Unraveling the myth of Western supremacy: A critical discourse analysis of U.S. news reporting on international student migration from China.

Abstract

This study investigates how international student migration (ISM) from China has been shaped by a disturbing trend underpinned by the myth of Western supremacy. The investigation is conducted through a critical discourse analysis of U.S. news coverage of the cross-border movement of undergraduate Chinese international students attending U.S. higher education institutions. The findings of the study suggest that the myth of Western supremacy can be conceptualized with reference to two interwoven processes. One process is encapsulated in the discursive construction of an "us-them" paradigm. Accompanied by this process, a set of onto-epistemological boundaries between the students' home and host countries were reified through the polarized assignment of negative out-group representations to the former and positive in-group representations to the latter. The other process is encapsulated in the discursive construction of a "(neither) us-(nor) them" dilemma. Accompanied by this process, the subject positions of the students were manipulatively framed through the prism of the said "us-them" paradigm. The findings of the study are discussed in terms of their implications for examining the ethical and political dimensions of educational internationalization and for envisioning an equity-driven agenda to guide the future of ISM.

Exploring Chinese international students’ attitudes toward anti-China rhetoric: Development and initial validation of an item response theory-based measure.

“…In her analysis of the media channel's placing of China in a dichotomized position to the United States, Suspitsyna (2015) argued that the practice of casting "China as the stifled, repressed, inferior Other served to reinforce the superiority of the American model as a source of creativity, innovation, and academic freedom" (p. 33). In a similar vein, based on a critical discourse analysis of U.S. news reporting on ISM from China between 2008 and 2018, Yin (2023) illustrated that the phenomenon of ISM from China was accompanied by the configuration of onto-epistemological divisions between the U.S. self and the Chinese other. The study further pointed out that the othering of China was instrumental in affirming "the enduring colonial order of a U.S./West-led notion of knowledge and development, thereby ratifying the continued legitimacy of U.S. exceptionalism" (p. 10).…”

“…As suggested by a growing number of studies (J. J. Lee, 2020; Ma & Zhan, 2022; Yin, 2023), Chinese international students are subjected to a sustained wave of anti-China rhetoric in U.S. society, which tends to get intensified due to the escalating rivalry between China and the United States and the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Scaling and the formation of borderland subjectivities: A study of identity construction among Chinese international students in the United States

“…Yi supported his assertion with examples that aligned with existing scholarship on stereotypes of Chinese international students in both countries. Specifically, his statement about the students being treated as spies and job-takers in the U.S.A. was echoed in studies that questioned xenophobic and racist sentiments targeted at those students in U.S. news media and political discourses (Yao & George Mwangi, 2022;Yin, 2023). Likewise, his reference to the students being seen in China as individuals who "fawned on Westerners and Western cultures" was reminiscent of what Bieler (2004) called the patriots versus traitors debate embedded in the history of student migration from China to the U.S.A.…”