Impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Chinese and Chinese American Women: Racisms, Feminisms, and Foodways

Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Chinese and Chinese American Women examines how Chinese and Chinese American women in the United States experienced and responded to the double threat of the COVID-19 virus and anti-Asian racism from 2020 to 2021 and how the global pandemic changed their daily lives, foodways, and identities.

Ziying You addresses the social and cultural impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on Chinese and Chinese American Women in the US through the four key themes of racism and anti-racism efforts, foodways, gender construction, and community building. Drawing on virtual ethnography, interviews, surveys, social media analysis, and personal experiences of professional women, mothers, Chinese international students, lay Buddhist women, and Chinese adoptees, You shows that the racism triggered by COVID-19 echoes longstanding racist tropes such as ＂ the yellow peril＂ and discriminations faced by Chinese people in different parts of the world throughout the history of the Chinese diaspora. You further explores how individuals relating to one or more identities can form communities in which folklore helps them bond and express shared, unique cultural values.

Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Chinese and Chinese American Women highlights women’s agency in response to the pandemic and racism as well as the dynamic process of their identity construction through foodways, religion, and community building in a time of crisis.

Ziying You is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature and Intercultural Studies at the University of Georgia. She is author of Folk Literati, Contested Tradition, and Heritage in Contemporary China: Incense Is Kept Burning (IUP, 2020) and editor (with Lijun Zhang) of Chinese Folklore Studies Today: Discourse and Practice (IUP, 2019).