengths".[14]: 209  Zhang criticizes Western liberal democracy.[14]: 211  He promotes the idea of Chinese socialist democracy, which he describes as a combination of "selective democracy" and electoral democracy.[14]: 211  Zhang's view is that Chinese socialist democracy outperforms "Western procedural democracy" because the Western approach is insufficient to choose trustworthy leaders and the Chinese approach is more meritocratic.[14]: 211  Zhang also points to China's long-term stability and economic growth as further evidence of what he believes is the superiority of its system.[14]: 211 

Zhang believes that "good governance" should be the main standard for evaluating political systems rather than their normative underpinnings.[14]: 211 

According to Zhang, the concept of political party in the Western context does not apply to the CCP. The CCP is a ruling group that follows Chinese political traditions and represents the interests of a nation as a whole.[18][19]

On May 17, 2016, Zhang attended the National Symposium on the Work of Philosophy and Social Sciences chaired by CCP general secretary Xi Jinping.[20] On May 31, 2021, Zhang gave a lecture to the Politburo of the CCP on strengthening China's international propaganda.[21][22][23]

Works

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Books

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  • Zhang Weiwei (1996). Ideology and Economic Reform under Deng Xiaoping. London: Kegan Paul. ISBN 9780710305268.
  • Zhang Weiwei (1999). 英汉同声传译 [English-Chinese Simultaneous Interpretation]. Beijing: China Translation & Publishing Corporation. ISBN 9787500105824.
  • Zhang Weiwei (2000). Transforming China: Economic Reform and its Political Implications. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781349408474.
  • Zhang Weiwei (2006). Reshaping Cross-Strait Relations: Ideas and Reflections. Geneva: CAS.
  • Zhang Weiwei (2008). 中国触动全球 [China Touches the World]. Beijing: Xinhua Press. ISBN 9787501185306.
  • Zhang Weiwei (2012). The China Wave: Rise of a Civilizational State. World Century Publishing Corporation. ISBN 978-1938134012.
  • Zhang Weiwei (2012). New Challenges and Perspectives of China: Where is China Going?. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. ISBN 978-7119073613.
  • Zhang Weiwei (2015). The China Horizon: Glory and Dream of a Civilizational State. World Century Publishing Corporation. ISBN 978-1938134739.
  • Zhang Weiwei, ed. (2015). 国际视野下的中国道路和中国梦 [The Chinese Way and the Chinese Dream in an International Perspective]. Beijing: Xuexi Chubanshe. ISBN 9787514705348.
  • Zhang Weiwei (2017). 中国人,你要自信 [Chinese, Be Confident]. Beijing: CITIC. ISBN 9787508678894.
  • Zhang Weiwei, ed. (2020). 中国特色社会主义 [Socialism with Chinese Characteristics]. Shanghai: Shanghai People's Publishing House. ISBN 9787208159778.
  • Zhang Weiwei (2020). 中国战疫! [China Fight the Pandemic!]. Shanghai: Shanghai People's Publishing House. ISBN 9787208164857.
  • Zhang Weiwei (2021). 新百年 新中国 [China in the New Era]. Beijing: Dongfang Chubanshe. ISBN 9787520719032.

Articles

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Essays

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References

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  1. ^ Zhang, Weiwei (2012). The China Wave: Rise of a Civilizational State. World Century Publishing Corporation. pp. 139–175. ISBN 9781938134012.
  2. ^ Addington, Raleigh (November 30, 2012). "Zhang Wei-Wei delivers a robust defence of the Chinese political system". Expert Keynote and Motivational Speakers | Chartwell Speakers. Retrieved December 19, 2023.
  3. ^ Sarah Tilton. "Zhang Weiwei Talks About His New Think Tank, U.S.-China Relations And Why He Loves Bhutan". Forbes.
  4. ^ "Analysis: Xi's 'lovable' China is wolf in sheep's clothing". Nikkei Asia. Retrieved June 12, 2021.
  5. ^ "从学者到内容创作者,陈平、张维为用深入浅出的解读获百万网友点赞". 北晚新视觉. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
  6. ^ Bjerke, Magnus Lomax (2021). China's New Discourse: The Confidence of Unlimited Responsibility. A case study of Professor Zhang Weiwei's ideas and his call for a new discourse of Chinese confidence in the book and TV show China Now (PDF). University of Oslo.
  7. ^ Jane Cai (June 26, 2021). "China's leaders turn to outspoken 'true believer' to help improve country's image internationally". SCMP.
  8. ^ Xiang Lanxin (June 28, 2017). "欧洲对"一带一路"倡议态度为何发生变化". Lianhe Zaobao (in Simplified Chinese).
  9. ^ 刘雅婷. "邓小平翻译:我们为什么不够自信?". 海外网. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  10. ^ "贴身翻译谈邓小平:从未见过这么精彩的人". 中新网. Retrieved June 16, 2021.
  11. ^ Zhang, Weiwei (August 25, 2014). "My Personal Memories as Deng Xiaoping's Interpreter: From Oriana Fallaci to Kim Il-sung to Gorbachev". HuffPost. Retrieved June 18, 2021.
  12. ^ 刘雅婷 (2015). "邓小平翻译:我们为什么不够自信?". 海外网. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  13. ^ "The China Wave: Rise of a Civilizational State". South China Morning Post. June 3, 2012. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bachulska, Alicja; Leonard, Mark; Oertel, Janka (July 2, 2024). The Idea of China: Chinese Thinkers on Power, Progress, and People (EPUB). Berlin, Germany: European Council on Foreign Relations. ISBN 978-1-916682-42-9. Archived from the original on July 17, 2024. Retrieved July 22, 2024.
  15. ^ Kladensky, Konstantin (September 22, 2020). "China as a Moral Superpower in "This is China"". das Reispapier. Retrieved June 16, 2021.
  16. ^ Myers, Steven Lee; Buckley, Chris (March 14, 2022). "China Sees at Least One Winner Emerging From Ukraine War: China". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
  17. ^ a b c Bandurski, David (June 29, 2022). "Eradicating China's "Spiritual Americans"". China Media Project. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
  18. ^ Zhang, Weiwei. "The key to China's success is the advantages of its political system [政治制度优势是中国成功的关键]". 人民网 (in Chinese). Retrieved June 15, 2021.
  19. ^ "Zhang Weiwei: The Party's Leadership Added into the First Article of the Constitution Shows China's Confidence in its Political System". China Today. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  20. ^ "哲学社会科学工作者谈习近平总书记在哲学社会科学工作座谈会上的重要讲话-新华网". www.xinhuanet.com. Retrieved June 22, 2021.
  21. ^ Shirley Ze Yu (June 12, 2021). "How China is seeking promote its world view and roll back Westernisation". South China Morning Post. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  22. ^ Chen, Kimball (June 9, 2021). "The Politburo's recent study session: who is Zhang Weiwei?". U.S.-China Perception Monitor. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
  23. ^ "张维为给政治局上课 可忧可忧?". RFI - 法国国际广播电台 (in Simplified Chinese). June 4, 2021. Retrieved June 15, 2021.
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