Knowledge

Whose knowledge it is? And whose right it is to construct knowledge?

Several days ago when I read Rey Chow's comment on "Western anthropologists persistently neglect the colonial situation persistently lies at the origin of their field of research in most part of the world", I was shattered by her fierce criticism. I thought that I could never write such confrontational words.

Little did I know that exactly 3 days later, I was put in a even more confrontational situation - an anthropologist, a full professor, a colonialist with her stubborn Western ideas on what China is and Chinese should be; and me, a graduate student looking for a committee member. I found my situation was even more difficult than Rey Chow's - the disproportional power structure in between of us made it impossible for me to utter the powerful and emotional thoughts that Rey Chow has put in my heart.

The Chinese people's opinions and words shouldn't be accounted for because the video was not made for them. It was taken-for-grantedly made for the West. Thus, the voices from those who are supposedly represented in the video should be subdued. In its reflexivity, China is only important when it's positioned in relation to the West. How Chinese consume and interpret this video doesn't matter because the Western world don't care.

And this is the logic of constructing knowledge that has been practicing for hundreds of years. This is the knowledge that they want to see and repeat, the construction of which, ironically, conspires with the imperialism/colonialism. And it misleads us to believe in this is all about an objective world that you can grasp and see.

Knowledge.Objectivity.Positionality.