Yik Chan Chin

Nationality: Chinese
Enrolment: 14 august 2002
Transfer to PhD: 1 April 2004
Completion: 30 September 2005
Director of Studies: Prof.Colin Sparks
Second Supervisor: Dr.Peter Goodwin

Aim of the study

The aim of the PhD thesis was to study the transformation of Chinese Television from a local-national-global political and economic context from 1996 to 2003, and the nature of this transformation.

Through investigation, the study aimed to engage in the theoretical debates over the nature of the transformation of TV broadcasting in a communist state; the nature of the implications of the central-local tension upon the political structure of China's TV sector; the nature of the TV modernisation process in a developing country and the nature of the local-global media relationship.

PhD Experience

A thought thorough research design set the foundation of my research, it is worth putting effort into it. Literature review is an endless job, we need to know the boundary, and when we should stop reading. You can always go back to literature research after you finish your fieldwork. What we can get from our fieldwork is not entirely in our control, we need to be practical and flexible.

I did my transfer from MPhil to PhD in the third year of my study. My opinion is that we don't need to be rush, you do transfer when you are ready.

Well. Writing up the thesis is a painful job, it needs a lot of patience. My advice is to write a first draft as early as possible, so revise based on it makes things much easier. Mark down each reference you use, otherwise, it could possible takes you ages to track them down later.


Support
My supervisors, my colleagues at CAMRI provided me tremendous supports and inspirations in my four PhD years both academically and mentally. They offered me opportunities to attend different academic conferences and seminars and encouraged me to publish my researches in different journals. They provided me clear guidance in different stages and gave me insights, comments and criticisms on my research.

Publications

(2004) Integration into Global Capitalism or Modernisation with Chinese Characteristics?: The shifting patterns of China's television sector and ideological debates amid the WTO entry, Journalism and Communication Studies Review, 2003 Annual Edition. (in Chinese)

2003. "The Nation-state in A Globalizing Media Environment: China's regulatory policies on transborder TV drama flow". Javnost/The Public, Vol.10, 4, 75-94.

2003. "China's Regulatory Policies on Transnational Drama Flow". Media Development, 3/2003, 17-22.

Current position 

Research Fellow, Programme in Comparative Law and Policy, The Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, University of Oxford