Chinese first, woman second: Social media and the cultural identity of female immigrants

ABSTRACT

Based on the conceptual framework of digital diaspora, this article explores the role social media plays in the development of migrant cultural identity and its political potential among digital forms. Using in-depth interviews and online observations, it analyzes the motives, purposes, strategies and outcomes of the use of WeChat, a leading Chinese social media platform, by Chinese female immigrants in Switzerland. Through thematic analysis, the article distills three patterns of WeChat usage by these women. Firstly, it notes how they make use of the technological affordances of WeChat to remain connected with their native culture. Secondly, it explains how, after acquisition of economic capital, they are able to forge a steady intersectional identity in their new host country. And finally, it problematizes their strategy to strive for social equality.

ABSTRACT IN CHINESE

通过深度访谈和线上观察的方法，本文分析了瑞士的中国女性移民在日常生活中使用中国主流社交媒体平台微信的动机、目的、策略和结果。借助主题分析，文章归纳出瑞士中国女性移民微信使用的三种类型。首先，文章探讨了这些女性是如何利用微信的技术可供性与其母文化保持联系的；其次，文章分析了一种稳定的交叉身份是如何在这些女性获取了新的经济资本后得以形成的；最后，文章对这些女性争取社会平等的策略进行了理论反思。

KEYWORDS:

• Immigrant
• social media
• digital technology
• Chinese diaspora

KEYWORDS:

• 移民; 社交媒体; 数字技术; 中国流散

Notes

1 Data retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/255778/number-of-active-wechat-messenger-accounts/.

2 Senior persons traditionally give red packets to junior ones, for example, parents to children or managers to staff for the Chinese New Year, representing expressions of intergenerational care and love. The WeChat feature of “red packets” allows money transfers among contacts, but is generally used by adult children to send money to their aging parents.

3 Chicken Soup for the Soul is an American book series based on true inspirational stories about ordinary people's lives. The series is so popular in China that many we-medias copy its narratives and fabricate similar touching stories and attract wide attention to pursue commercial benefits. Thus, the “chicken-soup-for-the-soul stories” have now become part of widely used internet slang among Chinese netizens that refer satirically to fake anonymously written stories that induce the tears of gullible readers.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Shenzhen University: [grant number 0000020733].

Notes on contributors

Yali Chen

Yali CHEN is PhD candidate of women’s studies at Institute of Gender Studies, University of Geneva. Her research interests include women’s studies and immigration studies. She can be reached at [email protected].

Hao Tian

Hao TIAN is PhD candidate of media and cultural studies at School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University. His research interests include intercultural communication and gender studies. He can be reached at [email protected].

Jiang Chang

Jiang CHANG (corresponding author) is professor of media and cultural studies at School of Media and Communication, Shenzhen University. His research interests include gender studies and internet counterculture studies. He can be reached at [email protected].