Chinese in a Pandemic: TikTok as a Window Into Chinese People’s Lives During COVID-19

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.211020.138How to use a DOI?

Keywords

TikTok, 19-COVID, social media, thematic analysis

Abstract

TikTok, a popular short video app in China, played a significant role during the COVID-19 pandemic. Offering a window into people’s daily lives against this traumatic background, TikTok was used as a research site in this study to figure out how Chinese people manifested their experiences and feelings. This study used the hashtag as a methodological tool for data selection and analyzed the videos through a thematic analysis approach. Findings indicate that Chinese people tended to express their emotional needs in TikTok videos and took a positive attitude to handle the negative feelings during the quarantine. Besides, all the videos are prone to manifest a feeling of patriotism. The study stresses the humoristic features of TikTok and the characteristics of the videos crafted according to the ethos and norms of the platform.

Copyright

© 2021, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Siwen Lu
PY  - 2021
DA  - 2021/10/21
TI  - Chinese in a Pandemic: TikTok as a Window Into Chinese People’s Lives During COVID-19
BT  - Proceedings of the 2021 International Conference on Public Relations and Social Sciences (ICPRSS 2021)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 106
EP  - 111
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.211020.138
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.211020.138
ID  - Lu2021
ER  -