End of the China dream? Young Western entrepreneurs' trajectories of leaving China during Covid-19. Issue 3 (12th September 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kefala, Christina; Lan, Shanshan
• Is Part Of: Asian anthropology. Volume 21:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 197
• Page End: 210
• Publication Date: 2022-09-12
• Subjects: China -- Covid-19 -- return migration -- white capital -- Western entrepreneurs; Anthropology -- East Asia -- Periodicals; Anthropology -- Asia -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 301.09505
• DOI: 10.1080/1683478X.2022.2090053
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1683-478X

Abstract

Abstract: This research examines two groups of young Western entrepreneurs' experiences of leaving China during the Covid-19 pandemic, either due to business failure or due to being stuck abroad when China closed its border to international travelers. Based on semi-structured long-distance interviews with twenty young white entrepreneurs who had previously worked in different Chinese cities, this article highlights the impacts of the Covid-19 crisis on their businesses, social status, and identities before and during the pandemic. We identify two prominent themes in our respondents' highly emotional reflections on their involuntary return experiences: loss and victimhood. We argue that such narratives betray multi-layered tensions between privileges and precariousness in the social construction of whiteness in a transnational context.