Continuum

Journal of Media & Cultural Studies

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ccon20

Coping with the ‘double bind’ through vlogging:

pandemic digital citizenship of Chinese
international students

Jian Xu & Xinyu Zhao

To cite this article: Jian Xu & Xinyu Zhao (2021): Coping with the ‘double bind’ through
vlogging: pandemic digital citizenship of Chinese international students, Continuum, DOI:
10.1080/10304312.2021.2008319

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2021.2008319

Published online: 27 Nov 2021.

Submit your article to this journal

View related articles

View Crossmark data

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ccon20
CONTINUUM: JOURNAL OF MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES
https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2021.2008319

Coping with the ‘double bind’ through vlogging: pandemic

digital citizenship of Chinese international students
Jian Xua and Xinyu Zhaob
a
School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University, Melbourne Australia; bSchool of Education,
Deakin University, Melbourne Australia

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
The article examines the vlogging practices of Chinese international Actualizing digital
students during the COVID-19 pandemic and their positive roles in citizenship; Chinese
coping with the double bind. By doing thematic analysis of the international students;
double bind; pandemic;
content of vlog videos generated by Chinese international students
vlogging
on both Chinese and English audio-visual platforms, we identify
three overarching themes of their vlogging stories: ‘everyday per-
sonal experience sharing’, ‘vlogger-generated citizen journalism’
and ‘producing counternarratives’. We argue that Chinese interna-
tional students creatively practice ‘actualizing digital citizenship’
through dual vlogging. Their vlogging implies a strong sense of
civic engagement, connectivity and empowerment, and is condu-
cive to the self-resilience of the affected group as well as their
identity and solidarity building in the crisis. Our research advocates
for a shift of digital citizenship studies to recognize the flexible,
individualized and loosely networked ‘actualizing digital citizen-
ship’ practice. We also call attention to take the everyday digital
practices of the international students seriously to understand their
concerns, needs and resilience in the uncertain and difficult times in
order to better support this vulnerable cohort.

Introduction
During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, international students studying overseas in
many COVID-affected countries have become one of the hardest-hit groups. They have
been facing unprecedented challenges, from transitioning to online learning, job loss,
homelessness, financial difficulty, lack of social support, to discrimination and racism
(Gallagher, Doherty, and Obonyo 2020; Tran, Bui, and Balakrishnan 2021). Many of them
are suffering from loneliness, academic pressure, anxiety, depression or other mental
health issues, which requires urgent attention and action from universities and govern-
ments of host and home countries (Chen et al. 2020; Ma and Miller 2020).
China is the largest origin for international students in the world with a total of 662,100
Chinese students studying abroad in 2018 (Zou 2019). During the pandemic, international
students from China have arguably been experiencing more challenges and difficulties
than those from other countries due to the ‘double bind’ situation they are trapped in. The
‘double bind’ refers to a paradoxical situation in which a person receives conflicting

CONTACT Jian Xu [email protected]

© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 J. XU AND X. ZHAO

messages and does not know how to act as neither is easy to achieve and a successful
response to one usually means a failed response to the other (Bateson et al. 1956, 1963).
Getting stuck in a double bind can often produce stress, confusion and anxiety (Berry
2011).
Since the COVID-19 first broke out in Wuhan, China, in late December 2019 and quickly
spread to the rest of the world, fear of COVID-19 has sparked anti-Chinese racism and
Sinophobia in major Western countries, such as Australia, the UK and the US (Shi 2020; Tan
2020). For example, in the UK, it is reported that overseas students from China are
experiencing high levels of anxiety and insecurity because of increased racism and
discrimination incidents in the pandemic (McKie 2020). Many Chinese overseas students
and their parents and friends at home hope they could return home immediately as the
COVID-19 got well controlled quickly in China and the epicentre has moved to the West.
At the same time, to prevent imported COVID-19 cases from coming to China, the
Chinese government encouraged overseas Chinese students to stay in the host countries
and avoid international travel. Since late March 2020, the Civil Aviation Administration of
China has implemented the ‘Five One’ policy to cap the number of international flights to
keep only one flight per week to travel to and out of China for one foreign country (Zhang
2021). The limited number of inbound flights and sky-high airfares caused by the inter-
national travel restrictions have made the journey back home for overseas Chinese
students extremely challenging and difficult. Moreover, students who successfully man-
aged to return to China are often discriminated by their compatriots who are afraid that
the returnees may bring the overseas virus back to China. They are widely accused online
of ‘adding trouble to China’s anti-epidemic work’, ‘poisoning their compatriots’ and
therefore ‘being unpatriotic’ by nationalists. Being labelled ‘virus spreader’ overseas and
at home and not welcomed by the host and home countries, Chinese international
students are stuck in a double bind situation and are suffering enormous stress and
anxiety.
Research in crisis communication and management has shown that social media play
an important role during and after disasters in information gathering and dissemination,
online community formation, collaborative problem-solving and coping (Houston et al.
2015; Kaewkitipong, Chen, and Ractham 2012; Jung and Moro 2014). The functions of
social media could increase the level of resilience among individuals and help them
pursue a sense of connectivity and empowerment and cope with the crisis situation
(Jurgens and Helsloot 2018; Mano, Kirshcenbaum, and Rapaport 2019). In the COVID-19
crisis, Mano (2020) calls for more in-depth analysis of people’s digital media uses in
various socioeconomic contexts to assess the extent to which digital media could help
people cope with the adversities of the COVD-19 crisis and increase their resilience.
Following Mano’s call, the paper aims to examine ‘vlogging’ – a specific form of digital
storytelling practice based on popular video-sharing sites, of Chinese international stu-
dents in the pandemic – to understand its roles in coping with the double bind.

Dual Vlogging of Chinese international students

Vlogs (short for video blog) refer to short online videos that are commonly produced by
ordinary internet users with the first-person narrative to document their lives or give
comments and express feelings on various topics and are shared with a wide online
 CONTINUUM: JOURNAL OF MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES 3

community on video-sharing platforms (Snelson 2015; Zhang 2018). Vlogging is seen as a

social networking practice through content production and sharing, which allows vlog-
gers to present themselves and connect with viewers online (Christian 2009).
In China, vlog is seen as an ‘imported product’ from the West. Its development is closely
associated with the dramatic rise of China’s short video and live-streaming industries since
2016. It is believed that Chinese international students are China’s earliest grassroots
vloggers who learnt the vlogging format and genre from the West, posted their vlogging
videos on China’s home-grown video sharing platforms and made vlogging a new trend
of social networking practice among Chinese young people (Bin 2019). According to the
statistics released by iiMedia Research, China has 249 million vlog users in 2019. Bilibili
(equivalent to YouTube) is the most popular vlogging platform in China.
As the pioneers of China’s vlogging culture, Chinese international students are active
vloggers on both the global and Chinese video-sharing platforms. Comparing with
domestic vloggers, they are able to vlog on YouTube that is blocked in mainland China.
Their videos are more likely to be viewed by diasporic Chinese and foreigners living
outside China. In the meantime, they can also vlog on Bilibili targeting at domestic
Chinese audiences without any technological and cultural-linguistic barrier though they
are physically overseas. Chang and Gomes (2017) use the term ‘digital journeys’ to
describe phenomenon like this that international students have to adapt to new digital
environment in the host countries but also maintain the habit of using the pre-existing
bundle of information sources in their home countries after they move overseas. Taking
digital media platforms as ‘transnational social fields’ (Wong 2020), scholars found that
the dual experiences of using digital media offered by their home and host countries are
conducive to international students’ social-cultural adjustment, cross-cultural negotiation
and emotional well-being (Park and Noh 2018; Qiu, Lin, and Leung 2013; Zhao 2019,
2020).
The dual vlogging practice of Chinese international students constitutes an important
part of their ‘digital journeys’. During the pandemic, Chinese international students keep
using popular Chinese social media, such as WeChat and Weibo, almost on a daily basis to
maintain connections with family and friends back home and follow what is going on in
China (Wang and Zhao 2021) as they did before the pandemic. Moreover, they have
adopted vlogging as a popular digital storytelling practice to record their everyday lives,
sufferings, frustrations and opinions on COVID-related policies and news events in the
host and home countries (Hou 2020), making this new phenomenon an important topic
for scholarly inquiry. In the following sections, we will first theorize digital storytelling as
actualizing digital citizenship practice. We will then conduct thematic analysis of vlog
videos produced by Chinese international students to examine how they practice actua-
lizing digital citizenship through vlogging during the pandemic. At last, we advocate for
the importance of taking the everyday digital practices of the international students
seriously to better understand and support the affected group in the pandemic.

Digital storytelling as actualizing digital citizenship practice

Storytelling is the art of using oral or written narratives to convey a fact, information and
knowledge to audience in order to arouse their imagination, empathy and aspiration
(National Storytelling Network 2021). It is a powerful ‘cultural’ and ‘communication’ tool
4 J. XU AND X. ZHAO

(Fog et al. 2010; Wertsch 1998) which could be applied in a variety of contexts by
individuals, communities and organizations for various purposes, such as psychotherapy,
political mobilization, self-empowerment, branding, etc. (Ali 2014; Herskovitz and Crystal
2010; Rennie 1994; Polletta 2006). The rise of digital (social) media platforms (e.g. blogs,
MySpace, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok) has unprecedentedly extended the opportunities
for ordinary people to create what Lundby (2008) calls ‘small-scale stories’ which are short,
ubiquitous, self-representational and digitally mediated. This digital storytelling practice
has allowed ‘the whole range of personal stories now being told in potentially public
form’ (Couldry 2008, 42).
Digital storytelling as a cultural movement started from a series of digital storytelling
initiatives created by the Centre for Digital Storytelling (CDS) based in California in 1998
and quickly spread to the UK, Australia and Scandinavia among others (Lundby 2009). The
digital storytelling workshops run across the world aim to produce ‘conversational media’
(Lambert 2006, 17) to support their ordinary-people participants to creatively tell their
personal stories and in the meantime listen to others’ stories by using affordable digital
technologies and accessible publishing platforms. These workshops have various agendas
and objectives, ranging from remembering people who passed away, archiving social
history, community building, education to political advocacy (Vivienne 2016). Collectively,
these initiatives go beyond ‘the expert paradigm’ (Hartley 2008) in traditional media
production and promote the ‘engagement paradigm’ (Loader 2007) and ‘participatory
culture’ (Jenkins 2009), allowing ordinary citizens to represent and affirm themselves,
listen to and network with others, and engage in public life using various digital means.
With the fast penetration of digital media in everyday life and the development of
people’s digital competence of using new digital tools, digital storytelling is no longer
limited to workshop-based or institutionally led projects, and has already become a real
bottom-up, spontaneous and user-generated media practice exercised in the form of
blogging, vlogging and social media posting. This has given rise to what Vivienne (2016, 1,
4) calls ‘everyday activism’ – the personal storytelling and sharing practice in the online
public spaces to express viewpoints, beliefs and values, challenge social norms and seek
social change. The proliferation of digital storytelling worldwide has created possibilities
of new acts of ‘digital citizenship’ (Couldry et al. 2014). In Lange’s words (Lange 2014, 99),
these digitally enabled expressive activities are ‘new forms of civic engagement’ and
exhibit an ‘actualizing citizenship’. Bennett (2008) takes ‘actualizing citizenship’ as an
emerging type of citizenship that is different from the older model of ‘dutiful citizenship’.
It is characterized by its ‘looser personal engagement with peer networks that pool (crowd
source) information and organize civic action using social technologies that maximize
individual expression’ (Lance, Wells, and Freelon 2011, 839). Based on existing conceptual
discussion on ‘digital citizenship’ and ‘actualizing citizenship’, we argue that digital story-
telling is an ‘actualizing digital citizenship’ practice. Different from the traditional sense of
‘digital citizenship’ that emphasizes the norms of appropriate and responsible behaviour
of using digital media (Armfield and Blocher 2019; Bearden 2016), ‘actualizing digital
citizenship’ represents a more flexible, fluid, expressive and individualized digital media
practice embedded in the everyday life of digital generations. These digital actions are
networked in nature and could foster civic engagement through the ‘logic of connective
action based on personalized content sharing across [digital] media networks’ (Lance and
Segerberg 2012, 739).
 CONTINUUM: JOURNAL OF MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES 5

Digital storytelling, in the contexts of personal sufferings (e.g. cancer treatment, school
bullying, trauma), disasters and crises, has vividly demonstrated such ‘actualizing digital
citizenship’, through which, digital citizens could raise consciousness, set agenda, develop
connectivity, empathy, and self-resilience through self-produced content and peer con-
tent sharing on social media (Caron 2017; Hale, Gonzales, and Richardson 2018; Hou 2019;
Tokgöz 2019).
In the ongoing pandemic, digital storytelling has become a crucial coping device for
people across the world to respond to isolation, loneliness, discrimination, anxiety, stress
and mental health challenges (Chan and Au-Yueng 2021; Daley 2021). Using various
forms, such as texts, images, podcasts, vlogging, comics, animation, but all digitalized
and circulated on social media, these digital storytelling practices help people make sense
of the pandemic experiences and of themselves in the unprecedented time in history, and
build connection, solidarity and resilience. Keeping online lockdown diaries is one of the
most popular digital storytelling practices in the pandemic. It has become a global digital
culture and has attracted growing scholarly attention (Liu, Ran, and Wang 2021; Manley
2020; Yang 2021).
In China, where the COVID-19 first broke out, and a nation which has nearly one billion
internet users in 2020 (Cheng 2021), many ‘social media diarists’ (Damiani 2020) emerged
during the pandemic, especially in the epicentre Wuhan. In their social media diaries, they
shared their daily lives when the city was locked down and commented on various COVID-
related issues (e.g. lockdown policies, community support, quarantine measures). Guobin
Yang (2021) takes the writing of lockdown diaries as ‘endurance art’ which requires the
diarists’ planning, commitment, flexibility and perseverance. As a collective online
response to the lockdown, keeping lockdown diaries ‘engage[s] with meanings that
reach far beyond their original experience and context’ (Yang 2021, 1). The lockdown
diary written by Fang Fang, an award-winning Chinese author, is arguably the most
influential but also controversial one. In her widely circulated diaries written during
Wuhan’s lockdown, she boldly criticized the ‘dark side’ of the government’s handling of
the pandemic as an intellectual. Many netizens think her diaries represent the real public
sentiments, while many others criticize her as a ‘traitor’ who provided handy political tool
for Western media to criticize China’s anti-pandemic measures (Bao 2020; Lu 2020). The
case of Fang Fang’s lockdown diaries has vividly demonstrated the politics of digital
storytelling in China as well as its democratic potentials and limits.
The article discusses a different cohort of Chinese pandemic diarists – Chinese inter-
national students, and their digital storytelling practice – vlogging, while facing the
double blind during the COVID-19. We are particularly interested in finding out how
this student cohort practice actualizing digital citizenship through vlogging.

Method and Findings

To understand the vlogging practices of Chinese international students during the pan-
demic, we conducted thematic analysis of their vlog videos uploaded on YouTube and
Bilibili. We manually searched videos that are produced by Chinese international students
to represent their own personal experiences during or viewpoints about the pandemic,
using the following search phrases in Chinese and English: ‘Chinese international stu-
dents’ (中国留学生), ‘COVID-19 pandemic’ (新冠疫情) and ‘vlog diary’ (日记). Given the
6 J. XU AND X. ZHAO

Table 1. List of Vlog Accounts.

Account name Location Gender Platform(s) No. of videos collected
PiNky蓉蓉 United States Female YouTube, Bilibili 4
Brady Productions (滨旭BRADY)1 United States Male YouTube, Bilibili 2
陈陈陈陈哈哈 Germany Female YouTube, Bilibili 4
linda in style Australia Female YouTube, Bilibili 1
Elephant Susan United States Female YouTube, Bilibili 5
Hilary Chen United States Female YouTube 2
Sharon是小河 Canada Female YouTube, Bilibili 1
保护我方RUI Sweden Male YouTube, Bilibili 2
Rickie Cao (玥宝不吃姜) Ireland Female YouTube, Bilibili 2
你的室友A United States Female YouTube, Bilibili 4
解渴颜JKY Australia Male YouTube 1
土澳小学姐Yvaine Australia Female Bilibili 1
Cecilia_岚 United States Female YouTube, Bilibili 1
Lunarunrun United Kingdom Female YouTube 1
小红李- United Kingdom Female YouTube, Bilibili 1
Dakota Ma United States Female YouTube 2

massive number of eligible videos, we adopted a purposeful sampling technique (Patton

2014) to select non-probability videos that could cover the diversity of countries where
the student vloggers study in as well as the variety of themes of their videos.
In total, 34 videos from 16 accounts (see Table 1) were collected in January 2021,
including 32 in Chinese and 2 in English. The videos were uploaded between February
2020 and January 2021. The total length of the collected videos is 308 minutes and
43 seconds. Video creators are Chinese international students from the US, the UK,
Australia, Canada, Germany, Sweden and Ireland. Video data were then transcribed and
manually coded for thematic analysis.
For the purpose of this study, we argue that thematic analysis, ‘a qualitative method for
identifying, analyzing, and reporting patterns within a data corpus’ (Scharp and Sanders
2019, 117), is an appropriate method to unpack the ways in which Chinese international
students cope with the adverse impacts of the pandemic through vlogging. As Hawkins
(2018, 1757) put it, ‘[t]hemes go beyond topical reporting, to provide depth of under-
standing within an interaction, text, or message, often revealing information about a
process or processes that are occurring’. Acknowledging the diverse forms of thematic
analysis, we follow a six-phase guide devised by Braun and Clarke (2006, 87–94) for
thematic analysis to analyse the video data – researchers familiarizing themselves with
data, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining and
naming themes, and finally, producing the report. In what follows, we identify three
overarching themes of their vlogging stories and illustrate how telling these stories
embodies their actualizing digital citizenship to cope with the pandemic.

Everyday personal experience sharing

Since the global outbreak of the COVID-19, mutual aid has thrived as the lifeboat for
disadvantaged communities to endure in face of inadequate government support (Bell
2021). Decentralized solidarity networks across the world are built and mobilized to
provide and receive resources and advocate for change in a time of isolation and physical
distancing. Digital media technologies have no doubt played a crucial role in facilitating
the operation of these formal or informal mutual aid communities (Chevée 2021; Mahanty
 CONTINUUM: JOURNAL OF MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES 7

and Phillipps 2020). We found that the pandemic vlogging of Chinese international
students has facilitated the formation of a loosely connected mutual aid community
among Chinese international students trapped in the double bind through sharing every-
day personal experiences.
A major motivation for keeping pandemic vlog diaries, as we found in the videos and
video descriptions of our selected vloggers, is to provide a reference for the other Chinese
international students in a time of uncertainty. As vlogger ‘Sharon是小河’, a student in
Canada, explained in the description of her vlog uploaded to Bilibili on 22 March 2020: ‘I
hope my video can pacify the anxiety of overseas Chinese students’. The video documents
her shopping day in the pandemic and shows there is no shortage of groceries in her area.
She advised fellows not to panic buy as it may increase the risk of getting COVID-19.
Similarly, vlogger ‘解渴颜JKY’ documented how he spent three days flying back to
Xiamen, China from Melbourne in Australia. The video diary, uploaded to YouTube on
12 September 2020, served as a step-by-step guide for many Chinese international
students in Australia who were considering returning home but were unsure of what it
means, and the risks associated with an extended international travel. The mutual aid
relationship is manifested in many of the comments the student vlogger has received
under this video. Many viewers thanked ‘解渴颜JKY’ for sharing this journey. Others asked
further questions that the vlogger did not address in the video, such as how to apply for
interstate travel permit, which COVID-19 testing centre in Melbourne releases test result
fastest, and whether isolation is needed while transiting through Sydney. He answered
these queries in the comment section. Some followers also responded to these questions
and shared their own experiences.
By sharing what they have experienced, the student vloggers pass on ‘insider’ knowl-
edge of coping with the pandemic to their peers. Videos of this theme are what Lange
(2009) has referred to as ‘videos of affinity’, which could provide emotional support by
fostering a sense of connection and belonging through documenting and sharing snip-
pets of their ordinary life in pandemic. By inviting others into their daily life, the student
vloggers nurture, if not deliberately, online communities of similar experiences and
feelings where they mutually support and care each other. This has demonstrated the
‘social and community-based’ (Third, Forrest-Lawrence, and Collier 2014, 7) dimension of
what young people usually do with the internet, as well as the public nature of vlogging
beyond the individual act of storytelling.

Vlogger-generated citizen journalism

In the pandemic, people around the world are confronted by an ‘infodemic’ (Rodrigues
and Jian 2020) characterized by ‘too much information including false or misleading
information in digital and physical environments during a disease outbreak’ (World
Health Organization [WHO] 2021). The infodemic is considered to render people more
vulnerable to COVID-19 by swamping them with massive amount of low-credibility
information (Yang et al. 2021). The infodemic is also a very important reason that has
caused the double bind dilemma of Chinese international students (Ma and Miller 2020).
We found that many student vloggers synthesize, fact-check, report or comment on
COVID-related news information in their videos. They are like ‘grassroots’ citizen journal-
ists (Gillmor 2004) and use vlogging as citizen media to inform their followers with
8 J. XU AND X. ZHAO

updated COVID information. In one of her vlogs created on 14 March 2020, vlogger ‘Rickie
Cao’, a Chinese international student in Ireland, began the video with collaged images of
news headlines, graphs of local COVID-19 cases and photos of empty shelves of grocery
stores from multiple resources. They were organized and narrated by ‘Rickie Cao’ to form a
timeline of the evolvement of COVID-19 in Ireland. Vlogger ‘Brady Productions’ commen-
ted on the news about anti-Asian racist attacks in the US in his video (uploaded on 29
March 2020) and gave advice to Chinese communities about what to do while encounter-
ing racism. In vlogger PiNky蓉蓉’s video on 24 May 2020, she audio recorded her phone
conversations with the officer of the Chinese Consulate-General in the United States, in
which she asked for suggestions and advice regarding what graduating international
students could do in face of China’s Five One policy and their expiring American visa.
Although these vloggers may not consider themselves as a citizen journalist, they
actually conducted random acts of news aggregation, commentary and interview in their
vlogs. These videos with strong journalistic characteristics demonstrate the media literacy
of the Chinese international students and help people with similar background to obtain
relevant and effective information in the pandemic.

Producing counternarratives
As illustrated earlier, one of the most important reasons that has caused the double bind
of the Chinese international students in the pandemic is the prevailing racist and dis-
criminatory discourses they encounter in everyday life and on social media. Being stig-
matized as ‘virus spreader’ in the host countries and at home, vlogging has allowed them
to give their own voices and produce counternarratives against the discriminatory label
and unjust treatment.
For example, vlogger ‘Elephant Susan’ in the US uploaded a series of videos to
YouTube and Bilibili between May and June 2020 to speak for the vulnerable and
demonized group. In her first video, she expressed her disappointment and anger over
the government’s Five One policy as well as the indifference and bias of some Chinese
compatriots who oppose overseas students to return home. She insisted that Chinese
international students as Chinese citizens have the rights to return to China anytime. It is
unjust to impose restrictions on their return and criticize them ‘unpatriotic’ if they choose
to go back to China. She specifically criticized the Chinese government’s Five One policy
by listing its unreasonable aspects and limitations and expressed her appeals as a Chinese
citizen.
The video received over 53,000 views and over 1,500 comments on YouTube. It has not
only expressed the vlogger ’s personal opinion and appeal but has also spurred discussion
and debates among her viewers on the government policy. Under the video on YouTube,
hundreds of empathetic viewers left comments to support her or gave further comments
on the government policy. Some of them called on the Chinese international students to
unite, defend their rights and get through the difficulties together.
Student vloggers like ‘Elephant Susan’ have unconsciously become the ‘spokesperson’
and ‘opinion leader’ of Chinese international students. In their vlogs, they critically
challenge the anti-Chinese discourse in the Western countries as well as the bias and
misunderstanding of home-returning Chinese international students in China, advocating
for understanding, justice and rights. These counternarrative videos usually receive the
 CONTINUUM: JOURNAL OF MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES 9

most views, likes and comments as they articulate the opinion and appeal of the margin-
alized student group that are largely unpresented in the mainstream media. They have
played an important role in mobilizing online public opinion and facilitating the forma-
tion of ‘imagined [online] communities’ (Anderson 1983), in which, mutual care, network
and solidarity building among the student cohort become possible in the crisis.
The three overarching themes analysed above, though impossibly comprehensive to
cover numerous vlogging videos uploaded by Chinese international students during the
pandemic, have clearly demonstrated how the vulnerable student cohort creatively ‘do
citizenship’ and practice ‘civic agency’ (Dahlgren 2006) by harnessing vlogging. As a
prominent digital cultural phenomenon among Chinese international students, pandemic
vlogging encourages affected students to tell, share and listen to each other’s pandemic
experiences and opinions. Telling, sharing and listening, all embedded in the students’
everyday digital media production and consumption, have constituted vlogging-enabled
connective actions and vlog-centred virtual communities, through and in which, the
students navigate the pandemic double blind both individually and collectively.

Conclusion
The article examines the vlogging practice of Chinese international students during the
pandemic and its positive roles in coping with the double bind. Taking vlogging as a
popular form of digital storytelling, we argue that Chinese international students crea-
tively practice ‘actualizing digital citizenship’ on both Chinese and English audio-visual
platforms through dual vlogging. Their vlogging implies a strong sense of civic engage-
ment, connectivity and empowerment, and is conducive to the self-resilience of the
affected group as well as their identify and solidarity building in the crisis. Their simulta-
neous vlogging practice has also demonstrated the digital literacies of the student cohort
who are ‘supported by skills, strategies, and stances that enable the representation and
understanding of ideas using a range of modalities enabled by digital tools’ (O’Brien and
Scharber 2008, 66–67).
However, we do not mean all student vloggers consciously and actively exercise digital
citizenship during the pandemic as Chinese international students are heterogenous and
their pandemic experiences, value orientations, ideologies, motivations of vlogging and
digital literacy vary. We did see vlogging content, though very rare, that contains mis-
information adding to the infodemic rather than helping reduce its impact, or aligns with
dominant discourse and ideology rather than challenging them. But in the article, we only
concentrate on the positive aspects of vlogging in coping with the pandemic as we see its
promises outweigh much more than its limitations and can demonstrate resilient strate-
gies of Chinese international students who navigate pandemic double bind through
digitally mediated practices. In addition, we have also found that doing pandemic vlog-
ging is not only limited to Chinese international students. It has been widely practised on
YouTube, TikTok and other social media platforms by international students from other
countries and the general publics as well. Our research design that intentionally focuses
on the cohort of Chinese international students and the enabling aspects of their vlog-
ging practices aims to call for more attention to the challenging situation that global
10 J. XU AND X. ZHAO

international students are facing in the pandemic beyond our target group, as well as the
promising roles that digital storytelling could play to help them make a voice and improve
their well-being.
Last but not least, our research also advocates for a shift of digital citizenship studies to
recognize the flexible, individualized and loosely networked ‘actualizing digital citizen-
ship’ practice, such as vlogging. In practice, we also advocate for the inclusion of vlogging
in critical digital citizenship education for young people to equip them with skills and
abilities of utilizing digitally mediated practices to navigate complexities, changes and
challenges for self-empowerment and self-resilience. As shown in the article, international
students in the pandemic are using digital literacies acquired in educational or informal
settings to represent themselves, stay informed, connect with and care for peers, practis-
ing digital citizenship in everyday life as transnational digital citizens. In the COVID-19,
when educational mode and community engagement of the international students have
shifted to online and domestic spaces, it is important to take their everyday digital
practices seriously to understand their concerns, needs and resilience in the uncertain
and difficult times to better support the vulnerable group. We hope our research could
inspire more further studies in the area to provide empirical materials for educators,
policymakers and people who concern the well-being of the international students in the
pandemic.

Note
1. Content inside the brackets suggests the student vlogger uses different account names on
YouTube and Bilibili.

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their helpful and constructive feedback.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

References
Ali, Mona Ibrahim. 2014. “Stories/storytelling for Women’s Empowerment/empowering Stories.”
Women’s Studies International Forum 45: 98–104.
Anderson, Benedict. 1983. Imagined Community: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism.
London: Verso.
Armfield, Shadow W. J., and J. Michael Blocher. 2019. “Global Digital Citizenship: Providing Context.”
TechTrends 63: 470–476. doi:10.1007/s11528-019-00381-7.
Bao, Hongwei. 2020. “Three Women and Their Wuhan Diaries: Women’s Writing in a Quarantined
Chinese City.” Cha Accessed13 March 2021, October 17. https://chajournal.blog/2020/10/17/
wuhan-diaries/
Bateson, Gregory, Don D. Jackson, Jay Haley, and John Weakland. 1956. “Toward a Theory of
Schizophrenia.” Behavioral Science 1 (4): 251–264. doi:10.1002/bs.3830010402.
Bateson, Gregory, Don D. Jackson, Jay Haley, and John Weakland. 1963. “A Note on the Double
Bind.” Family Process 2 (1): 154–157. doi:10.1111/j.1545-5300.1963.00154.x.
 CONTINUUM: JOURNAL OF MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES 11

Bearden, Susan M. 2016. Digital Citizenship: A Community-Based Approach. California: Corwin.

Bell, Finn McLafferty. 2021. “Amplified Injustices and Mutual Aid in the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
Qualitative Social Work 20 (1–2): 410–415. doi:10.1177/1473325020973326.
Bennett, W. Lance. 2008. “Changing Citizenship in the Digital Age.” In Civic Life Online: Learning How
Digital Media Can Engage Youth, edited by W. Lance Bennett, 1–24. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Berry, William. 2011. “The Relationship Double Bind: From Frustration To Enlightenment.”
Psychology Today Accessed5 April 2021, August 3. https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/
the-second-noble-truth/201108/the-relationship-double-bind-frustration-enlightenment
Bin, Zhenyu. 2019. “Vlog Zhongguo Fazhan Xianzhuang Yu Qianjing Qianxi.” Radio & TV Journal 3:
147–149. An analysis of status and prospect of vlog development in China.
Braun, Virginia, and Victoria Clarke. 2006. “Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology.” Qualitative
Research in Psychology 3 (2): 77–101. doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.
Caron, Caroline. 2017. “Speaking up about Bullying on YouTube: Teenagers’ Vlogs as Civic
Engagement.” Canadian Journal of Communication 42: 645–668. doi:10.22230/
cjc.2017v42n4a3156.
Chan, Chitat, and Hoyee Au-Yueng. 2021. “When Narrative Practice Suddenly Goes Online Due to
COVID-19 . . . .” Qualitative Social Work 20 (1–2): 390–398. doi:10.1177/1473325020981086.
Chang, Shanton, and Catherine Gomes. 2017. “Digital Journeys: A Perspective on Understanding the
Digital Experiences of International Students.” Journal of International Students 7 (2): 347–366.
doi:10.32674/jis.v7i2.385.
Chen, Juliet Honglei, Li Yun, M.S. Wu Anise, and Kwok Kit Tong. 2020. “The Overlooked Minority:
Mental Health of International Students Worldwide under the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond.”
Asian Journal of Psychiatry 54. doi:10.1016/j.ajp.2020.102333.
Cheng, Evelyn. 2021. “China Says It Now Has Nearly 1 Billion Internet Users.” CNBC Accessed 10 May
2021, February 4. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/04/China-says-it-now-has-nearly-1-billion-
internet-users.html
Chevée, Adélie. 2021. “Mutual Aid in North London during the Covid-19 Pandemic.” Social
Movement Studies. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080/14742837.2021.1890574.
Christian, Aymar Jean. 2009. “Real Vlogs: The Rules and Meanings of Online Personal Videos.” First
Monday 14 (11 Accessed2 June 2021). https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/
2699/2353 .
Couldry, Nick, Hilde Stephansen, Aristea Fotopoulou, Richard MacDonald, Wilma Clark, and Luke
Dickens. 2014. “Digital Citizenship? Narrative Exchange and the Changing Terms of Civic Culture.”
Citizenship Studies 18 (6–7): 615–629. doi:10.1080/13621025.2013.865903.
Couldry, Nick. 2008. “Digital Storytelling, Media Research and Democracy: Conceptual Choices and
Alternative Futures.” In Digital Storytelling, Mediatized Stories: Self-representations in New Media,
edited by Knut Lundby, 41–60. New York: Peter Lang.
Dahlgren, Peter. 2006. “Doing Citizenship: The Cultural Origins of Civic Agency in the Public Sphere.”
European Journal of Cultural Studies 9 (3): 267–286.
Daley, Beth. 2021. “Storytelling with Digital Culture Is Booming – Find Out Why.” Europeana
Accessed2 June 2021, May 12. https://pro.europeana.eu/post/storytelling-with-digital-culture-
is-booming-find-out-why
Damiani, Matteo. 2020. “Interview With Guobin Yang: The Role of The Social Media Amid the Wuhan
Coronavirus Lockdown.” China Underground Accessed10 June 2021, February 5. https://China-
underground.com/2020/02/05/interview-with-guobin-yang-the-role-of-the-social-media-amid-
the-wuhan-coronavirus-lockdown/
Fog, Klaus, Christian Budtz, Philip Munch, and Stephen Blanchette. 2010. Storytelling: Branding in
Practice. Denmark: Springer.
Gallagher, Hilary L, Ainsley Z Doherty, and Michael Obonyo. 2020. “International Student
Experiences in Queensland during COVID-19.” International Social Work 63 (6): 815–819.
doi:10.1177/0020872820949621.
Gillmor, Dan. 2004. We the Media: Grassroots Journalism by the People, for the People. Sebastopol:
O’Reilly.
12 J. XU AND X. ZHAO

Hale, Brent J, Amy L Gonzales, and Marie Richardson. 2018. “Vlogging Cancer: Predictors of Social
Support in YouTube Cancer Vlogs.” Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking 21 (9): 575–
581. doi:10.1089/cyber.2018.0176.
Hartley, John. 2008. “Problems of Expertise and Scalability in Self-made Media.” In Digital
Storytelling, Mediatized Stories: Self-representations in New Media, edited by Knut Lundby, 197–
212. New York: Peter Lang.
Hawkins, Jennifer Morey. 2018. “Thematic Analysis.” In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Communication
Research Methods, edited by Mike Allen, 1757–1760. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
Herskovitz, Stephen, and Malcolm Crystal. 2010. “The Essential Brand Persona: Storytelling and
Branding.” Journal of Business Strategy 31 (3): 21–28.
Hou, Jenny Zhengye. 2019. “Unlocking the Power of Digital Storytelling for Community Resilience
Building in Disaster Risk Communication: A Case Study from Australia.” Paper presented at the
2019 International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) Conference,
Madrid, July 7–11.
Hou, Mingyi. 2020. “Vlogging during the Coronavirus Crisis.” diggit magazine Accessed5 May 2021, .
https://www.diggitmagazine.com/column/vlogging-during-coronavirus-crisis
Houston, J Brian, Joshua Hawthorne, Mildred F Perreault, Eun Hae Park, Marlo Goldstein Hode,
Michael R Halliwell, et al. 2015. “Social Media and Disasters: A Functional Framework for Social
Media Use in Disaster Planning, Response, and Research.” Disasters 39 (1): 1–22. doi:10.1111/
disa.12092.
Jenkins, Henry. 2009. Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st
Century. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Jung, Joo-Young, and Munehito Moro. 2014. “Multi-level Functionality of Social Media in the
Aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake.” Disasters 38 (s2): s123–s143.
Jurgens, Manon, and Ira Helsloot. 2018. “The Effect of Social Media on the Dynamics of (Self)
Resilience during Disasters: A Literature Review.” Journal of Contingencies and Crisis
Management 26 (1): 79–88. doi:10.1111/1468-5973.12212.
Kaewkitipong, Laddawan, Charlie Chen, and Peter Ractham. 2012. “Lessons Learned from the Use of
Social Media in Combating A Crisis: A Case Study of 2011 Thailand Flooding Disaster.” Paper
presented at the Thirty Third International Conference on Information Systems, Orlando,
December 16-19.
Lambert, Joe. 2006. Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community. 2nd ed ed. Berkeley:
Digital Diner Press.
Lance, Bennett, W., and Alexandra Segerberg. 2012. “The Logic of Connective Action.” Information,
Communication & Society 15 (5): 739–768. doi:10.1080/1369118X.2012.670661.
Lance, Bennett, W., Chris Wells, and Deen Freelon. 2011. “Communicating Civic Engagement:
Contrasting Models of Citizenship in the Youth Web Sphere.” Journal of Communication 61 (5):
835–856. doi:10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01588.x.
Lange, Patricia G. 2014. Kids on YouTube. Technical Identities and Digital Literacies. Walnut Creek: Left
Coast Press.
Lange, Patricia G. 2009. “Videos of Affinity on YouTube.” In The YouTube Reader, edited by Pelle
Snickars and Patrick Vonderau, 228–247. Stockholm: National Library of Sweden.
Liu, Liangni Sally, Guanyu Jason Ran, and Yu Wang. 2021. “Bold Words, a Hero or a Traitor? Fang
Fang’s Diaries of the Wuhan Lockdown on Chinese Social Media.” In Global Reflections on Covid-19
and Urban Inequalities, edited by Brain Doucet, Pierre Filion, and Van Melik Rianne, 97–108.
Volume 2: Housing and Home. Bristol: Bristol University Press.
Loader, Brian D. 2007. “Introduction.” In Young Citizen in the Digital Age: Political Engagement, Young
People and New Media, edited by Brian D. Loader, 1–17. New York, NY: Routledge.
Lu, Pinyue. 2020. “Fang Fang’s Diary: An Indefensible Mistake.” International Critical Thought 10 (3):
483–493. doi:10.1080/21598282.2020.1823612.
Lundby, Knut. 2009. “The Matrices of Digital Storytelling: Examples from Scandinavia.” In Story Circle:
Digital Storytelling around the World, edited by John Hartley and Kelly McWilliam, 176–187.
Oxford: Blackwell.
 CONTINUUM: JOURNAL OF MEDIA & CULTURAL STUDIES 13

Lundby, Knut. 2008. “Introduction: Digital Storytelling, Mediatized Stories.” In Digital Storytelling,
Mediatized Stories: Self-representations in New Media, edited by Knut Lundby, 1–20. New York:
Peter Lang.
Ma, Haijing, and Claude Miller. 2020. “Trapped in a Double Bind: Chinese Overseas Student Anxiety
during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Health Communication. Advance online publication.
doi:10.1080/10410236.2020.1775439.
Mahanty, Sango, and Nisha Phillipps. 2020. “The Community-led Movement Creating Hope in the
Time of Coronavirus.” The Conversation Accessed10 June 2021, March 26. https://theconversation.
com/the-community-led-movement-creating-hope-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-134391
Manley, Gabriela. 2020. “Introducing the Pandemic Diaries.” American Ethnological Society
Accessed20 August 2021, March 27. https://americanethnologist.org/features/collections/pan
demic-diaries/introducing-the-pandemic-diaries
Mano, Rita, A., Technion Kirshcenbaum, and C. Rapaport. 2019. “Earthquake Preparedness: A Social
Media Fit Perspective to Accessing and Disseminating Earthquake Information.” International
Journal of Disaster Risk Management 1 (2): 19–31. doi:10.18485/ijdrm.2019.1.2.2.
Mano, Rita. 2020. “Social Media and Resilience in the COVID-19 Crisis.” Advances in Applied Sociology
10 (11): 454–464. doi:10.4236/aasoci.2020.1011026.
McKie, Anna. 2020. “Chinese Students in UK ‘Report Increased Racism and Discrimination’.” Times
Higher Education Accessed12 May 2021, May 7. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/
chinese-students-uk-report-increased-racism-and-discrimination
National Storytelling Network. 2021. “What Is Storytelling?” National Storytelling Network. Accessed
17 September 2021. https://storynet.org/what-is-storytelling/
O’Brien, David, and Cassandra Scharber. 2008. “Digital Literacies Go to School: Potholes and
Possibilities.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 52 (1): 66–68.
Park, Namkee, and Hyunjoo Noh. 2018. “Effects of Mobile Instant Messenger Use on Acculturative
Stress among International Students in South Korea.” Computers in Human Behavior 82: 34–43.
doi:10.1016/j.chb.2017.12.033.
Patton, Michael Quinn. 2014. Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. 4th ed ed. Thousand
Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Polletta, Francesca. 2006. It Was like a Fever: Storytelling in Protest and Politics. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Qiu, Lin, Han Lin, and Angela K.-y Leung. 2013. “Cultural Differences and Switching of In-Group
Sharing Behavior between an American (Facebook) and a Chinese (Renren) Social Networking
Site.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 44 (1): 106–121. doi:10.1177/0022022111434597.
Rennie, David L. 1994. “Storytelling in Psychotherapy: The Client’s Subjective Experience.”
Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training 31 (2): 234–243.
Rodrigues, Usha M, and Xu. Jian. 2020. “Regulation of COVID-19 Fake News Infodemic in China and
India.” Media International Australia 117 (1): 125–131.
Scharp, Kristina M., and Matthew L. Sanders. 2019. “What Is a Theme? Teaching Thematic Analysis in
Qualitative Communication Research Methods.” Communication Teacher 33 (2): 117–121.
doi:10.1080/17404622.2018.1536794.
Shi, Flair Donglai. 2020. “Sinophobia Will Never Be the Same after Covid-19.” Made In China Journal
Accessed10 May 2021, October 19. https://madeinchinajournal.com/2020/10/19/sinophobia-will-
never-be-the-same-after-covid-19/
Snelson, Chareen. 2015. “Vlogging about School on YouTube: An Exploratory Study.” New Media &
Society 17 (3): 321–339.
Tan, Su-Lin. 2020. “‘You Chinese Virus Spreader’: After Coronavirus, Australia Has an anti-Asian
Racism Outbreak to Deal With.” South China Morning Post Accessed8 April 2021, May 30.
https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/people/article/3086768/you-chinese-virus-spreader-after-cor
onavirus-Australia-has-anti
Third, Amanda, Pota Forrest-Lawrence, and Anne Collier. 2014. The Cyber Safety Challenge: From Risk
to Resilience. Sydney: University of Western Sydney Accessed15 June 2021. https://researchdirect.
westernsydney.edu.au/islandora/object/uws:28267
14 J. XU AND X. ZHAO

Tokgöz, Cemile. 2019. “Digital Storytelling as a Means of Sharing Trauma.” Journal of Comparative
Literature and Aesthetics 42 (3): 98–113.
Tran, Ly, Huyen Bui, and Varsha Devi Balakrishnan. 2021. “Forms of Racism and Discrimination Faced
by International Students”. Council of International Students Australia. Accessed 17 September
2021. https://cisa.edu.au/research/
Vivienne, Sonja. 2016. Digital Identity and Everyday Activism: Sharing Private Stories with Networked
Publics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wang, Yi, and Fengzhi Zhao. 2021. “Chinese Students in the UK are Struggling with Cultural
Differences.” Times Higher Education Accessed10 May 2021, January 19. https://www.timeshigher
education.com/student/blogs/chinese-students-uk-are-struggling-cultural-differences
Wertsch, James V. 1998. Mind as Action. New York: Oxford University Press.
Wong, Joshua. 2020. “Digital Environments and the Aspirations of International Students.” In Digital
Experiences of International Students: Challenging Assumptions and Rethinking Engagement, edited
by Shanton Chang and Catherine Gomes, 25–45. London: Routledge.
World Health Organization [WHO]. 2021. “Infodemic.” WHO Accessed10 September. . https://www.
who.int/health-topics/infodemic#tab=tab_1
Yang, Guobin. 2021. “Online Lockdown Diaries as Endurance Art.” AI & Society. doi:10.1007/s00146-
020-01141-5.
Yang, Kai-Cheng, Francesco Pierri, Pik-Mai Huil, David Axelrod, Christopher Torres-Lugo, John
Bryden, and Filippo Menczer. 2021. “The COVID-19 Infodemic: Twitter versus Facebook.” Big
Data & Society. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/20539517211013861.
Zhang, Hantian. 2018. “Evoking Presence in Vlogging: A Case Study of U. K. Beauty Blogger Zoe
Sugg.” First Monday 23 (1 Accessed15 July 2021). https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/arti
cle/view/8107/6624 .
Zhang, Zoey. 2021. “China’s Travel Restrictions Due to COVID-19: An Explainer.” China Briefing
Accessed12 June 2021, April 23. https://www.China-briefing.com/news/chinas-travel-restric
tions-due-to-covid-19-an-explainer/
Zhao, Xinyu. 2019. “Disconnective Intimacies through Social Media: Practices of Transnational
Family among Overseas Chinese Students in Australia.” Media International Australia 173 (1):
36–52. doi:10.1177/1329878X19837684.
Zhao, Xinyu. 2020. “Digital Labour in Transnational Mobility: Chinese International Students’ Online
Boundary Work in Daigou.” New Media & Society. Advance online publication. doi:10.1177/
1461444820934096.
Zou, Shuo. 2019. “Chinese Students Studying Abroad up 8.83%.” China Daily Accessed10 April 2021,
March 28. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201903/28/WS5c9c355da3104842260b30eb.html.