Send message to Author

Paper short abstract

This article discussed ordinary life and anthropological norms in a ruptured world through the experiences of an undergraduate's daily life and anthropological studies across different places and times. It also explores patchwork across the temporal dimension and considers a more open writing form.

Paper long abstract

In this article, I will take people into a segment of my life journey. This journey originated from a question, "Why do we live like that?", which was brought by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, and accompanied me from the beginning of my study of anthropology until now, when I am about to apply to graduate school.

This article started from my “clumsy” imitation of past fieldwork discipline during my field trip in Thailand and Hong Kong. However, when I returned to my home, Hefei, to write, the events I had experienced and the observations I had conducted continually surfaced and haunted in my mind, eventually enabling me to complete the question I had at the beginning of this journey. I discuss two aspects. On the one hand, I discuss two worlds: reflections and practices of ordinary life and the switching norms of the anthropological academic world in the ruptured world after the pandemic, as well as my experience of living simultaneously in these two worlds. On the other hand, I extend patchwork to the temporal dimension, showing how those past stories and the people answered my question through their haunting presence.

In summary, through this article, I hope to provide conceptual tools for understanding and critiquing our post-pandemic forms of life, and to explore the relationship between patchy experiences and the grand existential questions that we all have to face. More importantly, I hope to show how anthropology can open a more inclusive door to people.