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Paper short abstract

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among Chinese in London, this paper examines how digital platforms such as WeChat and the rednot shape everyday food practices. It shows how digital infrastructures mediate the search for, evaluation of, and sharing of “good” food across transnational contexts.

Paper long abstract

This paper explores how digital platforms shape everyday food practices among young Chinese migrants in London. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, it examines how platforms such as WeChat, the rednote, and online restaurant review sites are embedded in the processes through which migrants search for, evaluate, and share food experiences across transnational contexts.

The paper argues that digital technologies are not merely tools for accessing information but infrastructures that actively structure food-related practices and social relations. Through digitally mediated interactions—such as sharing restaurant recommendations, discussing hygiene ratings, circulating discount information, and exchanging cooking tips—food knowledge becomes collectively produced and socially negotiated. These practices shape how migrants define and pursue what they consider “good” food, often understood through multiple criteria including hygiene, affordability, authenticity, and trendiness.

The analysis further shows that digital and embodied practices are mutually constitutive. Online content guides offline dining and cooking practices, while lived experiences in turn reshape how digital information is interpreted and circulated. At the same time, food-related information sharing functions as a form of care and social bonding among peers, demonstrating how digital infrastructures facilitate relational forms of food knowledge.

By examining how migrants navigate food through digital platforms, the paper contributes to discussions on digital foodscapes by highlighting how everyday digital practices shape food values, social relations, and transnational food experiences in contemporary migrant life.