“Rethinking Female Voice and the Ideology of Sound: A Study of Stanley Kwan’s Film Center Stage (1992).”

Li Guo, Utah State University

Abstract

On November 17, 2011, President Obama announced that the Asia-Pacific region was now a top priority for the US. On January 5, 2012, President Obama announced that the US military will switch its focus to the Asia-Pacific region and on June 2, declared that the US will shift the bulk of its naval fleet to the Pacific by 2020 as part of new strategic focus on Asia, will secure trade routes and will help Japan with counter-missiles. The US challenge the rising regional power of China, as illustrated recently with China’s disputes with Japan and the Philippines on islands.

It shows also how economically important China has become to the US, both as global manufacturer and as a selling market. Will China overcome the US and prove that her model of an exploitative and corrupt economy which restricts people’s freedoms is more successful than a liberal economy based on laws and copyright protection?

This conference invites experts from different fields to discuss China’s role in Asia and the world, her special relation with the US and how this effects Utah and the China-related study programs at Utah colleges and universities, including language teaching. Local business leaders with China-ties will identify expectations towards graduates, what they need to learn if they want to succeed in the China-related job-market. Utah professors will report on concrete examples how they helped graduates to build start-up companies in China and how they played matchmakers between Chinese and Utah businesses.

The conference will also explore the transitional Chinese identity at the beginning of the 21st century. It will report about the environmental impact of China on the region and on the world, on ethnic dissent, human right violations and problems to come to terms with the past.