IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v54y2017i11p2652-2668.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Local name, global fame: The international visibility of Chinese cities in modern times

Author

Listed:
  • Yunsong Chen

    (Nanjing University, China)

  • Fei Yan

    (Tsinghua University, China; Stanford University, USA)

  • Yi Zhang

    (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Institute of Sociology, China)

Abstract

How is a city’s international visibility historically formed? Applying a novel approach based on the Google Books N-gram corpus, we conducted the first empirical study to examine the pattern of and factors shaping the accumulation of international visibility by 294 major Chinese cities between the years of 1700 and 2000. We analyse the usage frequency of city names in Google English-language books to capture the international visibility of these major Chinese cities, and the appearance of these city names in the New York Times to capture media quotation over a definable number of years. Further, we performed the Granger causality test to see if media coverage helps to predict international visibility. The findings of this study demonstrate that the global fame of cities in mainland China is influenced by their exposure in media communications with the rest of the world. However, this media effect is not statistically significant for several former colonial cities, which are more likely to attain global fame through economic exchange in the global market.

Suggested Citation

  • Yunsong Chen & Fei Yan & Yi Zhang, 2017. "Local name, global fame: The international visibility of Chinese cities in modern times," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(11), pages 2652-2668, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:54:y:2017:i:11:p:2652-2668
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098016646674
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098016646674
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098016646674?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Yehua Dennis Wei & Chi Kin Leung, 2005. "Development Zones, Foreign Investment, and Global City Formation in Shanghai," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(1), pages 16-40, February.
    2. Granger, C W J, 1969. "Investigating Causal Relations by Econometric Models and Cross-Spectral Methods," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 37(3), pages 424-438, July.
    3. Michael Hoyler & Allan Watson, 2013. "Global Media Cities In Transnational Media Networks," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 104(1), pages 90-108, February.
    4. John Friedmann, 1986. "The World City Hypothesis," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 17(1), pages 69-83, January.
    5. R Alexander Bentley & Alberto Acerbi & Paul Ormerod & Vasileios Lampos, 2014. "Books Average Previous Decade of Economic Misery," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-7, January.
    6. Alberto Acerbi & Vasileios Lampos & Philip Garnett & R Alexander Bentley, 2013. "The Expression of Emotions in 20th Century Books," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(3), pages 1-6, March.
    7. Mullins, Daniel A. & Whitehouse, Harvey & Atkinson, Quentin D., 2013. "The role of writing and recordkeeping in the cultural evolution of human cooperation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 90(S), pages 141-151.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Damian Ruck & R. Alexander Bentley & Alberto Acerbi & Philip Garnett & Daniel J. Hruschka, 2017. "Role Of Neutral Evolution In Word Turnover During Centuries Of English Word Popularity," Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(06n07), pages 1-16, September.
    2. Thomas J Sigler & Kirsten Martinus, 2017. "Extending beyond ‘world cities’ in World City Network (WCN) research: Urban positionality and economic linkages through the Australia-based corporate network," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(12), pages 2916-2937, December.
    3. Wei Shen, 2010. "Globalizing Shanghai: International Migration and the Global City," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2010-079, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Csomós György & Derudder Ben, 2014. "Ranking Asia-Pacific cities: Economic performance of multinational corporations and the regional urban hierarchy," Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, Sciendo, vol. 25(25), pages 1-12, September.
    5. Kathy Pain & Gilles Van Hamme & Sandra Vinciguerra & Quentin David, 2016. "Global networks, cities and economic performance: Observations from an analysis of cities in Europe and the USA," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(6), pages 1137-1161, May.
    6. Virginie Mamadouh & Luiza Bialasiewicz & Anna Growe & Kati Volgmann, 2016. "Exploring Cosmopolitanity and Connectivity in The Polycentric German Urban System," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 107(2), pages 214-231, April.
    7. Wang, Huanming & Ran, Bing, 2022. "How business-related governance strategies impact paths towards the formation of global cities? An institutional embeddedness perspective," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    8. Xingjian Liu & Ben Derudder & Frank Witlox & Michael Hoyler, 2014. "Cities As Networks within Networks of Cities: The Evolution of the City/Firm-Duality in the World City Network, 2000–2010," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 105(4), pages 465-482, September.
    9. Ben Derudder, 2021. "Network Analysis of ‘Urban Systems’: Potential, Challenges, and Pitfalls," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 112(4), pages 404-420, September.
    10. Allan Watson & Jonathan V. Beaverstock, 2014. "World City Network Research at a Theoretical Impasse: On the Need to Re-Establish Qualitative Approaches to Understanding Agency in World City Networks," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 105(4), pages 412-426, September.
    11. Ludovic Rheault & Kaspar Beelen & Christopher Cochrane & Graeme Hirst, 2016. "Measuring Emotion in Parliamentary Debates with Automated Textual Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(12), pages 1-18, December.
    12. Ben Derudder & Christof Parnreiter, 2014. "Introduction: The Interlocking Network Model for Studying Urban Networks: Outline, Potential, Critiques, and Ways Forward," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 105(4), pages 373-386, September.
    13. Acerbi, Alberto & Sacco, Pier Luigi, 2021. "The self-control vs. self-indulgence dilemma: A culturomic analysis of 20th century trends," OSF Preprints xgqt5, Center for Open Science.
    14. Wang, Huanming & Cheng, Zhe & Zhu, Dajian, 2020. "Striving for global cities with governance approach in transitional China: Case study of Shanghai," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    15. R Alexander Bentley & Alberto Acerbi & Paul Ormerod & Vasileios Lampos, 2014. "Books Average Previous Decade of Economic Misery," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(1), pages 1-7, January.
    16. Acerbi, Alberto & Sacco, Pier Luigi, 2022. "The self-control vs. self-indulgence dilemma: A culturomic analysis of 20th century trends," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    17. Emeka Nkoro & Aham Kelvin Uko, 2016. "Exchange Rate and Inflation Volatility and Stock Prices Volatility: Evidence from Nigeria, 1986-2012," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 6(6), pages 1-4.
    18. Czujack, Corinna & Flôres Junior, Renato Galvão & Ginsburgh, Victor, 1995. "On long-run price comovements between paintings and prints," FGV EPGE Economics Working Papers (Ensaios Economicos da EPGE) 269, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil).
    19. Lei Zhou & Shan Yang & Shuguang Wang & Liyang Xiong, 2017. "Ownership reform and the changing manufacturing landscape in Chinese cities: The case of Wuxi," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-21, March.
    20. Loperfido, Nicola, 2010. "A note on marginal and conditional independence," Statistics & Probability Letters, Elsevier, vol. 80(23-24), pages 1695-1699, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:54:y:2017:i:11:p:2652-2668. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.