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Visual Essay

Short videos as affective contagion: (Un)locked WeChat chatlogs on viral videos

 

Abstract

This visual essay is a documentation of a series of morbid short videos circulating in local Wuhan chat groups at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, attached with video screenshots and adjacent chatlogs. The data was collected during the author's home quarantine in Wuhan in early 2020. This visual essay aims at viscerally exhibiting the circulation of emotions ranging from anxiety to boredom to lethargy via group conversations surrounding these short videos. Hopefully, they can serve as an archive and a miniature of a societal meltdown that is readily forgotten.

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ge Zhang

Ge Zhang is a postdoctoral fellow in the College of Media and International Culture, Zhejiang University. More of his writings can be found at anthropos.live.

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