Being Backward: the Internalized Racial Discourse in China's
Being Backward: The Internalized Racial Discourse in China’s Modernization A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Yang Lai May 2014 ©2014Yang Lai. All Rights Reserved. 2 This thesis titled Being Backward: The Internalized Racial Discourse in China’s Modernization by YANG LAI has been approved for the Department of Political Science and the College of Arts and Sciences by Julie White Associate Professor of Women’s & Gender Studies Robert Frank Dean, College of Arts and Sciences 3 ABSTRACT LAI, YANG, M.A., May 2014, Political Science Being Backward: The Internalized Racial Discourse in China’s Modernization Director of Thesis: Julie White Using critical racial theory, this paper examines the feeling of self-hatred, the anti-Manchu sentiment, white privilege and brown racism as three variations of popular racial discourse in the post-Mao China. The knowledge of global racial hierarchy was internalized in contemporary Chinese society through a discourse of modernization and people’s anxiety of being backward. I also explore the resources for the operation of global racial hierarchy in contemporary China. The tradition of a hierarchical world order as well as the political and economic policy shift under the direction of developmentalism and liberalization since 1980s all contribute to the consolidation of Western hegemony. Intertwining with various popular political and historical, cultural discourses, racial discourse in China is molding the way through which people express their anxiety, frustration and hope in rapid social transformation, as well as their perspectives on the past and future.
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