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Year:: 2019
Contributor:: Conrad, Nathaniel (creator); Perry, Samuel (thesis advisor); Shih, Elena (reader); Brown University. East Asian Studies (sponsor)
Genre:: theses
Subject:: Social media; China; Students; Cross-cultural studies; Anthropology; Interviews; Taiwan; Digital media--Social aspects
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26300/mb9w-7j94

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Abstract:: This study proceeded from the tentative hypothesis that the unique social media landscape in the People’s Republic of China might be considered divided from other social media landscapes around the world, and that this has affected the psychosocial adjustment of sojourning students in distinct ways. It explores the nature of this divide, and its relationship with those who cross it, by focusing on the experience of sojourning students who studied abroad along four distinct trajectories: 1) Chinese students who cross the social media divide when they study abroad in western countries; 2) students from western countries who cross the divide when studying abroad in China; 3) Taiwanese students who do not cross the divide when they study abroad in western countries; and finally, 3) students from western countries who do not cross the social media divide when they study abroad in Taiwan. By comparing the difficulties these four groups of students describe with the strategies they used to cope with them, including their use of social media, this paper will attempt to determine the nature and significance of this social media divide, and evaluate whether it poses any unique challenges to those individuals who have opted for an international education within or outside of China. Finally, by foregrounding the particular difficulties and aspirations of these transnational individuals, this paper will attempt to help reframe the discussion over sojourner integration, assimilation, separation, or marginalization into one of sojourner adjustment and adaptation.
Notes:: Senior thesis (AB)--Brown University, 2019; Concentration: East Asian Studies

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Rights: In Copyright
Restrictions on Use: Collection is open for research.

Citation

Conrad, Nathaniel, "Friending over the Great Firewall: An Exploratory Ethnography of Social Media in the People’s Republic of China and the Psychosocial Adjustment of Sojourning Students" (2019). Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://doi.org/10.26300/mb9w-7j94

Friending over the Great Firewall: An Exploratory Ethnography of Social Media in the People’s Republic of China and the Psychosocial Adjustment of Sojourning Students