Online spatialisation and embodied experiences: the London-based Chinese professionals

Abstract

This paper examines the networked reproduction of migrants’ homeland not as virtual but as embodied spatial experiences. Using ethnographic methods, this research is based on participant observation of two main associations for Chinese professionals in London and semi-structured interviews with their members. It is found that the Internet is used by the migrants to construct three key embodied elements of the spatial experiences of the homeland. Firstly, the vicarious travel of the body is enabled through the digitised spatial arrangements of a Chinese locality that are meshed into migrants’ spaces of daily life in London. Secondly, migrants’ everyday temporal-spatial practices mimic those of their homeland via live online streaming tools. Finally, bodily practices and embodiments that reproduce a Chinese family space are also enabled by Internet use as video-conferencing and live video-sharing allow for transnational bodily contact.