Digital nomadism is deemed as a form of individual emancipation and a postmodern lifestyle. However, extant literature predominantly focuses on Western-centric privileged mobility, leaving the unique digital nomadism in Chinese context largely under-explored. Through fieldwork on digital nomads in Dali and a multi-stage grounded theory analysis, this study provides a panoramic narrative of Chinese digital nomadism. The findings indicate that the career transition is rooted in the pursuit of life autonomy. Distinct from the passport privilege of Western nomads, Chinese nomads exercise bureaucratic literacy to identify institutional gaps, thereby facilitating a career shift from stability to mobility. Besides, Chinese nomads have developed domestic “east-west geoarbitrage” model while simultaneously becoming entangled in the paradox between platformization and autonomy. They navigate this tension by constructing composite livelihood resilience, engaging in a dynamic negotiation between platform algorithmic regulation and individual free labor. Furthermore, through the governmentality of co-living communities and reciprocal local embedding, they have established networked nomadic enclaves in Dali, experiencing a re-territorialization shift from temporary sojourning to local integration. Theoretically, this study refutes the conventional view of digital nomads as “placeless,” offering a novel theoretical perspective for understanding labor transformation, re-territorialization, and sustainable mobility in the age of platformization.
Qian et al. (Tue,) studied this question.