China Week - Opening Reception 2022

We are pleased to invite you to our formal Opening Reception to launch China Week 2022 on the evening of Monday 17th of October. This event, to be held in-person at King’s College London, will be a chance to gather together with the brightest minds on China for networking over canapes and drinks. During the reception we will be welcoming special guests who will present their views on the myriad technology-related issues facing China, the UK and the world, including areas of cooperation, competition and potential conflict.

Presentations will be followed by ‘The Digital Divide’ a virtual photography exhibition featuring world class photographers and winners of the Global Sino Photo Awards.

The breath-taking imagery displayed in this exhibition highlights the use and impacts of technology in China and how it has transformed all sectors of society and the economy. Importantly, the images also show the inverse – illustrating elements of daily life that are completely devoid from technology or are not centred around interacting with digital devices – which typically consume so much of our social and economic interactions.

Capturing the vast and diverse communities of modern China, the photos emphasise an oft-overlooked dichotomy in that technology seems overwhelmingly ubiquitous, yet one turns a corner to notice it is miraculously absent. The exhibition underscores that while technology has had a profound impact on connecting people, plugging them in to new ideas, services and opportunities, communities can still come together to connect, discuss ideas, enjoy entertainment or achieve success without relying on tech. We hope you enjoy our virtual representation of the Digital Divide to see the dramatic advancement of technology in China, juxtaposing this with the novel joy of being ‘unplugged’ by zooming into snapshots of daily life in which technology does not feature.

About the speakers

Professor Funmi Olonisakin, Vice-President and Vice-Principal International, King’s College London

Funmi Olonisakin is Professor of Security, Leadership and Development at King’s College London and has been founding Director of the African Leadership Centre (ALC), which aims to build the next generation of African scholars and analysts generating cutting-edge knowledge for conflict, security and development in Africa. The ALC is based in Nairobi, Kenya and at King’s College London.

Professor Olonisakin is currently Vice-President and Vice-Principal International at King’s College London. She has lead responsibility for all international matters at the College.

Prof. Olonisakin is also a Research Associate with the Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria, South Africa, where has been appointed a Mellon Foundation Distinguished Scholar on Peace and Conflict. The Geneva Centre for Security Policy appointed her as a Distinguished Fellow in April 2014. She was Director of the Conflict, Security and Development Group at King’s College London from 2003 until 2013.

Prior to this, she worked in the Office of the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict overseeing the Africa work of that Office. In this role, she facilitated the establishment of the National Commission for War-Affected Children in Sierra Leone and the Child Protection Unit in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). She previously held research positions in the Centre for Defence Studies, King’s College London, where she co-directed the African Security Unit; and at the Institute for Strategic Studies in the University of Pretoria, South Africa and the Department of Political Science, University of Lagos Nigeria.

Dr Charlotte Goodburn, Deputy Director, Lau China Institute, King’s College London

Dr Charlotte Goodburn is a Senior Lecturer in Chinese Politics and Development. Before coming to King's, Charlotte was a post-doctoral researcher in Development Studies at the University of Cambridge. She completed her PhD in the Department of Land Economy at Cambridge, and holds a BA (in History) and an MPhil (in Contemporary Chinese Studies), also from Cambridge.

Charlotte studied Mandarin at Peking University and at Taiwan Normal University, and has spent several years working, studying and conducting fieldwork in China.

She was appointed as Deputy Director of the Lau China Institute in 2016. She also teaches in the Department of International Development.

Dr Elisa Oreglia, Senior Lecturer, Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London

Dr Elisa Oreglia researches the adoption, adaptation and use of digital technologies among different communities in Asia and in the Global South in general. She is interested in the localized socio-technical practices that emerge from technology users who are far from urban centres and advanced economies, as well as the political economy that surrounds technology development and circulation.

She joined the Department of Digital Humanities in January 2018 and is also an Affiliate of the Lau China Institute at KCL. Elisa holds a PhD in Information Management & Systems from UC Berkeley’s School of Information, and has previously taught at SOAS University of London.