Decolonizing critique through non-Western onto-epistemology: Chinese international students’ affective engagement with AI-generated artworks

This paper explores how qi onto-epistemology, rooted in non-Western philosophical and aesthetic traditions, can decolonize critique in higher education by challenging Eurocentric conceptions of rational, self-sufficient subjects. Crucial to this exploration is a combination of an affective, holistic view of experience and a fluid and contingent perspective on creative activities. Through the theoretical lens of qi, the study investigates Chinese international students’ engagement with OpenAI’s DALL·E to generate cross-cultural artworks. Findings from the reflection essays and three case studies demonstrate how students’ interactions with generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) fostered an evolving understanding of critical AI literacy and highlighted a deeply affective, entangled, and situated practice. Fifteen Chinese-background students from a first-year writing course critiqued the AI-generated artworks and revealed social and cultural stereotypes. This paper argues for a more inclusive and culturally responsive approach to critical AI literacy, with implications for integrating non-Western onto-epistemological perspectives into AI-assisted education.