Representations of ethnic minorities in China's university media |
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| Authors: | Zhenzhou Zhao Gerard A Postiglione |
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| Institution: | 1. Centre for Governance and Citizenship , The Hong Kong Institute of Education , Tai Po, Hong Kong;2. Faculty of Education , The University of Hong Kong , Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong |
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| Abstract: | This paper examines the representation of ethnic minorities in China through a review of campus newspapers, a major print medium in which universities exercise power over the discourse of cultural recognition. Three universities attended by minority students were selected. A two-dimensional mode (content and configuration) is established to analyze ethnic representations. A combination of content analysis and discourse analysis is used to categorize and analyze text and photographs relevant to ethnicity. The study concludes that (1) different discursive practices are employed to construct ‘images’ of ethnic groups as ‘Others’ or ‘Us’; (2) representations of ethnic minorities and the Han generate three discursive dichotomies between minority and majority: minority groups are distinctive, potentially separatistic, and visible; and the Han people are normative, patriotic, and invisible, respectively; (3) the university media reflects an ideology of ‘state multiculturalism’ that constructs a reflexive representation of the relationship between majority and minority. |
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| Keywords: | university media ethnic minority groups representation China state multiculturalism discourse |
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