Writing down our happiness and dreams: essay contest and the statist narratives of deaf identity in China. Issue 1 (2nd January 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lin, Zihao
• Is Part Of: Disability & society. Volume 36:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 38
• Page End: 57
• Publication Date: 2021-01-02
• Subjects: Cultural representation -- deafness -- narrative identity -- disabled persons' organization -- state-society relations -- China; People with disabilities -- Periodicals; People with disabilities -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; Special education -- Periodicals; Rehabilitation -- Periodicals; 362.4
• DOI: 10.1080/09687599.2020.1715923
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0968-7599

Abstract

Abstract: Identities are not pre-given but are socially constructed with performative power. Taking a critical discursive approach, this study explores how the cultural understandings of deafness and the deaf community become intertwined with ideas of the 'state-home' (guo jia) in contemporary China. The paper analyzes forty award-winning biographical essays written by Chinese citizens with hearing disabilities in a 2016 national essay contest. The paper argues that the paradigmatic narratives from the essay contest correspond to the disability policy framework of the Chinese government in the market-reform era. The implications of these statist narratives of deaf identity need to be critically reflected as the human body becomes a central site of governance and governmentality in China during this stage. Points of interest: This study looks at autobiographical essays written by deaf people in China Essay contests organized for deaf people in China have opened up possibilities of expressing and sharing deaf experiences, but such events need to be analyzed critically. In China, the government plays an important role in orienting the disabled peoples' organization The individual's development and national development are inseparable in China's disability advocacy