Bu Wei: Human rights education key to building China’s human rights discourse

Bu Wei, professor at the Institute of Journalism and Communication, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. (Photo by Jia Puyu)

A seminar on the creation of China's human rights discourse in the new era was held on April 12 in Changsha, capital city of Hunan province. Bu Wei, professor at the Institute of Journalism and Communication, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, shared her views on cultural narrative and communication in building China's human rights discourse at the seminar.

Communication is a two-way process, so China for now should introduce its human rights development to the outside world instead of just responding to the claims of other countries, said Bu.

Chinese media and the general public should receive more human rights education, Bu urged.

The concept of human rights comes from the West, and China and western countries have different focal points in human rights discourse, said Bu.

Bu called for strengthening the awareness of human rights among the public and uniting with countries from the third world to create our own human rights discourse.

In telling China’s human rights stories, we should use cultural narrative to enhance our power persuasion, said Bu.

Human rights are related to every single person and the realization of the rights needs the extensive participation of the public.

We should set human rights agenda according to the needs of the people and construct our own human rights discourse. The goal of seeking for a stronger human rights discourse in the international community is not for a better national image but for the real benefits of all Chinese people, said Bu.