Ethnicity in Print Media: Alternative Framings of the Short Story ‘The Gray Robe

Prior research on ethnic minority literature (shaoshu minzu wenxue) has primarily focused on “ground-level” analysis, namely close reading of literary texts by authors registered as members of one of the PRC-officially recognized ethnic minorities. In this paper, instead, I consider the “external” framings assigned by publishers to a literary text. “The Gray Robe”—a short story by Hui Muslim author Shi Shuqing—serves as case study. Publishers have framed this story as “ethnic literature” but also as regional, Chinese, and Chinese Muslim literature. These competing framings, I claim, are not simple promotional devices. Rather, they are indexical of the latent discourses that posit a civilized literary center versus an unrefined literary periphery. Investigating how publishers package literary works for readers’ consumption enables an understanding of the tacit power dynamics within the modern literary field of China.