The post-racial myth: rethinking Chinese university students’ experiences and perceptions of racialised microaggressions in the UK

Abstract

As the world recovers from the pandemic and anti-Asian hate crimes have been gradually disappearing from the headlines, this article offers a timely reflection on Chinese international students’ experiences and perceptions of racialised microaggressions during the pandemic, and, more importantly, takes the discussion further by deconstructing and challenging the underlying post-racial discourse. Based on 54 interviews with Chinese students from 13 universities across the UK, this article examines four phrases used by Chinese international students in making sense of their racialised experiences, in terms of the denial of racism (‘it is not racism’), the justification of racism (‘it is normal’), taking the blame of racism (‘it is my fault’) and in some rare cases, their reflections on anti-Asian racism in the so-called post-racial universities in the UK (‘we are invisible’). It argues that such expressions are induced by and reflects neo-racism, neo-orientalism and everyday racism embedded within the wider post-racial discourse in the UK, which affirms the relevance of anti-Asian racism in the post-pandemic era rather than negates it. We thus make recommendations to UK universities to better support international students and combat anti-Asian particularly anti-Chinese racism.