A multimodal approach to attitudes towards Tibet in Chinese language textbooks

ABSTRACT

Drawing on an examination of Chinese language textbooks for Tibetan ethnic students in the Tibet Autonomous Region of mainland China, this study scrutinises the representation of Tibetan images and the official attitude towards Tibet embedded in the textbooks. Using multimodal discourse analysis (MDA), the paper investigates how government perceptions of Tibet are constructed through the co-deployment of visual and textual semiotic resources in Chinese language textbooks. This study suggests an overall positive attitude towards Tibet shown in the textbooks. However, the references to Tibet or Tibetans are usually situated as topics of the ‘past’, which indicates a sense of their being uncivilised or backwards. The positive yet stereotyped portrayal of Tibet is in line with national identity construction to ensure a unified nation-state. This study examines both text and image in textbooks in order to understand state ideologies and official attitudes towards a minority group.

KEYWORDS:

• Attitude
• multimodal
• Tibet
• Chinese language

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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2. Sautman, ‘Paved with Good Intentions’; Wu and He, ‘Ethnic Autonomy and Inequality’; Postiglione, ‘Ethnic Minority Identity’.

3. Sautman, ‘Paved with Good Intentions’; Wu and He, ‘Ethnic Autonomy and Inequality’.

4. Elliott, ‘The Missing Indigene’.

5. Ma, ‘A New Perspective’; Ma, ‘Reflections on the Debate’; Ma, ‘The Crux and Way’.

6. Hu and Hu, ‘Second-Generation Ethnic Policy’.

7. Leibold, Ethnic Policy in China; Elliott, ‘The Missing Indigene’; Sautman, ‘Paved with Good Intentions’.

8. Leibold, Ethnic Policy in China, 23–24.

9. Elliott, ‘The Missing Indigene’; Leibold, Ethnic Policy in China.

10. See above 4.

11. See above 6.

12. Elliott, ‘The Missing Indigene’, 196.

13. Leibold, Ethnic Policy in China, 51.

14. See above 12., 196.

15. Pan, ‘Chinese Language Law’.

16. Cherng et al., ‘China’.

17. National Bureau of Statistics of China, ‘2010 Population Census’.

18. Postiglione, ‘Making Tibetans in China’.

19. Postiglione, ‘Ethnic Minority Idenity’.

20. Postiglione, Jiao, and Gyatso, ‘Household Perspectives on Attendance’.

21. Postiglione, Jiao, and Li, ‘Education Change and Development’; Postiglione and Jiao, ‘Tibet’s Relocated Schooling’.

22. See above 18.

23. TAR People’s Congress, ‘Provisions on Tibetan Language’.

24. Nima, ‘Languages in Tibetan’; Xiao and Higgins, ‘When English Meets Chinese’.

25. Zhou, ‘Developments of Tibetan Language’.

26. Ma, ‘Bilingual Education in Tibet’; Zhou, ‘The Tibetan Language Policies’.

27. Postiglione, ‘Making Tibetans in China’; Postiglione, Jiao, and Li, ‘Education Change and Development’.

28. Ma, ‘Bilingual Education in Tibet’; Nima, ‘Bilingual Education in Tibet’; Xiao and Higgins, ‘When English Meets Chinese’.

29. Upton, ‘Modern School Based Education’; Li and Zhang, ‘Tibetan CSL Learners’.

30. Tsung, Minority Languages; Zhang and Yang, ‘Medium of Instruction Xinjiang’.

31. Wang and Phillion, ‘Whose Knowledge Is Valued’.

32. Postiglione, Jiao, and Li, ‘Education Change and Development’.

33. See above 18.

34. Harrell, Ways of Being Ethnic in Southwest China, 46.

35. Postiglione and Jiao, ‘Tibet’s Relocated Schooling’.

36. Bass, ‘Tibetan Primary Curriculum’; Nima, ‘The Way Out’.

37. Halliday, Language as Social Semiotic.

38. Iedema, ‘Multimodality, Resemiotization’; Poyas and Eilam, ‘Construction of Common Interpretive’.

39. Weninger, ‘Multimodality in Critical Language Textbook Analysis’.

40. Martin and White, The Language of Evaluation.

41. Royce, ‘Intersemiotic Complementarity’.

42. Irgengioro, ‘China’s National Identity’; Yan and Vickers, ‘Portraying “Minorities”’.

43. Irgengioro, ‘China’s National Identity”; Harrell, Ways of Being Ethnic, 26–30.

44. Irgengioro, ‘China’s National Identity’, 322.

45. Fei, ‘Chinese Pluralistic Unity Structure’.

46. Leibold and Chen, Minority Education in China; Ma, ‘Studies of Ethnic Issues’.

47. Bilik, ‘“China” in Mongolian’.

48. Ma, ‘Studies of Ethnic Issues’, 13.

49. Ibid.

50. Ma, ‘A New Perspective’, 215.

51. See above 4.

52. Ibid., 201.

53. Zhao and Postiglione, ‘Ethnic Minorities University Media’.

54. Ibid., 319.

55. Leibold and Chen, Minority Education in China, 14.

56. Chu, ‘Constructing Minzu’.

57. Ma, ‘A New Perspective’.

58. See above 4.

59. Irgengioro, ‘China’s National Identity’.

60. Grose, ‘Uyghur Language Textbooks’; Irgengioro, ‘China’s National Identity’.

61. ‘The Power of Knowledge’.

62. Ibid., 483.

63. See above 56.

64. Chu, ‘Visualizing Minority’.

65. See above 31.

66. Grose, ‘Uyghur Language Textbooks’.

67. Borchigud, ‘Urban Ethnic Education’.

68. See above 66.

69. See above 37.

70. See above 38.

71. O’Halloran, ‘Multimodal Discourse Analysis’.

72. Ajayi, ‘How Deploy Multimodal Textbooks’.

73. See above 40.

74. Ibid., 36; see also Chen, ‘Semiotic Construal of Goals’.

75. See above 66.

76. See above 41.

77. Halliday, Introduction to Functional Grammar.

78. Royce, ‘Intersemiotic Complementarity’, 66.

79. Ibid., 70.

80. Ministry of Education, ‘Notice of the General Office of the Ministry of Education on the Chinese Language Textbooks’.

81. Chu, ‘Constructing Minzu’; Yan and Vickers, ‘Portraying “Minorities”’.

82. Ministry of Education, ‘Notice of Ministry of Education on the Issue of ‘Curriculum Standards of Chinese Language for Ethnic Minorities’; Ministry of Education, ‘Notice of Ministry of Education on ‘Curriculum Standards of Chinese Language’; Tie, ‘Survey on Problems of PEP “Chinese” Textbooks’.

83. Ministry of Education, “Notice of Ministry of Education on ‘Curriculum Standards of Chinese Language; Tie, ‘Survey on Problems of PEP “Chinese” Textbooks’.

84. See above 45.

85. Ge, ‘Connection Tibetan Chinese Civilisation’.

86. Hillman, ‘Paradise under Construction’.

87. Tenzint, ‘A Grassroots Association’.

88. Yu, ‘How Administrators View Minority’.

89. White, ‘State Discourses, Minority Policies’.

90. See above 53.

91. See above 89.

92. See above 55., 6.

93. Harrell, ‘Introduction: Civilizing Projects’.

94. Bass, ‘Tibetan Primary Curriculum’.

95. See above 89.

96. Gao, ‘Identity and Multilingualism’.

97. Harrell, Ways of Being Ethnic, 31; Leibold and Chen, Minority Education in China; White, ‘State Discourses, Minority Policies’.

98. See above 50., 203.

99. See above 94.

100. Ibid.; Nima, ‘The Way Out’.

101. See above 57.

102. Postiglione, ‘Ethnic Minority Identity’.

103. See above 4.

104. Lv and Zhang, ‘Difficulties and Countermeasures’.

105. See above 20.

106. See above 104.

107. Bass, ‘Tibetan Primary Curriculum’; Borchigud, ‘Urban Ethnic Education’; Irgengioro, ‘China’s National Identity’.

108. Baranovitch, ‘Others No More’.

109. See above 35.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Qi Zhang

Dr Qi Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies at Dublin City University in Ireland. Her recent research interests are in the field of Chinese language education, including applied Chinese linguistics, language attitudes and pedagogy, and Chinese language study among ethnic minorities in China.

Ya Cuo

Dr Ya Cuo received her PhD from the Department of Sociology in the University of Macau. Her research interests are ethnic issues and ethnic policies, religion and society. She has done research on non-profit organisations and Buddhism in contemporary China. A Tibetan from Amdo Region, she has an MA in Public Management and Sociology from Beijing Normal University and is a fluent speaker of Tibetan, Mandarin Chinese and English.