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Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I reflect on the online narrations of Covid-19 infections in China after the government abolished its 'Zero-Covid' policy. I examine how the narrations related to Covid-19 symptoms amongst online contexts constituted individuals’ re-construction and re-recognisation of the pandemic.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I reflect on the online narrations related to Covid-19 infections in China after the government abolished its strict control measures named the 'Zero-Covid' policy (清零政策). In particular, I examine how the massive emergence of narrations related to Covid-19 symptoms amongst online contexts – including social media trending and keyword searching – constituted individuals’ re-construction and re-recognisation of the pandemic. I conduct the case study about major platforms’ ‘outbreak index’ (疫情指数) in two aspects: the platforms’ methodologies of presenting the summarising the Covid-related narrations; and how individuals actually regarded such narrations during experiencing the massive outbreak. During this period, the uncertainty of Covid-19 transmission became viral, especially embodied within the public’s curiosity and anxiety about the massive transmissions after the National Health Committee (国家卫健委, the highest authority of health affairs) cancelled most of the regular tests and its daily update of infection data. Unlike the ‘Zero-Covid’ period, in which the government forcibly conducted strict infection surveillance and corresponding restrictions, the absence of both the government’s intervention and the information disclosure of outbreaks has contrasted with the public’s reactions, which were fundamentally based on how one had actually encountered and experienced the infection on themselves. The presentation and utilisation of Covid-related online narrations show that the government’s authoritarian indoctrination of ‘how to manage the pandemic’ went lost, while individuals were increasingly facing the uncertainty of how to take their 'self-care' during the outbreaks.