China nears gold on world stage

The People’s Republic of China will be seen as a more modern state on the world stage because of the Olympics according to Eric Henry, one of Carleton University’s newest faculty members. Henry joins the department of sociology and anthropology as an assistant professor with a wide knowledge of China.

China took a risk hosting the Olympics because of the widespread exaggerated view of the communist state “where the idea of Tiananmen Square comes to mind,” says Henry. China made a bid for the Olympics because it wanted to execute an extravagant event to show the world its importance as a state and economic powerhouse, and its people as global citizens. This is of particular interest to Henry given his research areas include Chinese interpretations of themselves on the world stage.

Henry says China’s Olympic success will help the world view it as a modern state, which will be visible in Western representations of Chinese popular culture. He says media depicted China through a very stereotypical fashion with an exaggerated martial arts fantasy during the 1970s. Now, we will begin to see a more subtle, realistic view of the country such as the way China is already being portrayed in films like the popular Kung Fu Panda.

The professor also studies how language serves as a critical component through which Chinese urban residents imagine themselves being transformed from backwards peasants to modern global citizens. Henry explains that the Chinese use English to reinforce China’s image as a modern state as opposed to a developing country: “It’s more than a language. It is a transformation which allows them to move into foreign spaces and travel abroad; a means of leaving peasantry behind and entering the contemporary world.” Henry refers to an Olympic ceremony where a Chinese pop star alternated between singing Chinese and English to illustrate his point. “This was a way for him to say to the people ‘I possess the qualities of a cosmopolitan global citizen,’” says Henry.

The Waterloo native plans to expand his research by examining English and Chinese code switching which is when people alternate between speaking both languages. Henry says the way people change between linguistic codes explains a lot about language and culture.