Open Access“We Have to Survive, First”: Speculative Ethnographies of Chinese Student Experience During COVID-19
Author(s) -
Yan Dai
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
cultural studies/critical methodologies/cultural studies critical methodologies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1552-356X
pISSN - 1532-7086
DOI - 10.1177/15327086211050041
Subject(s) - autoethnography , covid-19 , ethnography , context (archaeology) , isolation (microbiology) , sociology , media studies , history , gender studies , anthropology , medicine , disease , archaeology , pathology , virology , biology , outbreak , infectious disease (medical specialty) , microbiology and biotechnology
Our speculative ethnography of Chinese student experience in the United States during COVID-19 weds the tradition of speculative fiction (exemplified by the likes of Margaret Atwood and Octavia Butler) and digital autoethnography. The study is two-pronged: First, we articulate/map the methodological merits of speculative and digital autoethnography as particularly conducive to the crisis context of COVID-19 and its accompanying social isolation; second, we deploy said methodology within a population of nine Chinese students “trapped” in the United States during the COVID-19 period.