Maracchione, F. orcid.org/0000-0002-6628-2114 and Jardine, B. (2024) Central Asian studies in the People’s Republic of China: a structural topic model. Central Asian Survey, 43 (3). pp. 307-326. ISSN 0263-4937
Abstract
China has a rich Central Asia studies literature and in recent years, it has seen an expansion in the number of research institutions with a regional focus. We apply a Structural Topic Model, a quantitative method that estimates thematic prevalence through machine learning, to analyse publications on Central Asia in Chinese academic and specialist journals to show how the field has evolved over time. Aside from the methodological contribution we offer an original dataset of 10,563 publications scraped from China’s CNKI database. We test our strategy on two assumptions in Western literature on Chinese academics’ understanding of Central Asia: (1) China’s research institutes are primarily concerned with economics and (2) China’s thinking on strategic regions is lacking in local context, unique cultural concepts and insights. We argue that while China's scholarship on the region is often Sinocentric, some research shows diversity and nuance, with more analytical depth that has been traditionally understood.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | China; Chinese academia; Central Asia; knowledge production; area studies; structural topic model |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Politics and International Relations (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Economic and Social Research Council 2272007 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 06 Mar 2024 12:16 |
Last Modified: | 11 Nov 2024 12:25 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Informa UK Limited |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/02634937.2024.2314083 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:209919 |
Download
Filename: Central Asian studies in the People s Republic of China a structural topic model.pdf
Licence: CC-BY 4.0