The Reconfiguration of Whiteness in China: Privileges, Precariousness, and Racialized Performances

Informazioni relative al progetto

CHINAWHITE

ID dell’accordo di sovvenzione: 817868

DOI

10.3030/817868

Progetto chiuso

Data della firma CE 29 Maggio 2019

Data di avvio 1 Giugno 2019

Data di completamento 31 Maggio 2025

Finanziato da

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - European Research Council (ERC)

Costo totale

€ 2 000 000,00

Contributo UE

€ 2 000 000,00

Coordinato da

UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 4 - CHINAWHITE (The Reconfiguration of Whiteness in China: Privileges, Precariousness, and Racialized Performances)

Periodo di rendicontazione: 2023-12-01 al 2025-05-31

Sintesi del contesto e degli obiettivi generali del progetto

This research examined the shifting meanings of whiteness in the new historical context of China’s rise, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, and geopolitical tensions between China and major Western countries. It has broadened whiteness studies in Western academia and treats China as a new site for the global circulation of white privileges and precariousness. The project has explored how multiple versions of whiteness are imagined, negotiated, and performed through daily life interactions between multiple groups of white migrants and various institutional and social actors in China. By critically interrogating China’s role in contributing to the fragmentation and reconfiguration of white privileges at the global scale, this research has shed light on the complex ways that white hegemony may reproduce itself, albeit in distorted and contradictory manners, in multiple political, social, and cultural contexts.

Lavoro eseguito dall’inizio del progetto fino alla fine del periodo coperto dalla relazione e principali risultati finora ottenuti

The team conducted ethnographic fieldwork among white westerners in various Chinese cities, including English teachers, self-initiated entrepreneurs, foreign models, and foreign spouses of Chinese citizens. We have presented our findings in multiple conferences. The project resulted in three PhD dissertations and over twenty articles in peer reviewed academic journals, including top ranking journals such as American Anthropologist, The Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, and Anthropological Quarterly. We organized three international workshops, which led to the publication of two special issues: one in Asian Anthropology (2022) and one in New Diversities (2022). A third special issue is under preparation to be submitted to Gender, Place, and Culture.

Progressi oltre lo stato dell’arte e potenziale impatto previsto (incluso l’impatto socioeconomico e le implicazioni sociali più ampie del progetto fino ad ora)

This research has contributed to the development of new theories on race and racialization in non-Western societies. Existing literature on race and whiteness studies are dominated by a West-centric perspective and there is little consideration of the mediation of specific socio-political and cultural context. Our research privileges the disciplinary power of the Chinese gazes in redefining and transforming the meanings of whiteness in various social fields. We have also adopted a transnational perspective in examining the tensions and gaps in the global circulation of racial knowledge via international migration. The PI co-edited a book with Milos Debnár, Migration, Transnational Flows, and the Contested Meanings of Race in Asia, which was published Open Access by Springer in 2025. The PI is also preparing a book manuscript, which will be published in the near future.

ChinaWhite