Teaching a simplified China? A linguistic landscape analysis of international Chinese textbooks for international students from a Global South perspective

Amid the rising influence of the Global South, China has emerged as an important educational hub. Within the ‘educational turn’ in linguistic landscape (LL) research, international Chinese textbooks constitute a key site of linguistic input and cultural mediation, yet systematic analyses of textbook LLs remain limited. This study examines how international Chinese textbooks construct LLs and shape international students’ understandings of China. Drawing on an LL framework and the concept of affective regime, it analyses seven widely used beginner-level international Chinese textbooks in terms of language presence and LL illustrations. The findings reveal a pattern of pedagogical simplification: Simplified Chinese overwhelmingly dominates, non-standard varieties are marginalised, English functions as the primary mediating language, cultural illustrations center on traditional Chinese symbols, and public signage is largely task-oriented with limited critical potential. Together, these features operate through a textbook-based affective regime to produce a streamlined and pedagogically manageable image of China, constraining learners’ engagement with linguistic diversity, cultural plurality, and social complexity. From a Global South perspective, the study calls for more socially grounded and critically oriented textbook design in international Chinese education.