Forming Chinese Identity through Digital Media: A Study on the Chinese International Students' Chineseness

Abstract

This research explores the role of digital media in the identity negotiation of Chinese international students (CIS) who moved to Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2022) to provide a new perspective that deepens the existing understanding of anti-Chinese racism and CIS’s identity negotiation in Canada. This study analyzes how CIS used digital media tools to make sense of and respond to anti-Chinese racism and the stereotypical representation of Chinese people in North America. Also, it explores the various factors in participants’ acculturation and post-graduation settlement plan in Canada. For this study, I interviewed 20 CIS who relocated to Canada and registered at York University in and after 2019, and I also studied their digital media habits to understand the factors that influenced their identity negotiation in Canada. In agreement with the four modes of acculturation (Berry, 2013), most participants show different levels of integration into Canadian society and a determination to stay in Canada or travel outside of China as a long-term settlement plan. In their identity negotiation process, digital media provides opportunities for participants to create new connections, learn local culture and language, navigate Canadian life, receive information, find their voice, form communities and combat injustice. However, digital media also has a negative side that exposes participants to racists and marginalizes CIS from representations in Western mainstream media. Therefore, this research argues that institutional support through digital media from the Canadian government and universities can be crucial to the elimination of social injustice and the creation of an inclusive and democratic society.