Identities

Global Studies in Culture and Power

ISSN: (Print) (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/gide20

Intercultural capital and ambiguous loss in

in-between space: a digital ethnography of
Anglo-Sino academic families amid China’s
transformation into the post-pandemic era

Benjamin H. Nam, Alexander Scott English & Kun Dai

To cite this article: Benjamin H. Nam, Alexander Scott English & Kun Dai (31 Jan 2024):
Intercultural capital and ambiguous loss in in-between space: a digital ethnography of Anglo-
Sino academic families amid China’s transformation into the post-pandemic era, Identities,
DOI: 10.1080/1070289X.2024.2309825

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2024.2309825

Published online: 31 Jan 2024.

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IDENTITIES
https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2024.2309825

Intercultural capital and ambiguous loss in

in-between space: a digital ethnography of
Anglo-Sino academic families amid China’s
transformation into the post-pandemic era
a b c
Benjamin H. Nam , Alexander Scott English and Kun Dai
a
School of Education, Shanghai International Studies University, Shanghai, China; bCenter for
Behavioral Research Across Cultures in the School of Psychology, Wenzhou-Kean University,
Wenzhou, China; cDepartment of Educational Administration and Policy, The Chinese
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China

ABSTRACT
This study presents a digital ethnography of the Anglo-Chinese academic family
community (ASAFC) amid China’s transformation into the post-pandemic era.
The ASAFC members are men from Anglophone countries married to Chinese
women. Thus, two American male authors and one Chinese male author
observed WeChat group texts shared by 64 individuals from Anglophone
countries between 16 November 2022, and 31 January 2023, and in turn,
triangulated their field notes to analyse the experiences of the ASAFC. By
underpinning the concepts of intercultural capital and ambiguous loss within
the context of in-between space, this study promoted scholarly conversations
about the life stories of the ASAFC during the rapid public policy paradigm shift
and the peak time of the COVID-19 infection. Overall, this study discusses
China’s transformation into the post-pandemic era, culminating with an over­
view of the most overarching challenges in recent history.

ARTICLE HISTORY Received 20 April 2023; Accepted 22 January 2024

KEYWORDS International academic mobility; cultural capital; social capital; emotional capital; ambig­
uous loss; international marriage

Introduction
The myth of brain drain and gain has glorified Western capitalist and social
welfare regimes as the primary host countries and promoted a barometer
of cultural and economic globalization through skilled migrants and their
contribution to the global political economy. The field of international
higher education (IHE) is a prominent part of this social phenomenon
(Marginson 2022). The higher education (HE) systems in Anglophone

CONTACT Alexander Scott English AEnglish@kean.edu Center for Behavioral Research Across
Cultures in the School of Psychology, Wenzhou-Kean University, Ouhai, Wenzhou 325060, China
© 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
2 B. H. NAM ET AL.

nations (i.e. the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and
New Zealand) have influenced numerous international students to aspire
for fundamental forms of intercultural capital, such as social network
circles and academic degrees, to become rebranded as human capital
and settle in the host countries (Bai, Nam, and English 2023; Chi, Zhang,
and Kulich 2022; Nam and English 2023; Nam and Jiang 2021; Pöllmann
2013).
Despite the mainstream ideas about the Western and social welfare
regimes as the major host countries, scholars have recently illuminated the
Chinese national context of IHE as an emerging topic (Bai and Nam 2023; Bai
et al. 2023; Nam et al. 2023; Nam, Yang, and Draeger 2023; Song 2023; Xu
2023; Xu, Stahl, and Cheng 2022). In recent decades, China has been raising
a soft power globally in recent decades, demonstrating remarkable eco­
nomic, social, cultural, and educational development along with the ‘Belt
and Road Initiative (BRI)’ (Xu et al. 2022, 525). The BRI illustrates that economic
alliances and cultural exchanges with the Asia-Pacific, African, and European
commonwealth states have been strategic tools for China and their higher
education institutions (Liu, Nam, and Yang 2023).
China has retained the most significant number of internationalized edu­
cational institutions: a total of 146 institutions classified as double first-class
disciplined universities (DFCDU) that provide English as a medium of instruc­
tion (EMI) for both domestic and international students; a total of 26 public
international/foreign studies universities; approximately 60 foreign language
secondary schools; and more than 500 international baccalaureate pro­
grammes into local education systems. These educational infrastructures
have facilitated China’s global talent development policy, encouraging
numerous international faculty members and language teachers to pursue
their academic careers in the nation (Dai and Hardy 2023; Liu, Nam, and Yang
2023).
Despite the positive educational movement, over the past three and a half
years of the COVID-19 pandemic have hampered educational sojourners from
pursuing their social and emotional well-being at home and abroad.
Although the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently declared that the
post-pandemic era began with great hope for humanity (as of 5 May 2023),
numerous individuals may still have psychological and emotional unrest due
to the lack of physical, social, and economic activities, especially family well­
being that can grow into ambiguous loss at the time of public health crisis
(Horton et al. 2023; Nam and Jiang 2021; Testoni et al. 2021). At this chaotic
time, whereas most countries attempted mitigating their cross-border traffic
and normalizing transnational higher education policies (TNHE), namely
international student mobility (ISM) and international academic mobility
(IAM), China implemented a strict public health policy to control their internal
and international migration (Li, Dai, and Zhang 2023).
 IDENTITIES: GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER 3

In this paper, we are two American and one Chinese male academics in
comparative and international education (CIE) and intercultural commu­
nication (IC). We are currently educational sojourners and a returnee from
Anglophone nations to China. We are colleagues and members of the
Anglo-Sino academic family community (ASAFC); the American authors
are married to Chinese, and the Chinese author is an experienced
researcher and observer. In previous research, we explored the pandemic
experiences of international students in the early stage of the COVID-19
pandemic in China (English et al. 2022). Briefly, a novel coronavirus and its
explosive chain of lethal transmission began growing around Wuhan, the
capital city of Hubei Province in China, from the end of December 2019 to
early January 2020. Known as ‘Wuhan’s 76-day lockdown’, the Chinese
government sealed the city and rapidly implemented nationwide lock­
down and social distancing policies. The ‘Zero-COVID’ policy was
a strategy that sealed whole communities, compounds, districts, and cities,
respectively, if positive cases were found. In this regard, we witnessed that
these international students expressed long-term trauma despite social
and emotional support from their schools and the local community mem­
bers (English et al. 2022).
Additionally, we also conducted a line of longitudinal research on the
long-term and snap lockdown experiences of international faculty members
(i.e. American, British, German, Turkish, Japanese, and Korean) in China during
the Delta and Omicron outbreak (July 2021-November 2022) (Nam 2023; Nam
and English 2022). In the initial investigation, we found the potential trau­
matic risk factors and symptoms, such as extreme stress, burnout, dropout,
and ambiguous loss due to the strict national public policy. Notably, some
participants lost their family members in their home countries (e.g. parents
and childbirth), which could grow into the long-term trauma (Nam and
English 2022).
In the next investigation, we explored how this cohort could establish
coping mechanisms in unpredictable time and unreliable space. The partici­
pants sought to promote collective resilience by engaging in diverse social
services and cultural activities with domestic faculty members via online. In so
doing, they reflected on their collective academic identity. However, some
participants could not negotiate with their emotional challenges, which could
determine factors influencing long-term trauma without families and friends
in a different cultural domain (Nam and English 2023). Overall, as China used
the dynamic ‘Zero-COVID’ policy, the nation alleviated a level of the public
health crisis during the summer of 2020 through the spring of 2021. The Delta
and Omicron variant outbreaks since the summer of 2021 developed a severe
public health crisis in China. Most Chinese citizens endured snap lockdowns
for about one and a half years (English et al. 2022; Nam 2023; Nam and
English 2022; Nam et al. 2022).
4 B. H. NAM ET AL.

In the present study, we offer a digital ethnography of the ASAFC amid

China’s transformation into a post-pandemic era. In this regard, all ASAFC
members are males married to Chinese women. By underpinning Bourdieu’s
sociological and Boss’ psychological concepts, we focus on exploring factors
of how the international marriage academic migrants’ intercultural capital
flows as symbolic power and our academic identities and researcher subjec­
tivities can be (re-) shaped in-between space. In the meantime, we critique
some of the challenges faced by other Anglophone educational sojourners
who are not married to Chinese alongside the rapid sociopolitical and socio­
cultural climate shifts towards the post-COVID era. Therefore, we ask these
central research questions: How did the ASAFC group reflect their emotional
challenges and sources of emotional and social support network via WeChat
during China’s transformational processes into the post-pandemic era? In
what ways, if any, did they feel included and respected the local cultural
values because of their Chinese family members?

Theoretical underpinnings
Global migration and intercultural capital in in-between space
For Bourdieu, social and cultural forms of capital entail symbolic power for
individuals in various social, cultural, economic, and public domains, raising
dignity, honour, and life competencies. Social capital describes social relation­
ships and network circles, and cultural capital depicts cultural tastes and
knowledge, as well as educational background and professional knowledge
in specific social spaces (Bourdieu and Passeron 2000; Bourdieu and
Wacquant 1992). Thus, migration capital illustrates new immigrants’ social
and cultural capital that can be exchanged for human capital; skilled migrants
can improve their life competencies through their career positions, qualifica­
tions, and contributions to the local economic market (Ryan, Erel, and
D’Angelo 2015).
Scholars have underpinned Bourdieu’s thinking tools to view global social
phenomena more broadly as intercultural capital. For instance, international
students and academics seek potential benefits by establishing global social
networks and gaining cross-cultural and cross-linguistic competencies and
academic and professional knowledge in their chosen fields (Dai and Hardy
2021, 2023; Nam and Jiang 2021). These diverse forms of migrant and
cosmopolitan capital can be seen as intercultural capital. According to
Pöllmann (2013, 2), intercultural capital means ‘intercultural friendships or
experiences of living abroad’ through which sojourners strive to obtain
particular social benefits from the locals and develop intercultural under­
standings, such as ‘awareness, acquisition, and application’.
 IDENTITIES: GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER 5

Intercultural exploration through individuals’ new social relationships and

cultural learning experiences with the host group members can be defined as
intercultural capital (Bai and Nam 2023; Nam, Yang, and Draeger 2023). In
a specific Sino-Anglo context, Chi et al. (2022, 4) stated that Anglo academics’
‘cultural capital they have available within China can be utilised as resources
for intercultural learning’ and their ‘cognition, attitudes, teaching strategies,
professional education, content knowledge, overseas experiences, and con­
structed identities are fundamental factors for intercultural teaching practice’.
Pertinent to the current study, we perceive that the ASAFC’s positionality is
within an in-between world in the micro-politics of cultural change, in which
small-scale intercultural conflicts are frequently entwined with their work and
family balances based on their Western capitalist worldviews, Anglophone
linguistic ideologies, and a wide variety of social norms and cultural practices.
Their transformative social and cultural learning experiences through their
Chinese families can still be seen as ‘in-between (or third) space’ and their
‘sociocultural boundaries’ are opaque and complex (Dai and Hardy 2021,
246). In a sense, unlike many migrant women from non-Anglophone coun­
tries or rural internal migrant women in China and worldwide (see Liu and Lin
2021), those male ASAFC members could take hegemonic worth shared by
their dominant Western capitalist and Anglophone linguistic ideologies. They
may have better opportunities to negotiate intercultural conflicts in their
workplaces through social and emotional support from their spouses,
extended family members, and closer domestic colleagues, while other non-
ASAFC members face diverse social and cultural barriers (see Ryan, Erel, and
D’Angelo 2015).

Ambiguous loss as the lack of social and emotional capital

When it comes to traumatic experience and grief, scholars considered adopt­
ing Paulin Boss’ psychological concepts of ambiguous loss (Boss 1999, 2010).
Boss (2010) defined ambiguous loss as an ‘unclear loss’,; ‘traumatic loss’,;
‘relational disorder’,; and ‘uncanny loss’, which illustrate ‘confusing and
incomprehensible’ factors that may influence emotional unrest in an unpre­
dictable space ‘(e.g. illness, war)’, beyond ‘individual pathology’ (138).
According to Gitterman and Knight (2019), this type of loss is a non-death
loss of one’s time, place, and familiarity, impacting their future life plans or
lifestyle changes based on their psychological and emotional reactions.
Hence, ambiguous loss is often entwined with grief when people face emo­
tional and social adaptation challenges, causing long-term trauma that they
cannot avoid, due to certain degrees of the traumatic risk factors and inci­
dences. Notably, the absence of family members at a chaotic time can cause
a feeling of ambiguous loss, entailing loneliness and homesickness during the
COVID-19 pandemic (Horton et al. 2023; Testoni et al. 2021).
6 B. H. NAM ET AL.

Ambiguous loss accompanies grief, especially for socially vulnerable popu­

lations (e.g. class, gender, race, ethnicity, and national origin) (Nam and Jiang
2021). From these perspectives, migrant populations and educational sojour­
ners’ (i.e. international academics and students) experiences during the pan­
demic can develop severe emotional and social adaptation challenges, which
can be viewed as ambiguous loss, regardless of their social representations
and geographical locations, whether in the Global North or the Global South,
or vice versa (English et al. 2022; Nam 2023; Nam and English 2022; Nam and
Jiang 2021). For example, Nam and Jiang (2021) examined short-term
exchange programme experiences of Chinese college students in American
institutions of HE located in California and New York during the first wave of
the COVID-19 pandemic. They aspired to gain appropriate social and cultural
capital by expecting to gain social network circles and cultural values of the
host community. However, due to the campus closure and online learning,
they felt ambiguous loss, while feeling anxious about the rapidly growing
coronavirus and news about Sinophobia and Xenophobia via social and
public media platforms.

Materials and methods

Research design: a digital ethnographic approach
We adopted a digital ethnography approach as the primary methodological
lens. In sociological tradition and cultural studies, an ethnographic approach
navigates the relationship between investigators and particular national,
culture-sharing, and ethnocultural groups, examining how the investigators
as ethnographers learn about their participant groups’ similar or divergent
cultural values, norms, and patterns (Gobo and Molle 2017). Notably, a digital
ethnographic approach entails specific techniques to explore divergent cul­
ture-sharing groups by utilizing new technological devices, which broadly
contain public and social media platforms, blogs, emails, and audio/video
clips. Hence, to execute a digital ethnography, investigators immerse them­
selves in specific cohort groups as practicing social researchers and observers
(Murthy 2008). Therefore, we co-constructively developed a digital ethno­
graphic study of how the ASAFC has experienced amid China’s transforma­
tion into the post-covid era.

Fieldwork via WeChat and interactive interviews

We adopted three important strategies for the digital research approach: (a)
self-reflections; (b) direct and participant observations; and (c) mutual com­
munications via digital technology (Nam et al. 2022; Qian and Mao 2021).
Accordingly, the co-authors fully reflected on the past and the current within
 IDENTITIES: GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER 7

the specific timeframe of the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic in China.
We collectively created field notes through mutual communications via
online meeting platforms like Zoom and Tencent. We also conducted direct
and participant observations via WeChat, the most widely used social media
messaging app among Chinese citizens and oversea Chinese. Due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, face-to-face interactions were considerably limited. As
a means of facilitating data collection, Qian and Mao (2021) used WeChat to
explore Chinese immigrant mothers’ health information sharing. Nam et al.
(2022) also observed WeChat groups to conduct a digital ethnography of
expats during the Shanghai lockdown. Hence, we also relied on WeChat as
the primary platform to collect data and interact with various individuals
(Nam et al. 2022; Qian and Mao 2021).
We observed two sets of the WeChat group chat categorized as our work
and family balance from 16 November 2022, through 31 January 2023. The
first group includes 84 international faculty members from across the globe,
classified as non-Anglo-Chinese Academic Family Community (non-ASAFC)
members. They are not married to Chinese but hold foreign expert visas in
teaching and research. Even though we observed this group chat, their texts
were not used for the current study but only for reference. However, our
observations were documented in our field notes and reflective diaries to
develop co-constructive narratives.
The second group includes 64 ASAFC members from the UK, the U.S.,
Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, who are married to Chinese citizens.
A few members hold dual citizenship with other European countries, such as
France, Germany, and Spain. All members are university academics or

Figure 1. Anglo-Sino academic family community locations.

8 B. H. NAM ET AL.

Figure 2. Example texts from WeChat.

international school teachers in China (see Figure 1). We utilized this group
chat as the primary data source. We generated all texts via WeChat and
divided them into 11 data sets by considering weekly conversations, 77
days in total (see Figure 2). Although using web-based objects does not
always require institutional review board (IRB) approval (Murthy 2008), we
respected ethical considerations according to our IRB protocol, as our data
entails empirical voices. Thus, we obtained consent from all text providers
and used pseudonyms to protect their personal identities, including the co-
authors in the current research (Creswell 2013).

Data analysis
Combining all written and textual data sources of evidence, we used
a thematic and taxonomic analysis approach (Corbin and Strauss 2007),
which helps interpret the ‘complexity of views’ and ‘narrowed the meanings’
of emotional, social, and cultural factors in real-world situations as social
phenomena (Creswell 2013, 24). We initially considered three specific time­
frames: (a) the rapid public health policy paradigm shift (November 16-
10 December 2022); (b) the peak time of the COVID-19 infection
(December 11-10 January 2023); (c) the normalization process and successful
transformation into the post-COVID era (January 10-January 31).
We reviewed the written and textual data in each timeframe in the first
coding stage and broadly coded participants’ expressions about crucial
issues and events. In the initial timeframe, the most dominant factors were
related to anxiety, confusion, and uncertainty about the rapid policy para­
digm shift. In the second timeframe, the most dominant factors were the
 IDENTITIES: GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER 9

rapidly growing number of positive cases, eventually influencing all parti­

cipants to become infected. In the final timeframe, the most dominant
factors were participants’ normal life experiences and family wellness, such
as physical and leisure activities, travelling, and social gatherings.
Nevertheless, participants were less involved in conversations than in the
previous timeframes, despite sharing some pictures of travelling or other
social and cultural activities. Thus, we collapsed this timeframe and
merged it into the co-authors’ reflexive turns.
In the second coding stage, we reviewed the written and textual data
again. We focused more on identifying factors influencing intercultural capi­
tal in the participant group within the context of the in-between space. We
textualised, contextualized, and merged the American authors’ life stories
into the ASAFC as ethnographers and inner culture-sharing group members.
Thus, we developed the co-constructive narratives into the subject-object
relationships visible via digital technology (Gobo and Molle 2017; Murthy
2008). In the final coding stage, we elaborated on the ethnographers’ sub­
jectivities and interactions with the ASAFC members. In this regard, the
Chinese author served as the primary narrator and controlled the American
authors’ potential biases towards the ASAFC. Accordingly, we contextualized
the main themes by triangulating the WeChat group texts, fieldnote, inter­
active interviews, and reflective diaries (Creswell 2013).

Findings and discussion

Setting the scene
Combining WeChat texts from the ASAFC and field notes, and recent memories
about key events amid China’s transformation into the post-pandemic era, we
narrate the rapid public health policy paradigm shift and the peak time of the
COVID-19 infection. Over the past three years, we went through a lot about work
and family balances in China’s rapid public health policy changes. On
16 November 2022, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of
China (MFAPRC) announced that China’s global development initiative (GDI)
aims to meet the long-term goal of the common development of all countries.
During the pandemic era, one of the primary concerns of the Global 20 (G20)
member states has been the impact of the increasing demands for China’s
involvement in the United Nations (UN) and international development coopera­
tion agencies (IDCA) and their economic partnerships with the world (MFAPRC
16 November 2022). Thus, the specific timeframe between November 16 and
December 10 was a crucial turning point for China to consider transforming into
a post-COVID era, despite some concerns related to the potentially growing
number of positive cases and medical emergencies (Fieldnote, 4 January 2023).
10 B. H. NAM ET AL.

Unfolding social and emotional support network among the ASAFC

members
From November 20 to November 30, they monitored public and social media
outlets concerning China’s transformation into a post-COVID era. On
November 28, American citizens on the WeChat group shared news from
the U.S. embassy and felt confused about their statement:

The United States has no higher priority than the safety, health, and well-being
of American citizens overseas. We are actively working with and assisting our
citizens experiencing challenges related to the recent rise of COVID-19 infec­
tions in China . . . We encourage all U.S. citizens to keep a 14-day supply of
medications, bottled water, and food for yourself and any members of your
household (Fieldnote, December 4, 2022).1

ASAFC-Member-1: The U.S. embassy advised storing groceries for at least 14

days.

ASAFC-Member-2: Would we have to be locked down with just bread and water
for a long time [again]?

ASAFC-Member-1: It isn’t quite troublesome now travelling between cities, with

all the 3 days-3 [PCR] tests, restrictions of being unable to enter malls/restau­
rants, and so on.

From the end of November through early December 2022, China declared
that the nation terminated the long-term Zero-COVID policy and allowed
people to move without health codes and PCR test records. The ASAFC
members were aware of potentially growing positive cases and medical
system crises in this specific timeframe. However, as husbands from overseas
in China, they developed a social and emotional support network (Fieldnote,
4 December 2022). The conversation on their WeChat group demonstrated:

ASAFC-Member-3: I hope it’s true, but it really sounds too good to be true.

ASAFC-Member-4: It’s real news!

ASAFC-Member-5: Shanghai shared a similar article (as of 4 December 2022).

ASAFC-Member-6: It seems more coming too. This might finally be over . . . A lot
of people got together [Chinese people] and asked nicely, so it seems polite­
ness goes a long way.

ASAFC-Member-7: The government listened to the people and also sought

support from people.

ASAFC-Member-8: I’m going to the beach on Christmas. Bring on Chaos and let
it be!

In interpreting the rapid public health policy shift from the middle of
November to late November 2022, the distinction in an in-between world
 IDENTITIES: GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER 11

was clearly identified; while the non-ASAFC expressed a lack of social and
emotional support, the ASAFC could gain sources of certain forms of
capital. Concerning the experiences of the ASAFC during the late stage of
the COVID-19 pandemic as outsiders, their positionalities can be in in-
between spaces; they may feel awkward and confused about their col­
lective identity as foreigners from a dominant cultural sphere challenge,
which may significantly influence habitus. For Bourdieu, habitus is
a system of relatively durable and transposable dispositions, which is
stimulated by competing different forms of logic. However, it is usually
shaped by the dominant logic within divergent fields. When individuals’
habitus fits the logic of practice in a specific field, they may develop
appropriate forms of social and cultural capital. Therefore, diverse forms
of capital are intertwined with habitus formation in specific logical fields
of life practices (Bourdieu and Passeron 2000; Bourdieu and Wacquant
1992).
The cultivation of new habitus and capital under the Zero-COVID policy in
China, each social actor/agent had to spend considerable time developing
cultural knowledge and skills as well as social relationships (i.e. social and
cultural capital). The fundamental forms of capital can be symbolic power
facilitating individuals’ lives and producing numerous benefits (Bourdieu and
Passeron 2000; Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992). From these perspectives, the
distinction between the ASAFC and non-ASAFC groups may have shown
different sets of intercultural learning experiences in the logical field of the
Chinese public health policy and management system (i.e. Zero-COVID) and
different examples of how their subjectivities reveal their teaching practices
and daily struggles over time. In this context, while the ASAFC could have more
sources of intercultural capital, the non-ASAFC may have felt disenfranchised;
they could feel deprived of their privileged positions as educational sojourners.
In migration research, social and emotional forms of capital are pro­
minent coping mechanisms, facilitating educational sojourners’ holistic
well-being. As a collective resilience practice, the roles of host group
members, especially the capital shared by family members like spouses,
can empower them to feel a sense of belonging, increase their knowl­
edge about the local culture, and maximize their abilities to collect
information (Ryan, Erel, and D’Angelo 2015). From the Bourdieusian
perspective, these fundamental forms of capital as symbolic power can
be exchanged for their wellness support network. However, symbolic
violence co-exists as the social structure is not neutral (Bourdieu and
Passeron 2000; Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992). Thus, those educational
sojourners who are not married to Chinese could not have equal oppor­
tunities to use the same social and emotional capital as those ASAFC
members at the nexus between symbolic power and violence (Ryan, Erel,
and D’Angelo 2015).
12 B. H. NAM ET AL.

The ambiguous loss – ‘we all are infected’

The term – ‘ambiguous loss’–means a non-death loss but a feeling of loss that
individuals could not pursue emotional and social well-being, losing the
opportunity to utilize their accumulated social and emotional capital (see
Nam and Jiang 2021). On 13 December 2022, the ACAFM members started
posting positive cases via the WeChat group (Fieldnote, 13 December 2022).
Previously, stigma was one of the growing concerns in China under the Zero-
COVID policy. However, this group actively shared their situations. Here are
snap chats among the group members:

ASAFC-Member-9: Maybe they feel the pressure from the people who got
COVID? I’m not sure, I think the cost of millions infected is far more superior
to sustain.

ASAFC-Member-10: [shred a picture of self-COVID test that shows two lines]

Really, am I positive? Can you help me to understand if it’s positive or invalid?

ASAFC-Member-11: Should be positive!

ASAFC-Member-12: Positive but always do two tests. Chances of false positives

are virtually impossible if both read positive.

ASAFC-Member-11: I will try another one just in case.

ASAFC-Member-13: If you feel infected, I suppose, you’re positive!

ASAFC-Member-14: Our travel agent said, ‘try not to be positive’ [crying]

In analysing the peak time of the COVID-19 infection, all the ASAFC members
were diagnosed as positive cases. In this timeframe, the ambiguous loss
meant that they could not develop optimistic minds and expectations
about China’s transformation into the post-pandemic era. Despite their
aspiration for freedom of physical mobility, they felt confused and had to
be in self-imposed isolation, dealing with past negative memories, uncertain­
ties, and confusion about the rapid lifestyle shift from the long-term dynamic
Zero-COVID policy in China.
In a broader global context, many individuals have encountered ambig­
uous loss during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, Testoni et al. (2021)
discussed the family loss experiences among Italians during the early stage of
the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though the participants were not physically
sick, the sudden absence of loved ones could develop feeling of ambiguous
loss, such as non-acceptance of reality and lack of humanity, expressing
extreme depression and confusion about the rapid lifestyle changes.
Further, Horton et al. (2023) discussed the family experiences of ambiguous
loss in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the U.S. public health
policy was mitigating the internal and cross-border traffic and facilitating
physical mobility, there were more than one million death, and more than
 IDENTITIES: GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER 13

nine million individuals lost jobs. These rapid socio-economic and socio-
political climate shifts could be seen as ambiguous loss. In this context, family
bonds and wellbeing could help individuals to develop mental coping
mechanisms at a chaotic time.
Additionally, Nam and Jiang (2021) explored the experiences of short-term
Chinese exchange students in the U.S. during the early stage of the COVID-19
pandemic and mentioned their ambiguous loss as lacking social and emotional
capital. While they came to the U.S. hoping to gain cosmopolitan and intercul­
tural forms of capital, they had to stay in their dormitories and lost all meaningful
academic, social, and cultural learning opportunities. By the same token, during
the peak time of the infection, the ASAFC lost opportunities to enjoy the holiday
seasons (i.e. Christmas and Chinese New Year holidays). Yet, as aforementioned,
family bonds could mitigate a level of ambiguous loss, potentially providing
positive implications for promoting resilience. In this way, family members can
bolster resilience, which can also promote collective resilience network chains
among community members (Horton et al. 2023; Nam and English 2023).

Chinese cultural values and collective resilience

In the chaotic time, ASAFC members sought strategies to promote collective
resilience as a form of social and emotional capital. They shared sources of
information about how to reduce physical and mental health problems.
Concerning collective resilience among ASAFC members, numerous texts
described certain forms of social and emotional capital. They encouraged
one another by sharing their experiences, opinions, and useful information
via their WeChat group during the peak time of the COVID infection
(Fieldnote, 11 January 2023). Here is an example:
ASAFC-Member-15: Hi all. Very ill with flu-type symptoms. So far, my antigen
tests have been negative, but I suspect a positive diagnosis tomorrow or
the day after. Hope you are all well.

ASAFC-Member-16: You will get better soon mate. The first few days are the
worst. I had the shakes followed by a horrific fever at the weekend. It will slowly
get better.

ASAFC-Member-17: Drink those sports drinks, the isotonic ones. They help,
especially in the first few days. If you have, ibuprofen helps.

ASAFC-Member-18: [Alternatively] drink ginger water and Gatorade.

ASAFC-Member-17: I can’t remember the brand I drank, but it made

a difference. Apples and Oranges also! Sometimes, you will eat something,
and you will be surprised at how much it helps.

Some others discussed their confusion about their health codes when they
need to travel. Here is also another example:
14 B. H. NAM ET AL.

ASAFC-Member-17: Do need [PCR] test results for high-speed trains?

ASAFC-Member-18: Considering that testing is only done in schools, hospitals,

and a few selected places. It’s no longer mandatory for anything. I guess, they’ll
ask about the green code and nothing more.

In interpreting this theme, the ASAFC foresaw Chinese cultural values to

develop a collective resilience network, managing their accumulated
intercultural capital as inner cultural group members. Traditional
Chinese cultural values are closely entwined with the Confucian ideology
and its social hierarchical system. Chinese people have long developed
collectivist identities in these societal and cultural norms, sacrificing their
personal interests over their nation, community, and family. During the
three years of the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous scholars have
addressed collective resilience and prosocial behaviours among Chinese
citizens and oversea Chinese (Huang, Cook, and Xie 2021; Li et al. 2021).
For example, when diverse key economic cities and metropolitan cities
(e.g. Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Xian, Shenzhen,
Suzhou, and so on) were sealed and in severe public health crisis,
medical emergency teams both in governmental and non-governmental
sectors volunteered to support their neighbours (Nam 2023; Nam and
English 2022; Nam et al. 2022).
In this specific cultural context, the ASAFC may have learned the local
cultural values from their wives and extended family members, gaining
intercultural capital; they can improve intercultural competence, cross-
linguistic competence, and especially prosocial behaviours as social and
emotional capital among the Chinese societal group members. Yet, we, of
course, acknowledge that there are always potential cultural distances and
conflicting relationships based on divergent ideologies and different looks
and skin colours, which have long been critical concerns among migrant
scholars (Ryan, Erel, and D’Angelo 2015).

Chinese family values and wives as gatekeepers

As inner cultural group members of the ASAFC, each member’s personal life
stories regarding the roles of their Chinese wives could be different. However,
their Chinese spouses were prominent gatekeepers to securing their migrant
capital during the peak time of the COVID-19 infection. The WeChat group
texts on December 20 through 23 witnessed how the ASAFC members could
not deal with a regular family balance because of the COVID infection. They
were concerned about their children, who were also sick when their families
were sick (Fieldnote 23 December 2022). Here are the exemplar texts:
 IDENTITIES: GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER 15

ASAFC-Member-19: Insomnia is the worst part. Sitting up at night unable to

sleep from coughing and sneezing and a major headache.

ASAFC-Member-20: The children probably had it, and it made them throw up
a lot.

ASAFC-Member-19: My kids have not had it yet, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of
time. Thanks for the heads up about the symptoms.

ASAFC-Member-21: My daughter gave us a real scare, wouldn’t eat nor even cry,
and the hospitals were full, looking for a private doctor to come to the house,
and the next day she was doing cartwheels! [sharing photos of the ill child]

Despite the family chaos, the ASAFC members expressed how they appre­
ciated their Chinese wives’ major contributions to their families. The conver­
sation continued:

ASAFC-Member-21: Finally, my wife went to a pharmacy and got some of those

muscle sticker things. Fixed me right up and fell asleep for a nice nap. Woke up
1 hour later to my 4-year-old jumping on my bed next to me. I was . . . less than
happy with her.

ASAFC-Member-22: Ok, now I feel less nervous about how my 3-year-old girl
should cope with it because my wife is with her day and night.

ASAFC-Member-23: My wife kept looking for people who work in the service
industry or have had it, given the number of people they see.

ASAFC-Member-24: My wife [while being nearly recovered] is also staying with her
parents and our kids, while I’m positive to try to avoid getting it and passing it to
them. Hopefully can get negative before Xmas day to have a good one with them.

Regarding Chinese family values, our findings showed that Chinese wives are
gatekeepers to secure migration capital for their husbands from a different
cultural sphere. In reflecting on the Confucian heritage, one of the utmost
Chinese virtues and values was the role of women, who build guanxi (关系) –
social network circles that produce mutual benefits among wives and mothers
who sacrifice their lives over to increase honour, privilege, and sake for their
families (O’Dwyer 2017). In this context, Chinese Confucian ideology has often
been viewed as a male-dominant society and patriarchal culture, which produce
female roles as wise wives and mothers. However, modern Chinese social norms
have positioned women as more independent and responsible, as the nation has
emphasized the social quality of education, justice, and inclusion for females.
Thus, the Chinese values and wives as gatekeepers meant how they could create
avenues for empowerment for their husbands and children regardless of race,
ethnicity, national origin, and geographical location. Namely, they have devoted
themselves to promoting migration capital in the ASAFC (Liu, Nam, and Yang
2023; Qian and Mao 2021).
16 B. H. NAM ET AL.

Ethnographers’ reflexive turns on ambiguous loss and family dynamics

On 5 May 2023, the World Health Organisation (WHO) officially declared that
the post-pandemic era began with great hope for humanity after three and
a half years of the public health crisis (WHO, 2023). In retrospect, the COVID-19
pandemic was unfortunate, yet a commonly experienced social phenomenon.
Despite humanity’s transformation into the post-pandemic era, countless indi­
viduals may still have suffered from severe mental health issues due to snap
lockdowns, persistent polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, the lack of physi­
cal, social, and economic activities, and leisure constraints, especially the loss
and grief of loved ones. In spite of the China’s efforts to normalize IHE policy in
this early stage of the post-pandemic era, many academic faculty members
could not deal with their emotional challenges and felt burned out and
dropped out of their academic careers during the Delta and Omicron out­
breaks. Even though establishing collective resilience and social and emotional
support networks are vital to cope with mental health challenges, it is still
vague to view how those who lost loved ones could overcome the potential
life-long trauma (Nam 2023; Nam and English 2022; Nam et al. 2022).
At this point we claim that it is instrumental to pay closer and extra
attention to migrants’ and their families’ well-being, promoting
a continuum of social changes and positive identity development.
Therefore, we wrap up this ethnographic investigation with the following
texts from the two American authors within the current research, shedding
new light on the nexus between ambiguous loss and family dynamics within
the specific Chinese national context of ASAFC during China’s transformation
into the post-pandemic era:

American-Author-A: So, in a matter of weeks or days, everything shifted from

like another lockdown, fear, uncertainty, stocking up on food. And then once we
all started getting infected, we all were getting sick and still dealing with like,
how do we teach? How do we take care of the family? How do we isolate?
Faculty members, especially the foreign faculty were like very upset and dis­
appointed at how things shifted so quickly without any preparation. [Sigh] My
wife had to go to work and eventually got infected. And then, my kid and I got
positive in a row. We canceled all plans and isolated ourselves in our apartment.
The most challenging issue was taking care of our kid, while we were recovering
from a wide range of symptoms. We couldn’t even phone family back in the
U.S. for Christmas. There was a scheduled call for all family members to join in.

American-Author-B: My wife and I worked in different cities, which are actually

not that far, less than one and a half hours by train. My wife was still recovering
from COVID during Christmas. I planned to go home before Christmas eve, but
she stopped me from coming. Her parents took care of her, and they both
eventually got infected. I was worried about coming because of my parents-in-
law. Since I heard all of them were positive, I decided to travel back home before
the new year holiday season, despite the explosive chain of lethal transmission.
All my family members were recovering, but I became positive. My symptoms
 IDENTITIES: GLOBAL STUDIES IN CULTURE AND POWER 17

were not that severe but had some fever, sore throat (pharyngitis), and dehy­
dration. I had to deal with my academic jobs and grade students’ finals while
enduring the COVID infection.

Concluding remarks
This study examined how ASAFC members dealt with rapid public health policy
shifts and negotiated with diverse emotional, social, and cultural challenges as
educational sojourners in China. This research positioned three co-authors as
digital ethnographers to explore those who are married to Chinese women. We
implied that the long-term dynamic zero-COVID policy caused numerous
emotional and social well-being issues and feelings of ambiguous loss. Many
educational sojourners in China missed opportunities to manage diverse forms
of essential social and cultural capital, especially because of the lack of inter­
cultural capital. At the same time, the ASAFC members secured their accumu­
lated migration capital. While focusing on examining the lived experiences of
foreign husbands, we neglected to explore foreign female academics married
to Chinese men. This portion has remained as the limitation of this study. Thus,
future research should consider exploring the missing side of global migration
research, thereby expanding the existing knowledge into global scholarship.
We wrote that collaboration between international and intercultural mar­
riage couples could develop appropriate social and emotional support net­
works. At this point, it is significant to recognize that there is a long historical
concern and ideological problem related to Sino-Anglo relations. For this
complex issue, we, the three co-authors of this study, asked ourselves to discuss
the meaning of intercultural capital and its flows in our in-between spaces
through the lens of the ASAFC, and in turn confront the nexus between
ambiguous loss and family dynamics in global migration and identity research.
In our scholarly conversation, we highlighted key public concerns, social issues,
and cultural events during China’s transformation into the post-pandemic era
aimed at strengthening social bonds and mutual trust in the Sino-Anglo con­
text. Our response to this question culminated with an overview of the most
overarching challenges among societally and culturally diverse individuals
during the most severe public health crisis in recent history. We conclude this
paper by emphasizing the social importance of education and integrity con­
cerning the host and sojourner group relations.

Notes
1. Texts directly retrieved from Statement from the U.S. Mission to China to U.S.
Citizens. https://china.usembassy-china.org.cn/zh/u-s-mission-china-statement
-to-american-citizens-2/
18 B. H. NAM ET AL.

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

Funding
This work was supported by the Wenzhou-Kean University Research Support
Programs [IRSPK2023004]; The 2024 Soft Science Program supported by Science
Technology Department of Zhejiang Province [2024C25042].

ORCID
Benjamin H. Nam http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9969-4783
Alexander Scott English http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0142-146X
Kun Dai http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6947-7710

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