Xiaoling Zhang co-leads the Heritage and Communication cluster at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, where she also heads the Department of Media and Communication. She has co-edited several influential volumes, including China's External Communication and Relationship Building (Zhang & Schultz, 2022, Routledge); China-Africa Relations: Building Images through Cultural Cooperation, Media Representation and Communication (Bachelor & Zhang, 2017, Routledge); China's Soft Power in Africa: Promotion and Perceptions (Zhang, Wasserman & Mano, 2016, Palgrave Macmillan); and China's Information and Communications Technology Revolution: Social Changes and State Responses (Zhang & Zheng, 2009, Routledge). She also co-edits the Routledge Book Series Communicating China: Past, Present and Future. Xin Liu is the Director of the Research Centre for China's Heritage Studies and a Senior Lecturer in Chinese Studies at the University of Lancashire. Her research area covers public diplomacy, cultural studies, media and communication, and China's relations with the West. Her major publications include multiple research papers in top-rated journals such as Journal of Contemporary China and Asia Studies Review, and two monographs: China's Cultural Diplomacy: A Great Leap Outward? (Routledge) and Anglo-Chinese Encounters Before the Opium War: A Tale of Two Empires Over Two Centuries (Routledge), whose Chinese version is due to be published in 2026.