Whiteness as Lifestyle: Chinese Students' Representation of Lived Experiences of Studying Abroad on Social Media

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Sixteen
  In Roundtable Session: Identity, Capital, and Experiences Among International Students (Table 2)

Abstract

Through a phenomenological approach, this study focuses on how Chinese students use a social media platform to represent their lives as international students in U.S. higher education. By examining their multimodal texts on RED, this study innovatively discusses how these representations shape the futurity of the meaning of studying in the U.S. to the public. This study sheds light on Chinese students’ “lived experiences” of studying in U.S. higher education and how these experiences are promoted as a desirable lifestyle but reproduce Whiteness and perpetuate the legacy of settler colonialism. Besides, this study discusses possibilities for international students of color to engage in, and if possible, contribute to the process of decolonization in U.S. higher education.

Author

• Zhenyang Xu, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author