Trump's "Chinese Virus" Rhetoric and Weibo Users' Resistance: What This Means for Antiracist Curriculum

• In Event: Raciolinguistic Issues in Teaching and Learning

Abstract

The current study explores how Sina Weibo (Chinese Twitter) users resisted Trump
and his administration’s ‘Chinese virus’ rhetoric. We collected 1,250 comments from
three Weibo feeds. Using multimodal critical discourse analysis ( Machin & Mayr,
2012 ), we examine both visual and verbal discourse to reveal the discursive strategies
used to build counter-discourses that fight against the dominant discourse. We also
demonstrate the potential of Weibo as a platform of resistance and a place for fighting
social injustice and racism. Finally, we explain how critical multimodal analysis of
social media discourse can be harnessed by educators to teach about systemic racism.

Authors

• Peiwen Wang, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

• Theresa Catalano, University of Nebraska - Lincoln