Description
Resonating with recent critiques of the “critical White-centrism”, this paper problematizes the non-White/White dichotomy in postcolonial IR scholarships. For both normative and analytical ends, the narratives of the non-White, postcolonial Other shall be heard, critically, examined, and its agency theorized. Examining Chinese practitioners’ memoirs in the 21st century on their services in sub-Saharan Africa, this paper studies the triangular - and often fluid - racialization of the Chinese Self, the Black Other, and the White Other. It pinpoints “the modernity zeal” as the central analytical concept in making sense of the racialization dynamics. The deeply entrenched desire for modernity, arising from colonial interactions with the West, heavily shape how Chinese agents contemplate and negotiate their own racialized identity against other racial categories without questioning further the principle of hierarchization itself. Therefore, this paper uncovers postcolonial agents may wield their agency to recreate a self-centric version of the global racial hierarchy.
