Description
This paper proposes a theory of banal modernism, in capturing the process of postcolonial elites responding to stigma. Acknowledging the social as well as stratified dynamics of the international society, it observes how a sense of racialised shame of unmodernity – specifically, in the quotidian, banal aspects – has been construed through postcolonial countries’ historical encounters with the West. Postcolonial elites, in turn, expect the people – both from their own countries and from other countries of colour – to display banal modernism in their everyday practices. Taking China as an empirical case, this paper uncovers how Chinese elites have internalised banal unmodernity as a source of stigma, launching domestic campaigns modernising their nation in the banality, while racializing their African others in writings through the lens of banal modernism. This paper thus observes the stigma reprojection as yet another stigma management response.
