Network for Research into Chinese Education Mobilities (NRCEM)

作者李怡豪，系UCLA PhD in SSCE (Social Science & Comparative Education)，主要研究中国教育、教育政治、全球化、批判理论等。

Audio Podcast for Episode 4 中文总结

In this episode, we speak with Jenny (a pseudonym), an assistant professor in a country in Central Asia. In January 2020, she was about to conclude her maternity leave in Hungary, where her husband’s family is based. This unique life trajectory has enabled Jenny to share her observations on the contrasting and evolving beliefs, behaviour and coping strategies of peoples across national borders amid the COVID 19 global pandemic.

In January 2020, while in Budapest, Jenny was deeply concerned about her family and friends as the COVID 19 outbreak in China was getting more serious. However, she reflected that experiences of the 2003 SARS pandemic had left the people of China a heightened sense of alert, which was manifested in their strict and willing compliance with public hygienic protocols during pandemics. For instance, people adhered strictly to practices such as wearing masks, washing hands regularly, avoiding visiting public spaces, disinfecting public spaces. In comparison, she observed that in Hungary, during that period, people went about their lives in a ‘business as usual’ mode, while the mainstream media paid little attention to an outbreak that was taking place in a faraway place like China. As soon as she returned to work in late January to Central Asia, she noted that the people began to wear masks and disposable gloves in public, displaying a heightened sense of self-protection. The local government had also taken measures to reduce or stop international flights with the COVID 19 outbreak hotspots, such as China. She suggested that such strict measures might have to do with a few reasons. First, the country shares a long border with China with a large number of cross-border traders, which can facilitate easy spread of the outbreak. Second, the local government and public were concerned about its health system’s capacity in handling a pandemic as such.

Regarding impacts of the COVID 19 global pandemic on her life, Jenny revealed that she only recently finished her 9 months-long maternity leave, during which she had little academic involvement other than reviewing for some journals. She was therefore ambitious about getting back to her academic research once she returned to work, by getting childcare support from a local nanny. However, only two weeks after she returned to work, the COVID 19 outbreak had hit her city. She had to begin working from home as the university had moved its entire operation to online modes. Meanwhile, her university community had come to an agreement to stop having nannies and cleaners visit families on campus to stop further spread of the virus, while continuing to pay for their services. This means that Jenny now has to work a double ‘shift’ of taking care of her new-born baby and her academic duties. This has been a challenging task, leaving her feeling utterly exhausted, both physically and mentally. She confessed that her original plans had been disrupted significantly and she is now still getting used to these current arrangements. Meanwhile, due the COVID 19 outbreak, she felt further estranged from her families in China and in Hungary, which made her feel powerless.

As for her academic activities, she suggested that all her international conferences have been cancelled. As for conferences that were scheduled to take place in the second half of 2020, she has decided not to apply for them as the outbreak situation is still rather uncertain. Now she mainly relied on online technologies and social media to communicate with her academic colleagues. She is able to adapt to such communication modes, although she would have preferred the human touch provided by face to face communication.

This COVID 19 outbreak has made Jenny develop new research directions, especially in relation to the roles of online education amid global pandemics. In addition, she is intrigued by the implications on international higher education, no matter the economic impacts on higher education institutions, or the lived experiences of international students, especially the Chinese international students.

As a Chinese scholar working overseas, Jenny has felt hints of anti-China sentiments in her daily conversations with colleagues and friends, as well in mainstream media depiction. This has made her feel uncomfortable. And yet, she suggested that such issues cannot be easily clarified/debated in a short conversation. Therefore, she had begun to ponder over future actions if similar pandemics strike and protective mechanisms that are in place. Reflecting on her recent experiences, she has identified two major protective mechanisms. The first is the Chinese Embassy in her place of work. She has paid close attention to the daily updates of the Chinese Embassy in regard to how the Chinese government may take measures to protect its overseas citizens. The second protective mechanism is her employer.

This pandemic has also made Jenny reflect on the different values of the ‘East’ and the ‘West’. She reflected that in the beginning, it seemed that western individuals placed much more emphasis on individual freedom and rejected measures such as self-isolation and social distancing. However, as the virus further spread globally, more nuanced and diversified discussion and debates have emerged. For her personally, she has felt that this pandemic has reminded her resoundingly how closely we are connected with each other, and an individual has to shoulder great responsibility for protecting not only themselves, but also the health and welfare of the entire community, through adhering to public health protocols.

Episode 3 Podcast in English

Lilia（化名）是英格兰东北地区一所高校二年级的博士研究生。她向中国教育流动网络指出今年初，当中国新冠肺炎疫情开始变严重时，作为一个从中国来的学生，她有时候走在英国街上，或者去超市时会感觉当地人似乎有意避开她。这个让她有些失望，毕竟她曾经觉得英国是比较包容的国家，对不同种族应该都会持友善态度。但是后来她自己做出心态上的调整和适应，而且她从二月开始就已经不去大超市购物，而她平时和英国邻居，同事相处时更多的是感受到他们的友善，这个和一般媒体上报道的西方社会呈现的针对亚洲面孔种族歧视行为有所不同。

Lilia本来打算2020年3月-5月期间回中国调研进行田野工作，但是新冠肺炎疫情让她的计划全部泡汤，这个使她措手不及，十分沮丧。她就读的大学也建议她不要回国。现在她在考虑把田野工作所需要的访谈改为线上访谈，只是她原来筹划进行田野纪录片的拍摄剪辑工作似乎已经无法进行了。另外, 由于博士生期间比较少机会上课(如方法论和理论课)，Lilia十分珍惜她们大学提供的70小时的博士生训练课程，她觉得这是绝好的时机让她接触来自不同背景的老师，学习新鲜的研究方法和理论心得。此次新冠肺炎疫情让大学被迫取消此类课程，或者转为线上教学，让Lilia有点失望。她原来报名参加的学术会议，工作坊等也统统取消，让Lilia失去很多与同行切磋，与同辈交流的机会。 应该说，对于正在就读博士2年纪的Lilia来说，此次新冠疫情对于她的学术论文进度有所影响。

总体而言，这次新冠疫情对于Lilia的情感方面也诸多考验，从一开始非常担心在中国父母家人的安危，到现在父母对自己的担忧，以及对与博士研究计划的打乱。不过，她也有办法排解。她说她每天继续保持读书写作的工作状态，也更多地和家人朋友视讯沟通，这个是她处理新冠疫情对自己情绪和工作的挑战的方法。

中国教育流动研究网络十分感谢Lilia同学的分享。我们祝她和家人身体健康，也希望她用非凡的创造力来成功完成她的博士研究。

Audio Podcast of Episode 2

In this episode, we speak with Ms Jiexiu Chen, a final year PhD student at University College London’s Institute of Education (UK). Jiexiu’s experiences during this COVID 19 global pandemic could be characterised by these key words: sense of loss, danger vs safety, anxiety and uncertainty. She found the phrase ‘fighting a full battle’ (打全场) fitting in depicting Chinese international students like herself. She explained that the initial outbreaks in China had got her really worried, and now that the pandemic has been spread across the world, she experienced an overload of information. She was struggling to orient herself amid constant bombardment of fast-evolving pandemic updates. She depicted her state of mind as being ‘at a loss’ (迷茫).

Speaking of the UK, Jiexiu was confused and troubled by the shifting pandemic containment strategies, first the ‘herd immunity’ strategy, and then the tighter and stricter measures. She revealed that Chinese international students like herself in the UK began practising self-isolation strategies fairly early. However, she felt a noticeable sense of danger because in her shared student accommodation, other residents went about their lives ‘business as usual’. They continued to frequent crowded places such as bars. This made it almost impossible for her to exercise social distancing as there was no controllable social and life boundary within her accommodation.

Jiexiu was thus presented with the challenging scenario: to leave or to stay. She confided that had she got a chance to practise proper self-isolation and social distancing in the UK, she would not have chosen to leave, because of the many added uncertainties about travelling against the COVID 19 global spread. She considered returning to China, and yet the shifting provision of flights back home has posed tremendous anxiety on her. She cited a friend who has reserved a flight ticket back to China in early April and now (late March) is not even sure if the seat is still available due to the reduced flights.

Eventually Jiexiu decided to join her nuclear family in Germany where she can properly exercise social distancing and regain her feeling about being safe and being in control of her living environment.

When asked to comment on her university’s arrangements for international students, she found it touching that UCL promised to provide accommodation for international students who may not be able to return home. She suggested that this safety net is pivotal during such times of great uncertainty, especially after she learned that some Chinese students were left without a place to stay after they realised that their flights were unexpectedly cancelled. Despite this, she felt that the university’s decision-making could have been more timely, e.g. in advising students to leave their accommodation for home. This somewhat delayed advice has led some students (e.g. one of her housemates) to have to cancel his plan to return home as they missed the best opportunity to travel internationally. She, however, understood that the university had to consider many different factors before they could make their decisions.

Jiexiu suggested that she has had to learn to work from home now as she was more used to working in the library. She has also tried out having supervision meetings with her doctoral supervisors online, which is somewhat of a learning curve for herself and her supervisors. Relatedly, now she has to consider arranging a virtual PhD oral defence (viva) as her graduation draws near. It is indeed a time of marked changes with lots of adaptations to be made.

When queried about her future plans, Jiexiu commented that the COVID 19 pandemic has dealt a huge blow on her ability to plan for the future. She revealed that just in February, she could not have foreseen that the world would turn out to be what it is now. Whereas in January and February, her friends all considered returning to China to be dangerous moves, in March the table has been completely turned. Such uncertainties have posed substantial pressure and stress on international students like her, especially when they struggled to decide whether to leave or to stay.

On the more positive side, this global pandemic has given rise to unprecedented opportunities for Jiexiu to connect with her friends from all over the world. She was rather touched by her friends’ warm-hearted messages when the world learned about the UK government’s ‘herd immunity’ strategy. Likewise, when the pandemic in the US has turned more severe, she has been in constant touch with her friends there, providing emotional supports. In a sense, the pandemic has rekindled and renewed her friendships.

We are grateful to Jiexiu’s sharing and we wish her and her family good health. Keep well!

Episode 1 Podcast Audio

In this episode, we speak with Miss Yitian REN, a first year PhD student at The University of Manchester (UK), originally from Xi’an, Shaanxi, China. Yitian shared her experiences as a Chinese international student amid the current COVID-19 Global Pandemic. She reflected on her emotional journey throughout different stages and different regional outbreaks. Initially, when COVID 19 brought China to a standstill, she was deeply concerned about the safety of her loved ones back in China. She tried to order masks online for her parents in China using e-commerce platforms like Taobao. Then, as the pandemic struck the Western world, she is now confined to her accommodation in Manchester, unable to carry out her normal social activity. Although the national lockdown in the UK has not impacted severely on her academic progress, she reflected that it has had considerable negative impacts on her fellow PhD students whose fieldwork plans had to be postponed or altered. The COVID-19 global pandemic has also led to the cancellation or postponement of almost all international academic conferences in her field. As a PhD student, this has greatly reduced opportunities for her to have face-to-face communication and exchange with seasoned scholars in her field. She also agreed that the differentiated national strategies in containing the COVID19 outbreaks across the world may have potential impacts on Chinese international students’ future career plans, for example, their preferred work destinations.

Yitian mentioned the emotional toll that this global pandemic has had on her, e.g. anxiety triggered by profound and prolonged uncertainties, as well as sorrow brought by daily updates of spiky global infections and death cases.

Moreover, Yitian has experienced intricate emotional ups and downs amid concerns about racism against Chinese/East Asian people in Western societies. She revealed a sense of unease wearing masks in public, but pointed out that she has had very positive experiences as all the local people around her are friendly and understanding. However, due to selective reporting and magnifying of racist incidents in global media, her loved ones back in China have been extremely worried for her.

On the brighter side, Yitian acknowledged that her communication with her parents back in China has been much more frequent due to mutual concerns about safety. This has inadvertently strengthened her emotional ties with her parents.

Reflecting on the Chinese communities’ experiences in Western societies, Yitian felt that their awareness of the severity of COVID-19 has been much higher than many of their Western counterparts. This has shaped their behaviour, e.g. wearing masks and buying masks way before Western counterparts began to think about buying masks.

Yitian decided to stay in the UK instead of going back to China amid the waves of panic resulting from UK’s initial herd immunity strategy and slower measures to contain the pandemic. She suggested three reasons. First, she felt that since she chose to study in the UK, she would prefer to engage with the community in the UK amid this pandemic to get a better understanding of the local community and culture. Second, she found the skyrocketing air ticket prices (due to limited supplies of international flights) unaffordable. Third, as there are now fewer direct flights, travelling home would mean around 30 hours on transit, which can increase the chances for her to contract the virus on her journey home. In comparison, working from home in the UK may pose less danger. Despite her own decision to stay in the UK, she could completely understand the decision for other students who decided to fly back to China, as there are far too many uncertainties about staying abroad under the current circumstances.

It has been a great pleasure to speak with Yitian on her views and experiences amid the current COVID-19 global pandemic. We wish Yitian and her loved ones good health!