Balbi, G. et al. Eds. (2019). China and the Global Media Landscape: Remapping and Remapped. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

In the past decades, there has been a considerable academic debate in global communication and cognate disciplines on China’s role in power shifts in both economic and political terms. This multi-faced book edited by Gabriele Balbi, Fei Jiang, and Giuseppe Richeri presents a series of chapters on China and the Global Media Landscape: Remapping and Remapped. These chapters are written by great minds in the field of communication who are connoisseurs of the Chinese media. While the editors and contributors do refer to America, Europe, and Africa’s media landscape and communication practice, the focus of this book is mainly on Chinese and its “going-out” strategies. These scholars have broadly argued on how Chinese media has transformed the global communication landscape. It is equally significant to highlight this issue, the editors elucidated, because most Western scholars have focused solely on the censorship and conservativeness of China and they have overlooked how China’s media has transformed the international media scene.

The book’s fundamental premise is twofold. To begin with, the editors explained, the book aimed to analyse the ways in which the Chinese media’s “going-out” strategies are remapping the global media landscape and, correspondingly, the book illustrated how Chinese media is remapped by American, European, and Asian media and politics (p. 1).

Equally, the editors clearly distinguished the two main concepts, the core aspects of this book, namely, remapping and remapped. Initially, they elaborated that remapping, in the context of this book, is the ability of Chinese main actors to impose themselves on the international scene so as to become a point of reference on both economic, political, social, and cultural fronts. On the other hand, remapped referred to how the Chinese media industry continues to be inspired and shaped by transnational media companies.

China and the Global Media Landscape: Remapping and Remapped, as a book, is both readable and intellectually engaging. The editors invite readers to have an open mind about the critical analysis of Chinese media and how it is remapping the global media landscape. This is an important notice because most communication scholars who are interested in transnational media seem to have sorted themselves into two blocks, i.e., Global North scholars who have a Eurocentric viewpoint when it comes to the global media panorama and Global South scholars who are mostly critics of the dominant viewpoint of Western media.

The editors divided the book into two sections to examine China’s “going-out” strategies, which underpins the global media and communication landscape. The first one, is the debate about how Chinese media has gone global. This section has five chapters, and equally important, the second segment, titled Framing the Image of China, has three chapters.

The first chapter, written by Giuseppe Richeri, titled Global film market, regional problems, reflected on how, for decades, the American film industry has dominated the entertainment scene in Europe and China too, was not spared. His argument was supported by empirical statistics from different sources.

The author explains that the majority of films imported into China and the rest of the world are from Hollywood, produced or co-produced by American companies such as Walt Disney Motion Pictures and Paramount Pictures Corporation. In this regard, he pointed out reasons why these productions have been so dominant on the global stage. The main reason is the financial aspect of it. They invested heavily in the production of different blockbusters, and again, they adopted a production model that was geared towards strengthening their market position at home and abroad.

However, the Chinese government’s increased interest in the film, television, and animation-cartoon industries, as well as the establishment of new training and production facilities. This drove the entire audio-visual sector forward to meet the domestic market’s demand while also achieving a permanent presence in the international market (p. 20). In the author’s view, this action propelled the desire to sell products from its cultural industry to a more demanding international public, thus improving the image of Chinese industry and remapping it on the global stage.

On the other hand, Li (2010) identified Confucian culture as a foundation and significant influence on the Chinese people in terms of how they think, their behaviour patterns, and their national identity. The uniqueness of Chinese culture without hybridization will help in remapping effort in the international arena.

The discussion of Chinese films raised in this chapter is very relevant and supported by scientific evidence. Conversely, the conceptualization of a Chinese film was not well articulated. Questions need to be asked: what constitutes a Chinese film? Is it the content, the production company, the producers, the actors or directors? The writers highlighted the Chinese blockbusters produced or co-produced by American companies. Some of these movies depicted the culture and China as a country.

Readers will be left wondering if the Chinese blockbusters produced in Hollywood are a true depiction of Chinese culture and country in general if there is no clear definition of what constitutes a Chinese film. In this light, it might be challenging to understand efforts to remapping and remapped China in the global media scene.

The second chapter in this book, China’s Media Engagement in Africa: Influence and Changes, has been co-authored by Xinfeng Li, Yujie Li and Mengying Zhang, and the third chapter, Tazara, Collective Memory and the Future of Sino-African Communication, written by Deqiang Ji, Xuezhi Du and Maxwell Chipaso, are the two chapters that focus on how the rise of Chinese media has been felt on the African continent.

Chapter Two describes the decades-long Sino-Africa relations that have yielded some partnerships in the media and communication industries. Again, it highlighted the overall structure of Chinese media in Africa. The writers argued that, as part of its “going-out” strategies, some Chinese private media companies have begun to expand into telecommunications, television, and digital technology in Africa, most noticeably, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. and StarTimes Groups. In this regard, Chinese media engagement in Africa has gradually imposed its influence on local audiences and changed the traditional media landscape in Africa (p. 35).

The co-authors continued to argue that the presence of the Chinese media in Africa has broadened the scope of its reporting to cover different aspects of life. As a result, a friendship bridge connecting China and Africa was being built. They pointed out the factors that opened the door for Chinese media in Africa include deep friendship between China and Africa, the demand for China-Africa economic cooperation that creates a higher demand for Sino-Africa media relations, an imperative need to show the real Africa, and a way to end misunderstandings over China in Africa.

In this chapter, the authors introduced readers to a fairly new concept of constructive news, which is at the heart of the Chinese media system. They mentioned Yanqiu Zhang, the director of the African Communication Research Centre at the Communication University of China, who characterized China’s media coverage of Africa as constructive news and highlighted how Chinese media aims to bring balance and renewed hope to the continent (p. 59).

This point is very relevant and clearly articulated because solution-based journalism should be prioritized in Africa. It shows that beyond any problem, an effective solution always exists. However, the authors did not discuss how this system would work for Africa. As highlighted in this chapter, the current media landscape on the continent is predominantly western-oriented. Western organisations, such as Internews, USAID, FHI 360 and DW, have introduced programmes in different African countries in order to train local journalists. This training has been effective because loyalty and trust have been built around western media. When trained journalists (trained in their local environment) report on local news in western media, their stories typically take a Eurocentric slant. As a result, the western agenda is propelled forward.Such training is required to reorient African journalists about the benefits of constructive journalism. This could equip the audience with necessary information and empower them to react constructively.

In Chapter Three, Deqiang Ji, Xuezhi Du and Maxwell Chipaso focused on the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) as a success story when it comes to the Sino-African relationship. They described how the history of such a milestone demonstrated that there is a possibility to ground international cooperation in internationalism without dispossession or unequal treatment. They continue arguing that such infrastructure is not only a project that facilitated cross-border transportation but also a memory shared between China, Tanzania, and Zambia, which has the great potential to represent a good story of Sino-African communication (p. 63).

In order to discuss the extent to which collective memories of TAZARA have shaped international communication between China and Africa, the authors provide an analysis of three groups of people, which led to the discussion about the connection between international communication research and cultural studies.

The first group interviewed were respondents who were 60 years and above. They shared memories about the railway line and the Chinese work ethic. Also interviewed were respondents aged between 30 and 60 years old. They acknowledge that the relationship between China and Zambia should continue to be fostered. The last group is the millennials and generation Z, whose memories of the railway line were influenced by their schools and forefathers. These three groups of respondents, who are the representatives of the larger population, are undoubtedly becoming significant actors in China-Africa relations now and in the foreseeable future.

Generally, this chapter introduced the readers to “collective memory” in international communication research. It was well conceptualized and clearly cited. The explanation below enables readers to realize its importance in Sino-Africa relations. “… the study of collective memory offers two perspectives: the first is functionalism, which emphasizes the importance of the storage and diffusion of collective memory for a community or society, while the second is constructionism, which reveals that collective memory is shaped by both external forces and active construction by the collective subjectivity” (p. 64).

In the fourth chapter of From the Internet in China to the Chinese Internet, Gianluigi Negro explored how China has become a major player under global internet governance. He presented his arguments in three sections. The first section is dedicated to the establishment of Chinese Internet infrastructure and the main political reasons for supporting the choices concerning it. The second one focuses on the creation of the domestic internet system. The last one analyses the most crucial steps that have enabled the Chinese government to become one of the leading countries in the new era of “cyber sovereignty” (p. 74).

Throughout his discussion, the author focused on one of the most crucial aspects of Chinese culture-privacy. He pointed out some scholars explained that the Chinese concept of privacy is a group concept rather than an individual one. That actively demonstrated the need for the Chinese government to protect its people. Because of this, the Golden Shield project, also known as the Great Firewall of China, was launched.

Fei Jiang wrote International Communication at a Crossroads: A Mirror Case Study, the last chapter of this Chinese Media Goes Global section. The author introduced the readers to the Chinese field of international communication and globalist globalisation. For decades, the author acknowledged that American scholars have influenced international communication as an academic field. However, international communication scholarship in China is producing new trends and ideas and continuing as a Chinese school.

Fei Jiang explained that China’s international communication has gone through different phases. The first phase is when China was committed to the policy of exporting worldwide, mainly relying on traditional media, like books and magazines. The second surge started when Chinese media went global in 2004, after the national strategy of Chinese culture “going global” was advocated. China’s international communication project has now entered its third phase, which features the application of integrated media and the constitution of six Chinese official media groups (CGTN, China Daily, China News Agency, CRI, People’s Daily, China News Service) (p. 97).

In conclusion, the author gave a clear explanation on why international communication is a significant way of articulating China’s own identity originating from Confucianism and how scholars should communicate the country’s mode of development in order to gain respect in the global media landscape.

The second section of this book is entitled Framing the Image of China. It contains chapters six, seven, and eight. Chapter Six About China and Free Trade in the Trump Presidential Campaign was written by Thomas Hollihan, who recounted how China was the focal point when it comes to international relations during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, mostly during the Donald Trump campaign.

Thomas Hollihan introduced readers to a critical rhetorical analysis of Donald Trump’s arguments about China during the 2016 presidential campaign, as reported in the media. And he also focused on public comments that Trump made from January 1 until Election Day, November 8, 2016 (p. 125). Hollihan’s work, demonstrated his awareness of other authors’ contributions via citations to articles (p. 127, p. 130, p. 136). His cross-referencing has allowed connections between key concepts and debates about how Donald Trump’s presidential campaign shaped US-China relations.

Chapter Seven is entitled Soft Power in the Newsroom: Media Mindsets as Limiters of China’s Media Strategies in Europe. It was written by Zhan Zhang, Daniel Perrin, and Changpeng Huan. This chapter delves further into China’s media efforts in remapping the country. Understandably the authors argued that despite Chinese media are expanding globally, it has been met with great skepticism among the European public.

Additionally, the authors aimed at comparing the Chinese and European interpretations of soft power, and they came up with the “concept of the media mindset as the fourth resource on which a country’s soft power rests, and they discuss the gaps constraining Chinese media’s effort to reach European minds and hearts” (p. 146).

The introduction part of this chapter sets up the context for the overall question of focus in the authors’ study and addresses why the topic in this chapter is of relevance in the Chinese media landscape and its “going-out” strategies. For example, the question which was at the centre of the authors’ argument is “how to explain Europe’s skepticism despite China’s media efforts”.

This chapter was thesis-driven, consequently, a progression analysis was used to understand journalistic mindsets. The authors used cross-referencing to justify their choice of the method. In their findings, they identified the fundamental intercultural similarities and differences after comparing two case studies (public service broadcasting companies in Switzerland and data collected at the workplace of a municipal level newspaper in China).

The authors’ arguments were well documented with solid scientific evidence. Nevertheless, data collection, analysis and presentation were assessed from the perspective of a single country in Europe (Switzerland), whilst the study looked at the expansion of Chinese media into Europe and European’s skepticism over Chinese media. This does not give a clear reflection and representation of Europe as a continent.

The last chapter, the eighth one, entitled Chinese Journalists’ Values in a Global Context: A Discursive Approach, was written by Emma Lupano. The focal point of this chapter is twofold. Firstly, to discuss to what extent modern-day Chinese journalistic values have been remapped by western media ethics. Equally important was determining the extent to which the Chinese media ethos has influenced journalists around the world (p. 171).

In the beginning, the author provided a historiographic context of the development of contemporary journalism in China that began in the late Qing period through the Xinhai Revolution and the “cultural revolution”. Furthermore, the author underscored the argument by using Chinese journalists (freelancers and the employed) as case studies because they are part of one discourse community.

The last chapter added value to the overall synthesis of this edited book. It reiterated clearly and concisely the two main premises of this book, as highlighted by the editors and earlier authors’ contributions: “one way to tell China’s story well is to exercise direct influence on international journalists.”; “ … a number of top journalism universities such as Renmin University, Communication University of China, and Tsinghua University have started to train journalists from other countries.” (p. 185). The aforementioned argument highlighted some key ventures undertaken in China to attempt a gradual remapping of the profession at international level.

Taken as a whole, this book, China and the Global Media Landscape: Remapping and Remapped, is a strong contribution to the debate over Chinese media and its influence globally. It offers a comprehensive overview of the dynamics of transcultural communication, both theoretically and empirically, to cover the international communication scene. A prevalent theme in scholarly literature is that western media has had a significant impact on developing transcultural dialogue. This book offers another narrative in the field. It shows that the flow of cultural products is no longer merely moving from the North to the South but is now being reshaped for the rise of China in the global communication realm.

Additionally, one key aspect of this book is that it puts more emphasis on scholars’ voices from around the world. The diverse narratives provide an unbiased view and implication for people to understand Chinese media in the global context, therefore, pursue new insight into transcultural communication (Hang et al., 2021). More often than not, scholars from the aforementioned field as well as transcultural communication are criticized for their Western bias. However, this book can vividly show the passage to the de-westernization of scholarly media and communication literature.

Consequently, China and the Global Media Landscape: Remapping and Remapped is an essential resource for researchers (in both cultural and media studies), students in media and communication fields, as well as media practitioners who are seeking to understand the concept of transcultural communication.