Moralities and contradictories in the educational aid for Tibet: contesting the multi-layered saviour complex

Abstract

ABSTRACT Since 2015, China has established a ‘Group Form of Educational Aid for Tibet’ programme to dispatch ethnic Han majority teachers from inland cities to teach in Tibetan schools for a short period of time. Through the programme, the state aims to offer the gift of educational development to this highland area with a concentrated Tibetan minority population. With data from official documents, school observations, interviews, and colloquiums, this study examines the moralities and contradictories in the process of educational aid for Tibet (EAT). Analyses on the narratives of the aid-Tibet teachers (ATT) have revealed a multi-layered ‘saviour complex’ parallel to the ‘White saviour complex’ in Western societies. The construction of the Tibetan environment as harsh – given its high altitude, oxygen scarcity, geographic remoteness, inconvenient transportation, and underdeveloped economy – is critical to the construction of ATTs as moral actors. The aid is glorified as moral sacrifice and the contributions of ATTs from the developed inland for the state, the peripheral Tibet, and Tibetans are accentuated, while the benefits they have enjoyed and the contradictories in the aid process are underemphasised. This study sheds light on ethnic politics in China by critically unpacking the ‘saviour complex’ in the developmental discourses.