The Reconstruction of the Cosmopolitan Imaginary: Chinese International Students during the COVID‐19 Pandemic¹

Abstract

Social and geopolitical disruptions triggered by the COVID‐19 crisis have raised crucial questions about the shifting meaning of race, citizenship, and nationality for transborder migrants amidst receding globalization, hardening borders, and geopolitical tensions. The aim of this paper is to examine the ways in which Chinese international students have viewed and negotiated their ambiguous racial and ethnonational position between nations during the global pandemic. Drawing on 16 student interviews at one upstate New York campus between 2019 and 2021, we argue that Chinese international students have occupied a liminal space between nations that shapes their understanding of race and racism through a distinctly geopolitical lens. Double‐edged exclusion and discrimination from both the US and China during the global pandemic have heightened their sense of social dislocation and withdrawal from nationalist politics in both countries. In the process, they have not so much surrendered the cosmopolitan ideals that motivated their migration but rather, reimagined them while maintaining a delicate balance between global cosmopolitan ideals and ethnonationalist loyalties. Our findings provide insights into the future political trajectory of Chinese transborder migrants amid tense US–China relations and help to explain the contradictions of diasporic Chinese worldviews on current affairs.

Breaking Borders, Bridging Fields: Unveiling the Transculturality of Anti‐Asian Racism in a Global Context

“…The article by Min-Jung Kwak et al (2024) investigates how Chinese students in Canada responded to anti-Asian racism, highlighting the complex interplay of geopolitical factors, national identity, and career opportunities in shaping their choices. The article by Liu and Chung (2024) examines Chinese students in the US, exploring their struggle with an ambiguous racial and national identity during the pandemic. They found that Chinese students reimagined their cosmopolitan ideals while balancing global and ethnonational loyalties amidst experiencing discrimination and geopolitical strain.…”