CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Ouyang, Mingzhu |
|---|---|
| Title | Mobility and Connection: Media Practices of Chinese International Students and the Renegotiation of "Imagined Communities" in the Digital Age |
| Summary | This thesis analyzes the social media practices of Chinese international students in Europe, examining how they manage transnational connections, adapt to significant changes in student life, and renegotiate their sense of national belonging in the digital era. Using Benedict Anderson's theory of "imagined communities," the research investigates how different social media platforms like WeChat, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu influence students' interactions with multiple, sometimes conflicting, "imagined communities". Based on in-depth interviews, the study shows that students are active agents who strategically use these platforms to manage their "absent presence," build connections, and perform their identities. Key findings indicate that digital media have profoundly altered the international student experience. This includes enabling constant connection, which can both ease absence and complicate presence, changing daily life through new information environments and social patterns (introducing challenges like a dual life and "information cocoons"), and creating new spaces where national belonging is both formed (e.g., through "cloud New Year greetings" or responses to events like the Sydney attacks on Xiaohongshu) and contested (e.g., when facing different views on the Taiwan issue). The study introduces a typology of "Transient" and "Integrated" students to explain differences in their media use and sense of belonging. "Transient" students often prioritize their connection to their home country and its narratives, mainly using Chinese domestic platforms. In contrast, “Integrated” students are more open to multiple "imagined communities," use a wider array of platforms, and adopt more reflective or pragmatic approaches to conflicting narratives. These types represent a spectrum, and students' positions on it can evolve. The research extends Anderson's theory by showing that digital media foster a complex and fluid landscape of multiple belongings for transnational individuals, rather than just reinforcing a single national identity. |
| Supervisor | Anna Lea Berg; Prem Kumar Rajaram |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/ouyang_mingzhu.pdf |
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