Orientalist Afterlives: Theorizing Discourse about Peppa Pig and China : WestminsterResearch

Publication dates
Title	Orientalist Afterlives: Theorizing Discourse about Peppa Pig and China
Type	Journal article
Authors	Kendall, P.
Abstract	In recent years, there have been numerous English-language reports on the purported censorship of Peppa Pig in China. This paper goes beyond this discourse to explore both how this British animation was translated into Chinese popular culture and how English-language news outlets subsequently responded to Peppa’s presence in China. Firstly, it examines how the dubbing of Peppa Pig into Chinese facilitated promotional claims about the universal appeal of this animation. Secondly, it shows how Peppa Pig’s subsequent popularity in China prompted a promotional shift towards a self-conscious localization of the brand with the release of the film Peppa Pig Celebrates Chinese New Year (小猪佩奇过大年). Thirdly, this paper explores how English-language news reporting became distorted in its claims about the extent of Peppa Pig’s censorship in China. Theoretically, I argue that both the localization of Peppa Pig and English-language journalistic discourse about the animation in China have been permeated by an afterlife of Orientalism. As an afterlife, this is a discourse which lacks the all-encompassing qualities of Edward Said’s classic Orientalism, but which continues to draw upon the Orientalist idea of an absolute distinction between ‘the East’ and ‘the West’.
Keywords	Orientalism
	animation
	Peppa Pig
	reception
	discourse
	Chinese studies
Journal	East Asian Journal of Popular Culture
Journal citation	9 (2), pp. 191-207
ISSN	2051-7084
	2051-7092
Year	2023
Publisher	Intellect
Accepted author manuscript	File Access Level Open (open metadata and files)
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)	https://doi.org/10.1386/eapc_00107_1
Published online	25 Sep 2023

Related outputs

‘For Us Foreigners, Licking Your Fingers Clean is a Good Habit’: On Learning Chinese and Learning About Discourse from Chinese-language Textbooks.
Kehoe, S., Kendall, P. and Wielander, G. 2023. ‘For Us Foreigners, Licking Your Fingers Clean is a Good Habit’: On Learning Chinese and Learning About Discourse from Chinese-language Textbooks. in: Hird, D. (ed.) Critical Pedagogies for Modern Languages Education Bloomsbury. pp. 183-199

‘For Us Foreigners, Licking Your Fingers Clean is a Good Habit’: On Learning Chinese and Learning About Discourse from Chinese-language Textbooks.
Kehoe, S., Kendall, P. and Wielander, G. 2022. ‘For Us Foreigners, Licking Your Fingers Clean is a Good Habit’: On Learning Chinese and Learning About Discourse from Chinese-language Textbooks. Critical Pedagogy for Modern Languages Education Workshop. Lancaster 04 - 05 Feb 2022

Translating Wang Xiaoshuai: From Third Front to Cultural Revolution
Kendall, P. 2022. Translating Wang Xiaoshuai: From Third Front to Cultural Revolution . British Journal of Chinese Studies. 12 (1), pp. 40-59. https://doi.org/10.51661/bjocs.v12i1.133

Music, Identity, and Community
Kendall, P., Zou, Sheng, Chu, Yiu-Wai, Morcom, Anna and Harris, Rachel 2021. Music, Identity, and Community. in: Kehoe, S. and Wielander, G. (ed.) Cultural China 2020: The Contemporary China Centre Review London University of Westminster Press. pp. 45-63

Heritage and Memory
Verdini, G., Evans, H., Demgenski, P., Kendall, P. and Zhang, L. 2021. Heritage and Memory. in: Kehoe, S. and Wielander, G. (ed.) Cultural China 2020: The Contemporary China Centre Review London University of Westminster Press. pp. 85-102

Ruins on Ruins: Forgetting, Commemorating and Re-Forgetting the Third Front
Kendall, P. 2020. Ruins on Ruins: Forgetting, Commemorating and Re-Forgetting the Third Front.

The Sounds of Social Space: Branding, Built Environment, and Leisure in Urban China
Kendall, P. 2019. The Sounds of Social Space: Branding, Built Environment, and Leisure in Urban China. Honolulu, Hawaii University of Hawaii Press.

The Location of Cultural Authenticity: Identifying the Real and the Fake in Urban Guizhou
Kendall, P. 2017. The Location of Cultural Authenticity: Identifying the Real and the Fake in Urban Guizhou. The China Journal. 77, pp. 93-109. https://doi.org/10.1086/688851

Small-City Music, China
Kendall, P. 2016. Small-City Music, China. in: Murray, Jeremy A. and Nadeau, Kathleen M. (ed.) Pop Culture in Asia and Oceania Santa Barbara, California ABC-CLIO. pp. 61-63

Ethnic Music, China
Kendall, P. 2016. Ethnic Music, China. in: Murray, Jeremy A. and Nadeau, Kathleen M. (ed.) Pop Culture in Asia and Oceania Santa Barbara, California ABC-CLIO. pp. 12-15

The Oriental and the Music Hall: Sound and Space in Thomas Burke’s Limehouse Chinatown
Kendall, P. 2015. The Oriental and the Music Hall: Sound and Space in Thomas Burke’s Limehouse Chinatown. in: Witchard, A. (ed.) British Modernism and Chinoiserie Edinburgh Edinburgh University Press. pp. 156-176

Between Big City and Authentic Village: Branding the Small Chinese City
Kendall, P. 2015. Between Big City and Authentic Village: Branding the Small Chinese City. CITY. 19 (5), pp. 665-680. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2015.1071116

Permalink - https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/w205z/orientalist-afterlives-theorizing-discourse-about-peppa-pig-and-china

File access - Request a copy

Orientalist Afterlives: Theorizing Discourse about Peppa Pig and China

Related outputs

Restricted files

Share this

Usage statistics

Export as