With the 2021 Academy Awards recently concluded, the Modern China Lecture Series at Cal State San Bernardino will take a look at “Hollywood in China and China in Hollywood: Will It Be Back to Business-as-Usual Post-Pandemic, or Have the Relationships Changed?”

Presented by Stanley Rosen, professor of political science and international relations at the University of Southern California, the talk will take place virtually on Zoom at noon Thursday, April 29.

Rosen will examine what Hollywood wants from China and what China wants from Hollywood, looking at the advantages and disadvantages each player has in their own and the other’s market. Statistical data such as box office performance is used to document success and failure at various times.

Rosen’s most recent book is “Soft Power with Chinese Characteristics: China’s Campaign for Hearts and Minds” (Routledge, 2020, co-edited). His most recent article, “Obstacles to Using Chinese Film to Promote China’s Soft Power: Some Evidence from the North American Market,” appeared in the Journal of Chinese Film Studies (March 2021).

The Modern China Lecture Series was initiated to promote awareness of important issues related to China for those on the CSUSB campus and in the community. In the series of more than 50 lectures, workshops, film screenings and roundtable forums since January 2014, China scholars from UC San Diego, UC Riverside, the Claremont Colleges, UCLA, USC, UC Irvine and other institutions have visited the CSUSB campus to share their expertise and opinions.

Speakers in the series have included specialists in history, economics, political science, philosophy, finance, security studies, literature, anthropology and other fields.

Upcoming in the series:

  • Noon, Tuesday, May 4: “Big Questions about Chinese History,” presented by Patricia Ebrey, professor emerita, University of Washington;
  • Noon Thursday, May 6: “Connecting the Dots in PRC Agriculture and Politics: Systems Thinking in the Mao and Reform Eras,” presented by Sigrid Schmalzer, professor of history, University of Massachusetts Amherst; and
  • Noon Thursday, May 13: “Qing Travelers to the Far West: Diplomacy and the Information Order in Late Imperial China,” presented by Jenny Huangfu Day, associate professor of history, Skidmore College in New York.

The series cosponsors this year are the CSUSB Department of History, the History Club/Phi Alpha Theta, and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

See the CSUSB Modern China Lecture Series online listing of past and upcoming presentations.

For more information on the Modern China Lecture Series, contact Jeremy Murray, associate professor of history, at jmurray@csusb.edu.

Modern China Lecture, April 29