Tobin, D. orcid.org/0000-0003-1212-111X (2024) Visualising insecurity: the globalisation of China’s racist ‘counter-terror’ education. Comparative Education, 60 (1). pp. 195-215. ISSN: 0305-0068
Abstract
This paper analyses the Chinese party-state’s production of visual racism towards Uyghurs as a discursive foundation for its ethnic policy, as globally reproduced and disseminated by non-state actors. The paper draws from theoretical literature on the relationship between visual politics and affect, stressing the need for visual literacy to reflect on how images emotionally affect audiences’ identities and insecurities. It focuses this analysis on education texts in China’s post-2012 ‘de-extremification’ and ‘re-education’ campaigns, specifically on how images tell stories about life-or-death security issues that define Chinese identity. Chinese education about Uyghurs tends to frame Uyghur identities as racialised, culturally external existential threats to be defeated by state violence or teaching them to be Chinese. However, Uyghurs’ own visibility strategies in global advocacy counter the party-state’s imagery by centring their lives and experiences. The article shows how these strategies can be used as resources for teaching about Chinese politics and society.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
Keywords: | China; Uyghurs; visual politics; visual analysis; education; nationalism; ethnicity; identity; state violence; genocide |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | ?? Sheffield.LAS ?? The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > School of East Asian Studies (Sheffield) |
Date Deposited: | 03 Oct 2025 16:14 |
Last Modified: | 03 Oct 2025 16:14 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Informa UK Limited |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/03050068.2023.2298130 |
Related URLs: | |
Sustainable Development Goals: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:232541 |
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