“Neutral” vs. “pure” accents: the racialization of Filipino and EuroAmerican teachers in China’s online education industry during the covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

The early Covid-19 pandemic intensified the employment of online English teachers in China’s private educational market. White EuroAmerican English teachers have long been idealized by offline schools. However, the rising number of Filipino teachers employed by private companies online led to a more competitive field of English teaching, where companies tried to promote their teachers’ English accents in relation to their racialized identities in order to attract consumers from other platforms. Based on online ethnographic research, this article uncovers the marketing and management strategies of two major Chinese online educational companies, one focusing on the recruitment of Filipino teachers, and the other on EuroAmerican teachers; these companies developed their strategies partially in competition with each other. This article demonstrates how Chinese online education companies have competed to associate English-language accents with “race” through the teachers they employ.