Chinese feminists’ identity construction in transnational social spaces in the UK : Negotiating liminality between gender, Chinese identity, and mobility

Ceccato, Francesca and Hird, Derek and Hu, Yang (2025) Chinese feminists’ identity construction in transnational social spaces in the UK : Negotiating liminality between gender, Chinese identity, and mobility. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

Text (2025CeccatoPhD)
2025CeccatoPhD.pdf - Published Version
Download (2MB)

Abstract

This study examines the processes underpinning the construction of feminist identities among Chinese feminist students in transnational social spaces in the UK and advances the concept of transnational Chinese feminist liminality to understand such processes. This concept refers to an “in-between” condition shaped by navigating conflicting social, cultural, and political positions across Chinese and transnational feminist contexts, capturing the dynamic, tension-filled space through which identities are continually negotiated and re-articulated amid cross-border mobility and shifting geopolitical forces. It is situated within the contexts of China’s recent socio-political changes—including intensified state control over feminist grassroots mobilisation and rising nationalist anti-feminism and misogyny—and transnational mobility. This research positions transnational mobility as a transformative space for identity construction and seeks to offer a nuanced understanding of an underexamined aspect of Chinese feminism by exploring the interplay between transnational mobility, China’s socio-political changes, and feminist identity formation. Drawing from the principles of constructivist grounded theory methodology, this study employed in-depth semi-structured interviews and participant observation with 30 Chinese feminist students in the UK. These methods enabled a contextually grounded exploration of feminist identity formation, conceptualised as a fluid, situated, and interactional process. Through views and lived experiences of Chinese feminist students in transnational social spaces in the UK, this study identifies three pathways to feminist identity construction: individualised, collective and cosmopolitan. The research findings contribute to three key areas of scholarship. First, they provide new insights into the current state of Chinese feminism by moving beyond nation-state paradigms. This study offers an original understanding of Chinese feminism through the lens of transnational mobility, while also highlighting how diverse feminist identity formations shape feminist mobilisation in the UK. Second, they advance transnational feminist scholarship by demonstrating how intersectionality and socio-political and cultural specificities shape Chinese feminist experiences. This challenges monolithic portrayals of feminism and foregrounds the intersectional and transnational lived experiences of Chinese feminist students in the UK. Third, they extend the understanding of feminist identity construction by highlighting the complexity of the multiple forces at play in transnational contexts. The findings demonstrate how transnational mobility and the influence of ongoing geopolitical shifts foster critical reflection, negotiation, and the re-articulation of feminist identities.