Digital illness narratives, commoning, and identity reconstruction among breast cancer survivors in post-pandemic China

This study explores how Chinese female breast cancer survivors navigated bodily identity crises through digital illness narratives within a COVID-19 post-pandemic context. In-depth interviews were conducted with 14 influential survivors from the digital platform Mijian to examine their sense of bodily 'loss' as well as eroded traditional support networks. Grounded in Arthur Frank's illness narrative typology, restitution, chaos, and quest were identified as the key narrative modes articulating participants' sense of loss. Findings revealed that the online sharing of experiences and emotions fostered a form of 'commoning' in the form of a collective process of collective healing and coalition-building within a digital environment. Through shared narrative practices, participants sought to achieve healing and empowerment, challenged dominant gender norms, and reimagined bodily symbols to construct queer forms of embodiment. Within this framework, 'life writing' functioned as a mechanism for identity reconstruction through narrative construction and community interaction. In this way, the critical role of digital illness narratives in providing psychosocial support, sustaining solidarity, and enabling identity transformation during health crises was affirmed.