BMF Collaborative Project 6: A Study on Chinese Female Returnees’ Gender Identity Shifts after Their Overseas Study Experience

Ruining Jin
China University of Political Science and Law (Beijing, China)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8542-7614

October 20, 2022


Highlight:

• I invite portal users to participate in a research project exploring the gender identity shifts of Chinese female international students after their overseas study/work experience.
• The research project will have four authors.
• The research project is a longitudinal study composed of two sets of interviews.
• The registration period opens from October 20 to 30, 2022, and will close sooner if the maximum number of participants is reached.

More details of collaborative projects are available here: https://mindsponge.info/posts/39.

1. Project Description

1.1. Background

Chinese females could be categorized into three dynamic and interchangeable identity clusters:

1. Entrepreneurial feminists are those who use their sexual attractions for economic security in the marriage market.
2. Non-cooperative feminists are those who cherish autonomous female sexuality and consider personal economic standing not an end in itself, but a means to sexual autonomy in society [1].
3. Non-feminists are those who adhere to the traditional Confucian gender role and obey mercenary marriages arranged by parents based on collectivism and filial piety [2].

It has been widely reported that upon returning to China, contemporary Chinese female international students have been suffering from identity conflicts [3,4]. While the traditional domestic gender role for female have mostly focused on child-raring and family-supporting, returnees, after extensive exposure to western feminism and individualism, challenged this traditional gender role by a greater pursuit of individualistic values such as autonomy, postponed marriage age, and DINK (double income no kids) and contempt for being labeled as “leftover” ladies [5].


Illustration: ABC News [5]

1.2. Project Aims:

The current research project aims to employ the 3D multi-filtering process [6], mindsponge theory [7], and BMF analytics [8] to examine the following questions:

1. To what extent, if any, does the study abroad experience affect the gender identity of Chinese females?
2. To what extent, if any, do the values of Western feminism affect the gender identity shift of Chinese females?
3. What values were expelled and absorbed from the Chinese females’ mindsets upon their return?
4. To what extent, if any, does participants’ acquired social mobility upon return meet their expectations based on their current identity cluster’s self-actualization?

2. Methods and Materials

The research will use a phenomenological study for interviewing a total of 13 participants in a longitudinal study. The first study was conducted in August 2020, and the second will be conducted in November 2022.

3. Collaboration Details

3.1. Current Collaboration Stage: Registration stage

3.2. Registration Period: October 20, 2022 – November 30, 2022

3.3. Registration Guidelines

Portal users should follow these steps to register to participate in this research project:

1. Create an account on the website (preferably using an institution email)
2. Read carefully and select the author order that you want to become. Each project consists of a certain number of authors, and each author order in the manuscript corresponds to specific tasks of which the participant will be in charge.
3. Comment your desired author order and your current affiliation in the collaborative project post.
4. Patiently wait for the formal agreement on the project from the AISDL mentor.

All the resources for conducting and writing the research manuscript will be distributed after the registration stage ends.

3.4. Number of Participants: This project has four participants. The registered participants will be selected based on the ‘first come-first serve’ rule. Early Career Researchers (ECRs) and those from low-resource countries will be prioritized in specific cases.

3.5. AISDL Mentor: Minh-Hoang Nguyen
Affiliation: Centre for Interdisciplinary Social Research, Phenikaa University, Vietnam
Contacting email: aisdl_team@mindsponge.info

3.6. Project Participants and Authorship

First author (project leader): Ruining Jin
Affiliation: Civil, Commercial and Economic Law School, China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing, China
Roles: being responsible for finalizing the project (mandatory), being responsive throughout the project (mandatory), conceptualizing, organizing the manuscript, assigning tasks, keeping track, supporting and guiding other participants, and editing the manuscript.

Second author: (Name; tbd)
Affiliation:
Registering/invited time:
Roles: conducting a literature review, discussing results, writing the manuscript (Introduction and Discussion), and revising the manuscript during the peer-review process.

Third author: (Name; tbd)
Affiliation:
Registering/invited time:
Roles: describing methods and materials, writing the manuscript (Methods and Materials), and revising the manuscript during the peer-review process.

Last author (corresponding): (Name; tbd)
Affiliation:
Registering/invited time:
Roles: being responsive throughout the project (mandatory), validating the manuscript, discussing results, writing the manuscript (Results and Discussion), submitting the manuscript, revising the manuscript during the peer-review process, and responding to reviewers’ comments.

The research project strictly adheres to scientific integrity standards, including authorship rights and obligations. I look forward to working with volunteers on this research project. If the portal users have any further inquiries, please get in touch with the AISDL in charge of the project.

References

[1] Wu AX, Dong Y. (2019). What is made-in-China feminism (s)? Gender discontent and class friction in post-socialist China. Critical Asian Studies, 51(4), 471-492.

[2] Hu Y, Scott J. (2016). Family and gender values in China: Generational, geographic, and gender differences. Journal of Family Issues, 37(9), 1267-1293.

[3] Xu Y. (2022). An autoethnographic narrative of the diasporic experience of a Chinese female Ph. D. returnee’s entry into the domestic academic job market during COVID-19: An ecological environment perspective. Asia Pacific Education Review, 23(2), 245-255.

[4] Jin R, Wang X. (2022). “Somewhere I belong?” A study on transnational identity shifts caused by “double stigmatization” among Chinese international student returnees during COVID-19 through the lens of mindsponge mechanism. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1018843.

[5] Baker N. (2022). Chinese women face a complex homecoming after studying in Australia. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-23/chinese-women-face-a-complex-homecoming/101442550

[6] Vuong QH, Napier NK. (2015). Making creativity: the value of multiple filters in the innovation process. International Journal of Transitions and Innovation Systems, 3(4), 294.

[7] Vuong QH, Napier NK. (2015). Acculturation and global mindsponge: an emerging market perspective. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 49, 354–367.

[8] Vuong QH, Nguyen MN, La VP. (2022). The Mindsponge and BMF Analytics for Innovative Thinking in Social Sciences and Humanities. De Gruyter.