Contesting stereotypical representations of the Chinese by Chinese university students
Stereotypical representations are the generalised descriptions and assumptions made about a group of people, which are constructed, transmitted, and learned through discourse in social interactions. Stereotyping discourse is portrayed as fact that certain characteristics are shared among all the...
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Format: | Thesis |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2020
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/85388/1/FBMK%202020%2031%20ir.pdf http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/85388/ |
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Summary: | Stereotypical representations are the generalised descriptions and assumptions made
about a group of people, which are constructed, transmitted, and learned through
discourse in social interactions. Stereotyping discourse is portrayed as fact that certain
characteristics are shared among all the members of the group. Much has been written
on the negative consequences of defining people, particularly marginalised groups in
stereotypical ways, highlighting discrimination and perpetuation of social inequalities
as their result. On the other hand, less work has been done focusing on how the people
facing stereotypical traits and behaviours attributed to them deal with or respond to the
stereotyping discourses. However, in order to fully understand the effects of
stereotyping, it is important to first examine the processes through which targets of
stereotyping discourses are able to recognise such discourses as negative and act to
remove themselves from the subject positions they are placed in those discourses. This
is especially so when the stereotyping discourse is subtle and not easily identified, and
hence, more difficult to resist. This study sought to investigate Chinese university
students’ response towards stereotypical representations of the Chinese described in an
intercultural training video. Specifically, the study examined how the students interpret
negative stereotyping discourses in the video and employ strategies to resist
stereotypical representations. A video produced by a well-known ‘expert’ teaching
intercultural communication with Chinese people was screened to sixteen university
students from the People’s Republic of China studying at a Malaysian university. Focus
group discussions were conducted with the participants after the video screening to
obtain their reactions to the representations of Chinese identity and behaviour described
by the intercultural trainer in the video. Analysis of the data was informed by
Fairclough’s (2001) three dimensional framework for discourse analysis, van
Leeuwen’s representation of social actors (2008) and van Dijk’s ideological square
(2011). The findings show that participants were not aware of the discourse context in
which stereotyping descriptions are used as the trainer’s resource in his intercultural
training business whereby constructing people as “different” from the clients in his
training session is a matter of business survival. Also, participants were ambivalent in
their recognition of stereotyping discourses and demonstrated difficulty in resisting them. The strategies found employed by participants in resisting what they regarded as
negative descriptions of the Chinese were to construct subgroups within the
superordinate group, reframing stereotypes as positive, normalising stereotypical traits
and behaviours, positioning themselves as outsider, questioning the expertise of the
trainer, devaluing the perspectives of the “out-group”, and rationalising the negative
representations through philosophising about the fluidity of culture. The study
concludes that resisting and removing oneself from stereotypical representations in
which one is placed requires intense identity work and is difficult to achieve. This
study contributes to the study on empowering victims of stereotyping discourse, sheds
light on the difficulty of the members of the stereotyped group to recognise
stereotyping discourses and resist the stereotypical representations. |
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