Rachel Zhou | McMaster University (original) (raw)

Papers by Rachel Zhou

Globalization and Health, 2024

suggests a complex tale of globalization and public health, in which the relationships among the ... more suggests a complex tale of globalization and public health, in which the relationships among the major actors of global health governance-in particular, the US, the WHO, and China-have rapidly evolved against the background of contemporary globalization processes. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the contested politics of global health governance [4-6], we still don't know enough about the dynamics of domestic pandemic responses, or about the relationship between the politics of those responses and the politics of global health governance, both of which have changed significantly in recent decades. Focusing on the trajectory of China's pandemic responses in the context of globalization, this article explores three cross-border infectious diseases-HIV/ AIDS, SARS, and COVID-19-that constitute important moments in this country's engagement with global

University of California Press, 2023

Taking the United Kingdom, the United States, and China as cases, this chapter explores the tran... more Taking the United Kingdom, the United States, and China as cases, this
chapter explores the transnational connections of the rhetoric of nostalgia—or, more precisely, what Roland Robertson (1990) calls “willful
nostalgia”—in the current phase of globalization. Analyzing these cases
through a lens of global studies enables an understanding of nostalgia both as a response to the paradoxes—such as between the compressed world and the intensified distinctions of clusters of nations, between integration and retreat, and between globalization and deglobalization, generated by the globalization processes—and as a multifaceted construct associated with geotemporality, affect, politics, culture, and history. I contend that the divergent rhetoric of nostalgia reflects these countries’ different empirical stages and experiences of globalization and (re)articulations of the places to which they aspire in the future world. While the willful nostalgia under discussion has revealed the continuing tensions among nation-states, citizens, international relations, and humanity in the context of accelerated global capitalism, the conflictual and mutually constitutive relationship between globalization and nostalgia are also important to consider

Globalizations, 2023

Youth withdrawal or 'stagnant youth'such as hikikomori in Japan, NEET in Europe, and the lying fl... more Youth withdrawal or 'stagnant youth'such as hikikomori in Japan, NEET in Europe, and the lying flat movement in Chinahas been widely observed in recent decades. Seen as a culture-or geography-based and discrete phenomenon, however, its global connections across times and spaces are overlooked. Through the lens of globality or global consciousness of connectivity, this article explores how a news report on China's lying flat movement was discussed by global youth on Reddit, an online idea exchange platform, and how this collective reading event has enabled their senses of transplanetary connectivity and generational solidarity. I argue that consciousness of connectivity, especially from the perspectives of those who are habitually peripheralized, can function as an important entry point to better understanding the shared predicaments, as well as potentials, of young people who feel stuck or 'out of place and pace' at the current stage of contemporary globalization.

Affilia, 2022

The relatively sparse literature has documented various challenges international migration poses ... more The relatively sparse literature has documented various challenges international migration poses to martial stability, yet we know little about immigrant women's experiences with marital breakdown. Drawing data from a qualitative study of Chinese economic immigrants to Canada, this article explores women's experiences of navigating the processes of this life circumstance, and of how gender—including their senses of changing gender roles in post-immigration and postmarital contexts—plays out in these trajectories. The results of this exploratory study illustrate the value of transcending dichotomous conceptions of the relationship between gender and migration, and of opening spaces in which to better understand immigrant women's increasingly diversified life trajectories and the range of barriers they encounter along the way. The study also reveals multiple opportunities for social work contributions: tackling systematic barriers to settlement, facilitating social support...

1. Introduction: Exploring the Intersection of Time and Globalization Paul Huebener, Susie O'... more 1. Introduction: Exploring the Intersection of Time and Globalization Paul Huebener, Susie O'Brien, Tony Porter, Liam Stockdale and Yanqiu Rachel Zhou 2. The Untimely in Globalization's Time: Don DeLillo's Cosmopolis Victor Li 3. The Strategic Manipulation of Transnational Temporalities Tony Porter and Liam Stockdale 4. Accelerated Contagion and Response: Understanding the Relationships among Globalization, Time, and Disease Yanqiu Rachel Zhou and William D. Coleman 5. Fast Machines, Slow Violence: ICTs, Planned Obsolescence, and E-waste Sabine LeBel 6. Humanitarian Melodramas, Globalist Nostalgia: Affective Temporalities of Globalization and Uneven Development Cheryl Lousley 7. `We Thought the World Was Makeable': Scenario Planning and Postcolonial Fiction Susie O'Brien 8. Strategic Planning in the `Empire of Speed' Kamilla Petrick

Globalizations, 2021

ABSTRACT This article offers a review of the emergent literature on ‘vaccine nationalism' - t... more ABSTRACT This article offers a review of the emergent literature on ‘vaccine nationalism' - the act of gaining preferential access to newly developed vaccines by individual countries - in the context of COVID-19, paying close attention to the complex relationships between the global public health crisis and globalization. The coexistence of nationalist and globalist approaches to COVID-19 vaccines suggests simultaneous and contentious processes of globalization and deglobalization; the growing political and economic divide in the world; the lack of (or lag in) our consciousness of global interconnectedness, especially in non-economic spheres; and various structural barriers to global collaboration when facing a common threat to humanity’s future. Although these tensions - not necessarily novel - are unlikely to end globalization given the extant intertwining of global economic networks, they have been sharpened and intensified during the pandemic and, thus, constitute a pivotal - or make-or-break - moment for us to critically imagine a postpandemic world.

China Perspectives, 2009

A ccording to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS in China, (1) the estimated number o... more A ccording to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS in China, (1) the estimated number of HIV-infected individuals in this country was 700,000 at the end of 2007. Although the prevalence among China's population is not very high (approximately 0.05 per cent), this epidemic shows no signs of abating. In 2007 alone, there were 50,000 new infections in China, and transmission routes included heterosexual transmission (44.7 percent), men who have sex with men (12.2 percent), injection drug users (42 percent), and mother-to-child transmission (1 percent). The Chinese government hopes to keep the number of HIV-infected people below 1.5 million by 2010. (2) Although education campaigns in recent years have improved knowledge of HIV/AIDS in China, it has been, and continues to be, viewed by the public as a disease imbued with such negative meanings as "immorality," "promiscuity," "perversion," "contagiousness," and "death." (3) Stigma associated with this disease and discrimination against HIV-infected people are widespread, inhibiting many from accessing the HIV test and engaging health care despite the availability of such services. (4) Meanwhile, the affordability of medical care has become a salient issue for many Chinese, especially the urban poor and rural residents, since the launch of health care reforms in the 1980s. Research suggests that unaffordability of health care services continues to discourage HIV-infected individuals and their families from seeking services. (5) Confronting limited social and institutional support from the larger society, people with HIV/AIDS may have to seek help from their families. (6) A study of the effects of family support on the lives of HIVinfected individuals in Yunnan Province, for instance, found that in many cases family was the primary source of various forms of assistance, including financial assistance, support in the disclosure processes, routine daily activities, medical assistance, and psychological support. (7) The disclosure

Culture, Health & Sexuality, 2016

Although immigrants' sustained connections with their homelands are well documented, so far we kn... more Although immigrants' sustained connections with their homelands are well documented, so far we know little about how 'race'-in particular, conceptions of race back home-influences the HIV vulnerability of racialised immigrants to Western countries. Drawing on data from a multi-sited, qualitative study of Chinese immigrants to Canada, this paper presents a contextualised understanding of the impacts of race on HIV risk faced by these individuals in a transnational context. Data were collected from four study sites in Canada and China as part of a study investigating the relationship between HIV risk and transnationalism. Although race appears to have bearing on their risk perceptions and sexual practices, immigrants' understandings of race are not necessarily consistent with dominant discourses of race in Canada, but are also mediated by their racial habitus developed in China. Findings reveal the complex power dynamics-not just power asymmetries but also power fluidityaround race from a transnational perspective and thus challenge the assumed dichotomy of dominance and subordination underpinning traditional explanations of the relationship between race and HIV risk. In the context of transnationalism, researchers should go beyond a nation-bound concept of society (i.e. the host society) and take into account the simultaneous influence of both host and home countries on immigrant health.

Globalizations, 2015

Abstract The rapid global transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 raises... more Abstract The rapid global transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 raises questions about the intersections of globalization, time, and diseases. Viewing it as a disease of speed, this article examines SARS as a case of emerging infectious diseases in the context of contemporary globalization. We contend that the SARS crisis exposed the limitations of traditional spatiality-based approaches to infectious diseases, disease control, and health governance. When the advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) in recent decades have accelerated the diffusion of pathogens, actors at all levels of global public health are pressed to keep up with the new temporalities. While cognitive and organizational innovations arising from technological changes show some hope for addressing these issues on a global level, other temporality-related challenges—such as differential capacities of the affected countries to respond to the simultaneity of the crisis—are yet to be tackled.

Globalizations, 2015

Consider the following four contemporaneous yet diverse events:. On 30 September 2014, Thomas Eri... more Consider the following four contemporaneous yet diverse events:. On 30 September 2014, Thomas Eric Duncan-a 42-year-old Liberian citizen who had traveled to Dallas, Texas to visit family-became the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola hemorrhagic fever in North America. By adding the USA to the list of countries with confirmed Ebola cases, Duncan's diagnosis and subsequent death exacerbated a simmering global panic over the potential worldwide transmission of the highly lethal disease, whose previous outbreaks had not spread significantly beyond their initial sites of emergence. It was subsequently revealed that the period between his initial infection and ultimate diagnosis saw Duncan travel thousands of kilometers across three continents while remaining unknown to either national or global public health authorities ('Retracing the steps of the Dallas Ebola patient', 2014).. On 12 November 2014, US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping made a surprise announcement that their respective states-the world's two largest economies, energy consumers, and carbon emitters-had reached an agreement to jointly limit greenhouse gas emissions over the next two decades. Under the terms of the pact, the USA is required to reduce emissions to 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025, while China pledged

Qualitative health research, 2008

Women in China are increasingly affected by HIV/AIDS. Current AIDS studies have examined the HIV ... more Women in China are increasingly affected by HIV/AIDS. Current AIDS studies have examined the HIV risks faced by this gender group, paying inadequate attention to women's actual experiences with the disease. This oversight has inhibited our ability to understand the impact of gender on women's capacity to respond to HIV/AIDS in their postinfection lives. Based on a qualitative study on illness experiences of HIV-infected people, this article examines the interactions between HIV/AIDS and gender roles in the Chinese context. It was found that traditional gender norms have played a key role for HIV-infected women in their efforts to tackle this disease and to make sense of their daily lives. HIV infection has created a conflict between women's intention to fulfill their conception of "womanhood" and a decreased ability to do so, which, in turn, has adversely affected their self-perceptions and well-being. To avoid worsening the inequality women experience, therefo...

Journal of Aging Studies, 2012

Critical gerontology views aging as a social construction that reflects the intersections of micr... more Critical gerontology views aging as a social construction that reflects the intersections of micro-processes with the macro-level forces of individual aging experiences. In the contexts of immigration and transnationalism, however, the macro-structural conditions, dynamics and experiences of aging have become further diversified and complicated. The dearth of empirical and explanatory knowledge in this area has inhibited us from comprehending aging in a changing world. Drawing on data from a study of Chinese grandparents' experiences of transnational caregiving in Canada, this article examines the impacts of such experiences on three interconnected dimensionsspatial, temporal and cognitiveof aging. Although the practice of transnational caregiving allows skilled immigrant families to mobilize care resources outside Canada, it has not only ruptured the traditional trajectories of aging for their elderly parents, but also complicated the inequalities that they have to bear on individual, familial and transnational levels. I argue that the critical examination of aging in the context of transnational caregiving helps us take into consideration those dimensions (such as place, space, time, and knowledge) that are changed by immigration processes, and rethink aging from a broader perspective that links seniors' experiences with their relationship with their adult immigrant children's families and macro-structures outside national borders.

Health & Social Care in the Community, 2010

This edition published in Great Britain in 2009 by The Policy Press University of Bristol Fourth ... more This edition published in Great Britain in 2009 by The Policy Press University of Bristol Fourth Floor Beacon House Queen's Road Bristol BS8 1QU UK Tel+ 44 (0) 117 331 4054 Fax+ 44 (0) 117 331 4093 e-mail tpp-info@ bristol. ac. uk www. policypress. co. uk North American ...

Global Social Policy, 2013

The intersections of international migration, care and welfare states have attracted increasing a... more The intersections of international migration, care and welfare states have attracted increasing attention from social policy scholars, yet the focus on the commodification of care has led them largely to ignore kin-based unpaid care. Based on a study of Chinese grandparents’ caregiving experiences in Canada, this article shows how transnational families of Chinese skilled immigrants have participated in redistributing care resources, including emotion, time and cultural knowledge, across generations and countries. The article argues that states – in particular, the government of Canada as the host country – still have a crucial role to play in untangling the contradictions of immigration and care and addressing the inequalities embedded in transnational caregiving. To pursue global social justice, social policy makers need to take into account policy effects that go beyond the nation-state and its citizenry and intersect with such aspects of immigration as the spatial reconfiguratio...

Affilia, 2022

The relatively sparse literature has documented various challenges international migration poses ... more The relatively sparse literature has documented various challenges international migration poses to martial stability, yet we know little about immigrant women's experiences with marital breakdown. Drawing data from a qualitative study of Chinese economic immigrants to Canada, this article explores women's experiences of navigating the processes of this life circumstance, and of how gender-including their senses of changing gender roles in post-immigration and postmarital contexts-plays out in these trajectories. The results of this exploratory study illustrate the value of transcending dichotomous conceptions of the relationship between gender and migration, and of opening spaces in which to better understand immigrant women's increasingly diversified life trajectories and the range of barriers they encounter along the way. The study also reveals multiple opportunities for social work contributions: tackling systematic barriers to settlement, facilitating social support in the community, and recognizing individuals' diverse trajectory potentials (including the potential for this typically unwelcome event to be integrated as personal growth and transition).

Culture, health & sexuality, Jun 1, 2017

In the context of international migration, transnationalism, defined as 'the processes by which i... more In the context of international migration, transnationalism, defined as 'the processes by which immigrants forge and sustain multi-stranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and settlement' , has important implications for sexuality and HIV-related risk (Basch, Glick Schiller, and Blanc 1994, 6). The concept of transnationalism draws attention to two key features of immigrants' transnational lives: (1) the cross-border linkages or networks of relationships created by transnational flows of people, goods, ideas, values and so on; and (2) the simultaneous engagement of individuals with two nation states, made increasingly possible by technological advance (e.g., the Internet, air travel, satellite technology and the mobile phone) (Levitt and Glick Schiller 2004; Mazzucato 2010; Tsuda 2012). Migrants' dual engagement in sending and receiving countries , and simultaneous embeddedness in more than one society, may also be viewed as defining characteristics of transnationalism (Levitt and Jaworsky 2007; Tsuda 2012). Transnationalism challenges state-centric thinking about international migration as consisting solely of movement from one country to another, or as an event that ends with migrants' settlement in the host country. Through a transnational lens, international migration is best understood as a lifelong process that involves complex interactions between migrants, second-generation family members and those left behind. This process evokes a linkage or a network of relationships that spans two or more nation-states, often over more than one generation (Lunt 2009). Unlike traditional methodological nationalism, 'methodological transnationalism' creates vantage points that recognise 'the processes, ties and links between people, places, and institutions that routinely cut across nation states' (Yeates 2008, 22). Furthermore, transnational thinking and living challenge the nation-bounded concept of societies and carries the potential to overcome the dichotomy between the global and the local, while recognising cross-border connections in a globalising world (Amelina et al. 2012). A cross-border approach thus makes it possible to understand sexuality and HIV risk in the context of international migration from a broader transnational perspective. This perspective, in turn, allows us to better contextualise the research focus by encompassing mobility, cross-or beyond-border social relations, hybrid cultural assemblages and transnational narratives. It also supports public health approaches and government policy options concerning HIV prevention, taking into consideration the often complex transnational contexts that international migrants navigate. Although the notion of transnationalism has been widely explored in immigration studies since the 1990s, its implications for health research, and specifically research into HIV-related risk, have been largely overlooked. Most studies have examined HIV-related risk to immigrants in their host countries. In doing so, popular discourse has ignored the simultaneous influence of the home country context (which is not limited to its culture) on immigrants' risk perceptions, risk exposure and risk responses. These perceptions of risk, influenced by multiple and sometimes contradictory discourses and sources, in turn, have important but seldom specified implications for access to and practices for HIV prevention. Traditional assimilation models assume a linear transition from an 'old' culture to a 'new' one in the host country. In contrast, key assumptions in a globalisation model include the possibility

Globalizations, 2021

This article offers a review of the emergent literature on 'vaccine nationalism'the act of gainin... more This article offers a review of the emergent literature on 'vaccine nationalism'the act of gaining preferential access to newly developed vaccines by individual countries-in the context of COVID-19, paying close attention to the complex relationships between the global public health crisis and globalization. The coexistence of nationalist and globalist approaches to COVID-19 vaccines suggests simultaneous and contentious processes of globalization and deglobalization; the growing political and economic divide in the world; the lack of (or lag in) our consciousness of global interconnectedness, especially in non-economic spheres; and various structural barriers to global collaboration when facing a common threat to humanity's future. Although these tensions-not necessarily novel-are unlikely to end globalization given the extant intertwining of global economic networks, they have been sharpened and intensified during the pandemic and, thus, constitute a pivotal-or make-or-break-moment for us to critically imagine a postpandemic world.

The current research on transnationalism has paid little attention to the impacts of immigrants’ ... more The current research on transnationalism has paid little attention to the impacts of immigrants’ sustained ties to their homelands on their relationships with ethnic communities in the host countries. Drawing on data from a qualitative study of economic immigrants from China to Canada, this article explores the new generation of Chinese immigrants’ definitions and perceptions of and experiences with the “Chinese community” as both an ideational and an empirical entity. Having faced various barriers to settlement and integration in Canada, these individuals tend to see China as “closer” to them than the established ethnic Chinese communities in Canada when it comes to fulfilling their needs for economic security, social support and, even, a sense of belonging. The findings suggest the urgent need to understand the relationship between the new waves of immigration, the ethnic community, and transnationalism, and to reflect on the mosaic multicultural approach to ethnicity and immigrant governance in the context of diversification of diversity.

Globalization and Health, 2024

University of California Press, 2023

Globalizations, 2023

Affilia, 2022

Globalizations, 2021

China Perspectives, 2009

Culture, Health & Sexuality, 2016

Globalizations, 2015

Qualitative health research, 2008

Journal of Aging Studies, 2012

Health & Social Care in the Community, 2010

Global Social Policy, 2013

Affilia, 2022

The relatively sparse literature has documented various challenges international migration poses ... more The relatively sparse literature has documented various challenges international migration poses to martial stability, yet we know little about immigrant women's experiences with marital breakdown. Drawing data from a qualitative study of Chinese economic immigrants to Canada, this article explores women's experiences of navigating the processes of this life circumstance, and of how gender-including their senses of changing gender roles in post-immigration and postmarital contexts-plays out in these trajectories. The results of this exploratory study illustrate the value of transcending dichotomous conceptions of the relationship between gender and migration, and of opening spaces in which to better understand immigrant women's increasingly diversified life trajectories and the range of barriers they encounter along the way. The study also reveals multiple opportunities for social work contributions: tackling systematic barriers to settlement, facilitating social support in the community, and recognizing individuals' diverse trajectory potentials (including the potential for this typically unwelcome event to be integrated as personal growth and transition).

Culture, health & sexuality, Jun 1, 2017

Globalizations, 2021

University of California Press, 2023

Using the case of queer economic immigrants to Canada from China, in this chapter I argue that ... more Using the case of queer economic immigrants to Canada from China, in this chapter
I argue that transnational sexuality should not be simplified as queer immigrants’ pursuit of sexual liberation by crossing international borders; rather, it should also be viewed as comprising heterogeneous, multi-sphere trajectories in which these immigrants’ sexualities are simultaneously shaping and being shaped by various familial, social, cultural, economic, and political forces in both the host and home countries. It thus also provides an alternative narrative that has the potential to challenge the sexuality-centric conception of and geopolitical progress discourses on ‘queer migration’.

Let us begin with two recent stories about sexuality in this globalising world: On May 24, 2019, ... more Let us begin with two recent stories about sexuality in this globalising world: On May 24, 2019, Taiwan became the first, and remains the only place in Asia, to legalise same-sex marriage, albeit with limited adoption rights. Its legislature passed the bill by 66 to 27 votes, backed by lawmakers from the majority Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), whose leader is Tsai Ing-Wen, the first female president in Taiwan's history. On May 24, 2017, the Constitutional Court had ruled that barring same-sex couples from statesanctioned marriage was unconstitutional on grounds of discrimination and gave the government two years to amend the law. With government inaction and strong opposition from conservative and Christian groups, however, post-ruling progress was slow. In November 2018, Taiwan's electorate passed a referendum refusing to recognise same-sex marriages in the Civil Code and restricting teaching about LGBT issues; of the 55 percent of eligible voters who participated in the referendum, 67 percent voted against marriage equality.

Stigma associated with HIV/AIDS in China has largely shaped by the sociocultural meanings of this... more Stigma associated with HIV/AIDS in China has largely shaped by the sociocultural meanings of this disease. Based an empirical study of the daily experiences of Chinese people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), this chapter explore the ways in which HIV stigma is constructed, experienced, understood , and responded from the perspectives of those individuals. The actual interactions between PLWHA and others reveal that the sociocultural meanings of this disease are not fixed, but ongoingly co-constructed by the various participants (such as PLWHA and their families, friends, and health workers) in such interactions. Despite people's mastery of knowledge, prejudices toward HIV/AIDS and PLWHA can be generated, spread, and, perhaps, made worse through interpersonal interactions. To effectively fight HIV stigma in the Chinese context, I argue that the non-biomedical and interactive dimensions of stigma and discrimination associated with this disease must also be taken into account.