Understanding affect in (post)Covid China: insights from lived experiences

This doctoral project will provide an innovative reconceptualization of China's covid pandemic as deeply affective. The 'affective turn' in human geography has opened up fruitful discussions on the interconnections between bodies and the world (Gregg and Seigworth, 2010; Thrift and Dewsbury, 2000). Yet, while most studies are situated in Western societies (e.g. Anderson, 2016; Closs Stephens, 2016), little is known about how affective life unfolds in other social formations, with contemporary China being a notable example (Palmer and Winiger, 2019; Zhang, 2018). The project will therefore contribute to deepened understanding of China by offering an alternative perspective on the affective life of zero-Covid policy. The project is theoretically underpinned by the now prevalent research on affect which is defined as the omnipresent relations and connections between bodies and the world (Gregg and Seigworth, 2010; Thrift and Dewsbury, 2000). There has been a proliferation of affect-based studies on how transverse 'affective atmospheres' take shape in everyday space and travel between porous bodies through sensory engagements (e.g. Bissell, 2010; Wilson, 2011). Whilst this strand of work has tended to focus on atmospheres resulting from relatively organic encounters, others have argued that collective affects can also be purposefully designed and governed to facilitate political and socio-economic agenda (Jupp et al., 2017). By contrast, recent scholarships have been interested in the other side of the affective spectrum, namely the passive, inert, and anaesthetic 'unfeelings' that have become endemic to late capitalist societies (Berlant, 2015; Heyes, 2020). However, knowledge of affects is always situated in 'particular geo-historical conjunctures' and therefore must be re-scrutinised when applying to other empirical contexts (Anderson, 2016, p. 749). Indeed, to date affect theory has been predominantly applied in neoliberal capitalist societies in the global North (Fregonese, 2017; Pettit, 2018 being notable exceptions), raising questions as to whether and how its theoretical strength can be leveraged elsewhere. Therefore, this project attends to the unique conditions and characteristics of China and asks how affective life is differently produced and lived.