Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
2-2015
Abstract
This essay examines how the MIT Controversy hardened identities in terms of the time worn template of geopolitical conflict of national stereotypes. It critically analyzes the Chinese students’ response to the “Visualizing Cultures” project by putting it in the context of the PRC’s patriotic education policy that securitizes culture by focusing on identity as difference in a zero-sum game that distinguishes civilization from barbarism, and China from the rest of the world. It critically analyzes the professors response to the controversy by highlighting how meaning is not only produced by the author; it is also consumed by various audiences that bring diverse sets of experiences into meaning making. It concludes that the controversy is less about content, and more about who controls knowledge production and distribution.
Keywords
China, patriotic education, race, narrative, culture
Discipline
Asian Studies | Political Science | Politics and Social Change
Publication
Positions: Asia Critique
Volume
23
Issue
1
First Page
131
Last Page
144
ISSN
1067-9847
Identifier
10.1215/10679847-2870534
Publisher
Duke University Press
Citation
CALLAHAN, William A..(2015). Textualizing cultures: Thinking beyond the MIT controversy. Positions: Asia Critique, 23(1), 131-144.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/4334
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-2870534