The essentialisation of China in ‘Critical internationalisation studies’: a new orientalism?

Abstract

This paper provides a critical perspective on existing academic literature on the internationalisation of higher education in China. The central argument is that much of this work undermines its own aims to contribute to the ‘de-centring’ of the West and to redress epistemic injustice. This is because it tends to engage in ‘re-orientalism’ and ‘Sino-speak’, relying on an essentialist binary of East and West. In doing so, it essentialises and exoticises China through constant reference to the West. The paper also explores how this work mirrors closely official PRC state occidentalism, which is employed to quash dissent and to deny the PRC’s own engagement in colonialism in the present day, further undermining social justice-oriented goals. Finally, it highlights epistemic illiberalism as a force which has a profound impact on knowledge production in, and about, China, but is often overlooked in this literature.