Aesthetic strategic narratives and political artwork: revisiting the Australia-China spat over Wuheqilin's Peace Force illustration.
This article sheds light on how visual images—particularly non-photographic artwork—can shape international incidents between states. It employs an interpretive framework based on aesthetic theory and strategic narrative to examine the 2020 diplomatic spat between Australia and China over an illustr...
| Publicado en: | Pacific Review Vol. 38; no. 4; pp. 750 - 781 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Jul2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=186130923&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 186130923 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 09512748 5C0 jtl: Pacific Review issn: 09512748 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2025 vid: 38 iid: 4 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 186130923 10.1080/09512748.2024.2434670 ppf: 750 ppct: 31 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 3.4MB tig: atl: Aesthetic strategic narratives and political artwork: revisiting the Australia-China spat over Wuheqilin's Peace Force illustration. aug: au: Sun, Sibei Li, Wanrong affil: Department of Government and Public Administration, University of Macau, Macau, China Department of Communication, University of Macau, Macau, China su: Australia-China relations Child murder Afghans International relations National character China sug: subj: China Australia-China relations Child murder Afghans International relations National character keyword: Aesthetics internarrativity strategic narrative visual politics wolf warrior diplomacy ab: This article sheds light on how visual images—particularly non-photographic artwork—can shape international incidents between states. It employs an interpretive framework based on aesthetic theory and strategic narrative to examine the 2020 diplomatic spat between Australia and China over an illustration titled Peace Force by Chinese digital artist Wuheqilin. Peace Force, which depicts an Australian soldier murdering an Afghan child in reference to the Brereton Report, elicited uncharacteristically angry responses from the Australian government. We argue that Australia's strong response to Peace Force was more than a mere deflection strategy, but instead a collective emotional response by Australian elites to a visually-conveyed narrative threat to Australia's national identity. Australia's counter-narrative strategy was not only to contest the Chinese visual narrative's political message but also the aesthetic essence of the image itself, including the non-photographic visual medium. Based on this case, we suggest that strategic narratives involving political artwork contain both 'political' and 'aesthetic' layers with equal importance. In addition to providing a detailed account of a particularly notorious incident in Australia-China relations, this article contributes to the broader visual politics and strategic narrative agendas in international relations. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Pacific Review is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Pacific Review holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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