Romanticising the New Silk Road: The Visuals of Chinese-Russian Media

Date: Wednesday 12th February 2020
Time: 1.30pm – 3pm
Location: GM 3.42, Geoffrey Manton Building, Rosamond St West, Manchester M15 6LL
Tickets: Free – Available on Eventbrite

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is arguably the key to China’s contemporary economic strategy. However, there is low understanding and trust towards the project in many of the states in which concrete collaborations are planned or underway. This talk interrogates how the Chinese state has responded to
such skepticism, focusing on media collaboration between China’s and Russia’s state-owned international broadcasters, CGTN, and RT. The particular focus is a 5-part co-produced documentary series aimed at introducing international English-speaking audiences to the metaphorical new ‘Silk Road’.

This series reimagines the economic and infrastructural project in both historically-romantic and futuristic ways, with human stories central to both. But how strategic is this Chinese-Russian media partnership? Situating the series within the broader context of Russian and Chinese political, economic and media strategy reveals certain tensions underlying this collaboration, as well as broader limitations that apply when state actors attempt to reimagine their policy activities via global media.

Precious Chatterje-Doody is a Lecturer in Politics and International Studies at Open University. Her research is focused on communication, perception and foreign policy, with a particular focus on Russia, as well as its international broadcaster, RT.

The Politics and International Relations Public Lecture Series is sponsored by the History, Politics and Philosophy department and organized by Kathryn Starnes, Lecturer in International Relations at Manchester Metropolitan University.