“Spat On and Coughed At”: Co-Cultural Understanding of Chinese International Students’ Experiences with Stigmatization during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This paper examines Chinese international students' lived experiences of being stigmatized during the early onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. To understand their dual-marginalization due to Othered Chinese-ness (e.g. racialized immigrant Others and foreigner Asians) and presumed contagiousness (e.g. suspected, diseased, and infectious), we adopt co-cultural theory to centralize their experiences of coping with COVID-related stigmatization. Semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis demonstrate how Chinese students in this study heightened their sensitivity to ambiguous yet hostile stigmatization and how they often opted for nonassertive, non-confrontational, and threat-avoiding coping strategies. We reflect on how current health and racism crises further marginalize immigrant Others in general and Chinese immigrants in particular. We conclude with discussing theoretical application of co-cultural theory to understand stigmatizing and stigmatized health communication.