Ignorance, Orientalism and Sinophobia in Knowledge Production on COVID‐19

Yunpeng Zhang and Fang Xu

Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 2020, vol. 111, issue 3, 211-223

Abstract: In this commentary, based on a close readi ng of media reports and our everyday experiences as overseas Chinese researchers, we examine the production of ignorance surrounding the COVID‐19. Specifically, we focus on ignorance caused by selective inattention and power plays. We challenge the dominant dualistic frame of authoritarianism versus democracy and the role it plays in overly simplifying and even distorting the responses of Chinese authorities in handling this public health emergency. We maintain that this binary thinking is reflective of the conflation of orientalism, sinophobia and statephobia in the West, which also intersects with sexism and racism within and outside academic sites of knowledge production. The consequence is that knowledge accumulated by experts from China as well as other Asian countries about the virus and mitigation strategies are marginalised, discredited, distrusted, if not dismissed altogether.

Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12441

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:tvecsg:v:111:y:2020:i:3:p:211-223

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0040-747X

Access Statistics for this article

Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie is currently edited by Jan van Weesep

More articles in Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie from Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().