Learning to ‘tell China’s story well’ : higher education policy and public diplomacy in Chinese international education

ABSTRACTTaking the Learning to ‘tell Chinese’s story well’ narrative prevalent in policies as a starting point, this article draws on data collected from a provincial university and delves into the institutional involvement and support in response to the state’s international higher education policies. By foregrounding the underlying structures of power and control, I illustrate the mechanisms by which the policy was translated into and implemented through the practice of the hidden curriculum – an integrated approach of ‘listening’, ‘watching’ and ‘telling’ at the meso level, where international students’ aspirations were shaped (or not). This ‘implementation study’ offers a valuable contribution to the growing scholarship of recent policy studies, especially in the Chinese context, and thus adds to understandings about how the official discourse becomes integral to mid-level institutions’ routine and everyday practices and processes. The implications of China’s experiences and the direction of further study are discussed.KEYWORDS: Education policyinternational studentsChinahigher education‘tell China’s story well’public diplomacy Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China – Centre for Language Education and Cooperation (general project) [grant number: 22YH45C].