I Am Not Afraid of Being Infected

Abstract

First published at Jianjiao buluo’s social media platform on February 17, 2020, Meng Yu’s article is the first installment in the serial publications at Jianjiao buluo that deal with the common theme “Lockdown and Mobility: Chinese Domestic Workers in the midst of the Pandemic.” Meng Yu is a domestic worker in her fifties. In early 2020, she had to go back to her hometown in rural China after the outbreak of the pandemic. This essay shows the enormous impact that the pandemic had on women migrant workers and how their bonding with fellow workers helps them to pull through the unprecedentedly difficult times.

Notes

1 The Chinese zodiac is a classification scheme based on the lunar calendar that assigns an animal and its reputed attributes to each year in a repeating twelve-year cycle. It is a traditional belief that one should take precautions to avoid bad luck during the years that share the same Chinese zodiac sign with one’s birth year.

2 To prevent virus transmission, a special permit must be obtained from local officials before one can travel outside their city or district of residence.

3 Douyin is the name for TikTok in mainland China. Similar to Douyin, Kuaishou is another popular Chinese social media app for video sharing and live streaming.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Meng Yu  

Meng Yu is from Gansu Province and is a member of the Picun Literature Group in Beijing. She likes music and literature and works as a domestic worker in Beijing.

Jackson Martin

Jackson Martin is a senior undergraduate student of Economics and Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Kansas. Although originally from Kansas, he previously lived and studied for four years in Xi’an, China, where he attended intensive language and culture courses before beginning his undergraduate education in a Chinese-language curriculum. His primary research interests include the history of Chinese society and philosophy, and political economics as it relates to contemporary Chinese international relations.

Isaac Allred

Isaac Allred is a PhD Candidate in Geology at the University of Kansas (KU). Isaac also earned a Graduate Certificate in East Asian Cultures from KU, a MS in Geology from Brigham Young University, a BS in Physics and a BA in Asian Studies from Utah State University. Isaac previously was the recipient of the KU Madison & Lila Self Graduate Fellowship, the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, the NSF East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes Fellowship, and the Critical Language Scholarship. Isaac is now a Research Geologist at the Indiana Geological and Water Survey.