《异乡人》“Strangers”: A Visual Ethnography about Expat Teachers in China during Covid-19 Pandemic

Name: Xinyu Martina Pei
Majors: Communication Studies, East Asian Studies
Minor: Global Media and Digital Studies
Advisors: Dr. Ahmet Atay, Dr. Ziying You
This research aims to fairly and truly demonstrate expat teachers’ experience in China during the Covid-19 global pandemic. More specifically, this project studies factors such as the Covid-19 crises that influence how expat teachers adapt to and interact with Chinese culture. The researcher filmed the collected stories from foreign teachers into a documentary. The documentary seeks to acknowledge that how expat teachers’ life experiences during the Covid-19 global pandemic reflect the global crisis that all humans are facing.T
his study utilizes online interviews and online observation. The online interviews are aimed at three expat teachers who work at the educational institution. Alongside these interviews, I conduct online observation to investigate foreign teachers online posts. In order to protect participants confidential information, interviews and observation are not be video-taped. The transcript of the interviews is used as a sources for the narrative of the documentary. Participants are not going to be in the documentary, actors and voice actors will replace the role of participants in the film.

Xinyu will be online to field comments on April 16:
8-10am EDT (Asia: evening, Africa/Europe: afternoon)

Posted in I.S. Symposium 2021, Independent Study on April 4, 2021.