The Love-Hate Relationship: The Construction of Othering as Reflected in the Discourses of Some Media Representations of the Chinese in Zambia
Mildred Nkolola-Wakumelo
University of Zambia
The relations between Zambia and China date back to the immediate post-independence period as Zambia was one of the first countries on the Africa continent to sign diplomatic relations with China in 1964. Since then Chinese investors have increasingly become prominent players in most of Zambia’s key economic sectors. Most significant amongst these being the mining sector where it is estimated that about 5 percent of Zambia’s copper output is produced by Chinese mining companies, and almost all the products from the Chinese mining companies are sold on the London Metal Exchange, where China buys at least 20 percent of Zambia’s annual copper production (NITRAM Management consultants). Despite this long history of Chinese involvement in the Zambian economic sector their presence in the country has been accepted with mixed feelings.
With a focus from the linguistic perspective and using tenets from critical discourse analysis (van Dijk, 2009; Wodak & Meyer, 2009) and grammars of othering (Baumann’s 2004) this paper will examine the discourses of othering of the Chinese as reflected in the Zambian media. The paper will draw its data from various news items from Zambian mainstream newspapers. It will examine these so as to identify the rhetorical devices, vocabulary and grammatical structures used to depict and construct the Chinese and how the media has used the othering discourses to try and create an identity of the Chinese. The paper will also outline how some major political players in the country have sometimes taken advantage of these othering discourses to try and gain political mileage.
