Search

In this paper, we explore what the travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic reveal about the changing geographies of mobilities and the making of homo sacer, the latter constituted through differentiated control of mobilities. Implemented to protect U.S. public health, travel restrictions imposed on travelers from Mainland China during the early days of the pandemic exemplify how sovereign power that declares a state of emergency and creates bare life can be readily applied to groups of people who previously had privileged access to global mobility. In this sense, bare life does not refer to fixed and disadvantaged social categories but is rather contingently and contextually constituted, through the works of hybrid sovereign regimes. At the same time, however, these travelers are not reduced to a state of zero-agency but reside within a liminal space between soft and hard cosmopolitanisms, as they can still deploy agency and cosmopolitan capital to achieve certain degrees of mobility. By examining how Chinese travelers navigated various travel restrictions and the constantly changing policies to travel to the U.S., this paper explores new spaces of exception and forms of bare life, and argues that homo sacer is dynamically, relationally and recursively constructed, both through apparatus of control and the agency of travelers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When COVID-19 broke out in Wuhan in 2019, the world looked at it as a 'Chinese' disease and no international efforts were made to assist China. Countries that supported China just offered solidarity messages. China adopted a raft of measures that included prescribing a lockdown on Wuhan and construction of infrastructure such as hospitals. In 2020, COVID-19 extended its tentacles across the globe. A majority of countries adopted the lockdown as a mitigatory measure. The lockdown activated an extraordinary instant emergency in the education sector as schools, colleges and universities shut down. What worsened the situation was that no solution was in sight as the medical researchers dithered from one suggestion to the other. This paper examines possible ways to deal with the emergency in the education sector by suggesting alternative learning solutions. The major argument of this paper is that countries should not simply copy and paste solutions that are not in sync with their local settings. Using the multistage designs sampling technique, three universities from a target of eighteen were selected. Convenience sampling was used to select the three universities and analytic rubrics were used to analyse clarity of policy and disaster preparedness by universities in Zimbabwe. For comparative purposes, four international webinars on education and COVID-19 were selected. This paper contributes towards addressing the lacunae created by global lockdown and subsequent shutdown of learning institutions due to COVID-19. The findings were that the lockdown approach was adopted and implemented without adaptation. Learning institutions were closed indefinitely despite the economic environment, the digital divide and the rural-urban divide militating against lockdown's entire adoption. Key proposals to deal with the lockdown include scaling up distance education based on mixed technologies, a paradigm shift on perceptions on digital education and resuscitation of postal services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluated whether the citizens are satisfied with outcomes and performance of lockdown initiatives in defending against COVID-19. We statistical analyzed participants' characteristics and used a logit regression to analyze the factors associated with their experience and satisfaction with the lockdown initiative. According to our results, the issues of information disclosure, reasonable resource arrangements, and timely governmental responses significantly influenced the experiences of citizens during the lockdown period. The findings can guide policy makers regarding implementing more progressive initiatives to limit the spread of COVID-19 and facilitate the use of emergency measures for the sake of public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to make a critical analysis of the influence of Korean and Chinese dramas on university students in India, especially in the backdrop of the COVID-19 lockdown. Considering the current trend of an increasing surge in drama consumption among GenZ, the research attempts to identify both positive and adverse effects of the soaps on different aspects of their lives. The study is premised on a mixed-method online survey, the data of which is analyzed using the Percentage Analysis method and interpreted based on the Mood-Cue Approach in Cognitive Film Theory proposed by Greg M. Smith. Subsequently, the researcher establishes that the lockdown period has provided great opportunities for the young generation of students to explore a wide variety of Korean and Chinese content. And if the factors leading to the adverse effects on the youth are judiciously controlled, these soaps can contribute a lot to the self-betterment of university students in India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to evaluating the mental health impact of the outbreak, we are also interested in examining risk and resilience factors modulating the impact of stress related to the pandemic and mental health outcomes. This collection is expected to fill this gap by focusing on the indirect or mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, with special attention to the Chinese people during the early stage of the outbreak. Keywords: COVID-19; resilience; mental health; coping; Chinese people EN COVID-19 resilience mental health coping Chinese people 1 2 2 08/27/21 20210824 NES 210824 The COVID-19 pandemic is a global trauma. [Extracted from the article]

In this article, I examine the ways in which the recent, nationwide 'lockdown' (fengcheng) in China, caused by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, has abruptly reshaped daily intimacy practices of urban residents. Highlighting the lockdown in a southeast coastal city in the broader context of China's post-socialist transformations, I propose that class distinctions have profoundly reconfigured local citizens' dail y experiences, producing a system of what might be termed 'graduated intimacies'. To further contextualize these urban citizens' experiences of intimacy under the current transnational geo-biopolitics associated with the pandemic, I provide a reflexive and comparative ethnographic look at the national capital of Beij ing. In so doing, I offer a glimpse into the lives of several sets of Chinese citizens at an unexpected historical moment induced by a grave public health crisis extending well beyond China's national borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to describe the Chinese experience for the purposes of global epidemic control, the study analyzed the impact on the COVID-19 pandemic of policies adopted during the lockdown of Wuhan city. Descriptive analysis and stepwise regression analysis were performed using the official case data from January 10, 2020 to April 8, 2020. The results show that the prevention and control policies of Lockdown Wuhan City (LWC) has played a significant role in reducing new case numbers, improving COVID-19's cure rate and reducing mortality. Among the policies of LWC, stay at home, centralized isolation of convalescent patients, launching makeshift hospitals, and centralized isolation of "the four types of personnel " that play a decisive role. As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, this study provides valuable experience for other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]