Asymmetric discursive struggle

Abstract

Abstract Focusing on the 2020 case of Okonkwonwoye (a Nigerian man) who attacked Wang (a Chinese nurse), this study analysed over 37,000 posts and comments from Weibo (a popular Chinese microblogging platform) to explore the representation and contestation of Africanness and Blackness in Chinese cyberspace. Utilising a mixed-methods approach combining thematic and critical discourse analyses, the study argues that digital racial conflict in this context is best understood as an “asymmetric discursive struggle”. The findings revealed a racist discourse that constructs Black people as a dehumanised and dangerous “Other” through animalistic nomination and ethnocentric predication, while framing African immigrants as an illegitimate demographic threat via nativist threat inflation. Contrastingly, the counter-discourse, while challenging these narratives, is quantitatively marginalised and qualitatively marked by cautious mitigation. This asymmetry demonstrates how the linguistic forms of online debate can reinforce and normalise dominant racial ideologies, revealing the unequal power dynamics that structure the entire discursive field.

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