Cora Lingling Xu
Biographic Data
| ID | 211858 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Cora Lingling Xu |
| GIVEN NAMES | Cora Lingling |
| FAMILY NAME | Xu |
| SIGNATURE | XU C L |
| AFFILIATIONS | Durham University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3895-3934 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 17 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 103 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 17 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Confronting racialised temporal inequalities: A post-colonial analysis of Zhihu users’ portrayals of doctoral supervisors in Western academia
When navigating the confusing scene of doctoral applications to Western higher education institutions, international and racialised doctoral applicants sometimes turn to online question-and-answer fora such as Zhihu in China for advice. How then, do such social media fora portray the desirability of doctoral supervisors from diverse racial backgrounds? Drawing on critical race theory, postcolonial critiques of the ‘modern time’ and conceptions of…
Epistemic injustice and neo-racism: How Zhihu users portray ‘Chinese doctoral supervisors’ working in Western academia
The image of Chinese doctoral supervisors working in Western academia is riddled with stereotypes in urban myths but little research to date has been conducted on these portrayals of Chinese supervisors. Drawing on postcolonial theories, including notions of epistemic injustice and neo-racism, this research conducts a thematic analysis on around 450 Zhihu comments. It proposes that the Zhihu community has portrayed three images of the Chinese sup…
Geography-mediated institutionalised cultural capital: Regional inequalities in graduate employment
This article investigates how regional inequalities shape the employment seeking experiences and behaviour of graduates by drawing on the case of Chinese Master’s graduates under COVID19. Based on interviews with graduates who chose to work as the ‘targeted selected graduates’ (TSG) of University A, located in the underdeveloped regions of North-western China, we show how their employment seeking was jointly impacted by three different but inter-…
Portraying the ‘Chinese international students’: A review of English-language and Chinese-language literature on Chinese international students (2015–2020)
The Chinese international students are often portrayed in a monolithic manner in popular discourse. To offer a more comprehensive and critical representation of the Chinese international students, this paper conducts a thematic narrative review of 128 English-language and 74 Chinese-language peer-reviewed articles published between 2015 and 2020. Drawing on post-colonial theories, this review identifies four subject positions portrayed of the Chi…
Getting ahead while retaining ethnic salience: Educational mobilities, class, and empowerment of a Tibetan student in China
Adopting empowerment as a theoretical lens, this paper examines how a combination of structural (particularly class background) and individual factors (particularly empowering agents and a strong personal will to achieve) have contributed to school success and ethnic identity formation of minority students in China. Our longitudinal study on a Tibetan student (Dolma) from middle-class background who completed seven-year dislocated secondary schoo…
Family-mediated migration infrastructure: Chinese international students and parents navigating (im)mobilities during the Covid-19 pandemic
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated responses such as border closure, lockdown measures and flight controls have severely disrupted transnational infrastructures that sustain, channel, organize, and condition international migration. This infrastructural disruption has led to the double exclusion of temporary migrants from both sending and host societies. In this context, we explore how Chinese international students in the Unite…
Examining Burmese students’ multilingual practices and identity positionings at a border high school in China
This study explores a cohort of Burmese students’ lived experiences at a border high school in China and demonstrates that their multilingual practices and identity positionings constitute exclusionary effects that limit their interactions with their local Chinese teachers and peers. The paper argues that these Burmese students’ in-group interactions reproduce the process of exclusion, further complicating their identity positionings. This paper …
Time, class and privilege in career imagination: Exploring study-to-work transition of Chinese international students in UK universities through a Bourdieusian lens
Existing research and policy on international students' study-to-work transition fall short of a temporal theoretical perspective that is sensitive to the fluid and class-stratified nature of their career imagination. Career imagination refers to how international students conceive of, enact and reconfigure their careers as they encounter novel circumstances along their life courses. Drawing on in-depth interview data with 21 Chinese internationa…
Marginal’ student mobilities: Cruel promise, everyday mobile belonging and emotional geographies
At the time of writing this review, many universities around the world are facing unprecedented challenges brought forth by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Almost over night, universities have had to
The making of transnational distinction: An embodied cultural capital perspective on Chinese women students’ mobility
Transnational distinction is highly relevant in an age when western degree inflation intersects with harsh gender expectations for Chinese women student migrants, a significant group of players in the scene of UK higher education. Drawing on participant observation and interview data and building on existing theories of cultural capital, this article explores how 25 Chinese women students constructed ‘transnational distinction’. Through investiga…
Diaspora at home’: Class and politics in the navigation of Hong Kong students in Mainland China’s Universities
This paper draws on ‘diaspora at home’, a concept that encapsulates the unique dynamics between Hong Kong and mainland China, as an analytical tool to explore the cross-border experiences of 23 Hong Kong students at 11 universities in mainland China. It empirically ascertains how the made and imposed claims and identifications of these Hong Kong students resulted in inclusion and exclusion as their interactions with their mainland peers and insti…
Ethnicity, temporality and educational mobilities: Comparing the ethnic identity constructions of Mongolian and Tibetan students in China
This article explores the impact of educational mobilities on the ethnic identity construction of minority students in China. Adopting ‘temporality’ as an analytical tool, the article highlights the dynamic temporal multiplicity in ethnic identity construction by comparing longitudinal in-depth interviews of a Mongolian student and a Tibetan student. This multiplicity of temporality is manifested in three aspects: temporality of ethnic othering; …
Political habitus in cross-border student migration: A longitudinal study of mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong and beyond
This paper contributes to the understanding of how shifting time, space and subject positions can impact on the political habitus of border-crossing students. Employing in-depth interview data from a longitudinal project involving 31 mainland Chinese students whose higher education journeys converged in Hong Kong, it argues that it is often unintended outcomes such as the development of a political habitus that can have lasting effects on student…
Transborder habitus in a within-country mobility context: A Bourdieusian analysis of mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong
This article contributes to the updating of Bourdieusian sociology by proposing the notion of 'transborder habitus', a necessary extension of 'habitus' in a transborder context. 'Transborder contexts' refer to spaces that belong politically to the same country, share a deep level of historic cultural and/or ethnic entanglement, but can be ideologically, linguistically and socially divergent. Such transborder contexts present empirical challenges …
Mainland Chinese students at an elite Hong Kong university: Habitus–field disjuncture in a transborder context
Drawing on in-depth interview data from 31 mainland Chinese (MLC) students in a Hong Kong university, this article conceptualises MLC and Hong Kong higher education as two dissonant but interrelated subfields of the Chinese higher education field. The article argues that these MLC students’ habitus, one that possesses rich economic, social and cultural capital, prompts a strong sense of entitlement to anticipated privileges. However, this sense o…
Constructing modern Asian citizenship
An intriguing comparative angle of Edward Vickers and Krishna Kumar's edited volume Constructing Modern Asian Citizenship is its geographical focus: Asia. While the editors recognise the problemati
When the Hong Kong Dream Meets the Anti-Mainlandisation Discourse: Mainland Chinese Students in Hong Kong
This article looks at identity constructions of mainland Chinese undergraduate students in a Hong Kong university. These students shared a “Hong Kong Dream” characterised by a desire for change in individual outlooks, a yearning for international exposure, and rich imaginations about Hong Kong and beyond. However, when their Hong Kong Dream met Hong Kong's “anti-mainlandisation discourse,” as was partially, yet acutely, reflected in the recent Oc…
Time, class and privilege in career imagination: Exploring study-to-work transition of Chinese international students in UK universities through a Bourdieusian lens
Existing research and policy on international students' study-to-work transition fall short of a temporal theoretical perspective that is sensitive to the fluid and class-stratified nature of their career imagination. Career imagination refers to how international students conceive of, enact and reconfigure their careers as they encounter novel circumstances along their life courses. Drawing on in-depth interview data with 21 Chinese internationa…
Mainland Chinese students at an elite Hong Kong university: Habitus–field disjuncture in a transborder context
Drawing on in-depth interview data from 31 mainland Chinese (MLC) students in a Hong Kong university, this article conceptualises MLC and Hong Kong higher education as two dissonant but interrelated subfields of the Chinese higher education field. The article argues that these MLC students’ habitus, one that possesses rich economic, social and cultural capital, prompts a strong sense of entitlement to anticipated privileges. However, this sense o…
When the Hong Kong Dream Meets the Anti-Mainlandisation Discourse: Mainland Chinese Students in Hong Kong
This article looks at identity constructions of mainland Chinese undergraduate students in a Hong Kong university. These students shared a “Hong Kong Dream” characterised by a desire for change in individual outlooks, a yearning for international exposure, and rich imaginations about Hong Kong and beyond. However, when their Hong Kong Dream met Hong Kong's “anti-mainlandisation discourse,” as was partially, yet acutely, reflected in the recent Oc…
Transborder habitus in a within-country mobility context: A Bourdieusian analysis of mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong
This article contributes to the updating of Bourdieusian sociology by proposing the notion of 'transborder habitus', a necessary extension of 'habitus' in a transborder context. 'Transborder contexts' refer to spaces that belong politically to the same country, share a deep level of historic cultural and/or ethnic entanglement, but can be ideologically, linguistically and socially divergent. Such transborder contexts present empirical challenges …
The making of transnational distinction: An embodied cultural capital perspective on Chinese women students’ mobility
Transnational distinction is highly relevant in an age when western degree inflation intersects with harsh gender expectations for Chinese women student migrants, a significant group of players in the scene of UK higher education. Drawing on participant observation and interview data and building on existing theories of cultural capital, this article explores how 25 Chinese women students constructed ‘transnational distinction’. Through investiga…
Diaspora at home’: Class and politics in the navigation of Hong Kong students in Mainland China’s Universities
This paper draws on ‘diaspora at home’, a concept that encapsulates the unique dynamics between Hong Kong and mainland China, as an analytical tool to explore the cross-border experiences of 23 Hong Kong students at 11 universities in mainland China. It empirically ascertains how the made and imposed claims and identifications of these Hong Kong students resulted in inclusion and exclusion as their interactions with their mainland peers and insti…
Ethnicity, temporality and educational mobilities: Comparing the ethnic identity constructions of Mongolian and Tibetan students in China
This article explores the impact of educational mobilities on the ethnic identity construction of minority students in China. Adopting ‘temporality’ as an analytical tool, the article highlights the dynamic temporal multiplicity in ethnic identity construction by comparing longitudinal in-depth interviews of a Mongolian student and a Tibetan student. This multiplicity of temporality is manifested in three aspects: temporality of ethnic othering; …
Political habitus in cross-border student migration: A longitudinal study of mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong and beyond
This paper contributes to the understanding of how shifting time, space and subject positions can impact on the political habitus of border-crossing students. Employing in-depth interview data from a longitudinal project involving 31 mainland Chinese students whose higher education journeys converged in Hong Kong, it argues that it is often unintended outcomes such as the development of a political habitus that can have lasting effects on student…
Examining Burmese students’ multilingual practices and identity positionings at a border high school in China
This study explores a cohort of Burmese students’ lived experiences at a border high school in China and demonstrates that their multilingual practices and identity positionings constitute exclusionary effects that limit their interactions with their local Chinese teachers and peers. The paper argues that these Burmese students’ in-group interactions reproduce the process of exclusion, further complicating their identity positionings. This paper …
Marginal’ student mobilities: Cruel promise, everyday mobile belonging and emotional geographies
At the time of writing this review, many universities around the world are facing unprecedented challenges brought forth by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Almost over night, universities have had to
When the Hong Kong Dream Meets the Anti-Mainlandisation Discourse: Mainland Chinese Students in Hong Kong
This article looks at identity constructions of mainland Chinese undergraduate students in a Hong Kong university. These students shared a “Hong Kong Dream” characterised by a desire for change in individual outlooks, a yearning for international exposure, and rich imaginations about Hong Kong and beyond. However, when their Hong Kong Dream met Hong Kong's “anti-mainlandisation discourse,” as was partially, yet acutely, reflected in the recent Oc…
Constructing modern Asian citizenship
An intriguing comparative angle of Edward Vickers and Krishna Kumar's edited volume Constructing Modern Asian Citizenship is its geographical focus: Asia. While the editors recognise the problemati
Mainland Chinese students at an elite Hong Kong university: Habitus–field disjuncture in a transborder context
Drawing on in-depth interview data from 31 mainland Chinese (MLC) students in a Hong Kong university, this article conceptualises MLC and Hong Kong higher education as two dissonant but interrelated subfields of the Chinese higher education field. The article argues that these MLC students’ habitus, one that possesses rich economic, social and cultural capital, prompts a strong sense of entitlement to anticipated privileges. However, this sense o…
Political habitus in cross-border student migration: A longitudinal study of mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong and beyond
This paper contributes to the understanding of how shifting time, space and subject positions can impact on the political habitus of border-crossing students. Employing in-depth interview data from a longitudinal project involving 31 mainland Chinese students whose higher education journeys converged in Hong Kong, it argues that it is often unintended outcomes such as the development of a political habitus that can have lasting effects on student…
Transborder habitus in a within-country mobility context: A Bourdieusian analysis of mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong
This article contributes to the updating of Bourdieusian sociology by proposing the notion of 'transborder habitus', a necessary extension of 'habitus' in a transborder context. 'Transborder contexts' refer to spaces that belong politically to the same country, share a deep level of historic cultural and/or ethnic entanglement, but can be ideologically, linguistically and socially divergent. Such transborder contexts present empirical challenges …
Diaspora at home’: Class and politics in the navigation of Hong Kong students in Mainland China’s Universities
This paper draws on ‘diaspora at home’, a concept that encapsulates the unique dynamics between Hong Kong and mainland China, as an analytical tool to explore the cross-border experiences of 23 Hong Kong students at 11 universities in mainland China. It empirically ascertains how the made and imposed claims and identifications of these Hong Kong students resulted in inclusion and exclusion as their interactions with their mainland peers and insti…
Ethnicity, temporality and educational mobilities: Comparing the ethnic identity constructions of Mongolian and Tibetan students in China
This article explores the impact of educational mobilities on the ethnic identity construction of minority students in China. Adopting ‘temporality’ as an analytical tool, the article highlights the dynamic temporal multiplicity in ethnic identity construction by comparing longitudinal in-depth interviews of a Mongolian student and a Tibetan student. This multiplicity of temporality is manifested in three aspects: temporality of ethnic othering; …
Marginal’ student mobilities: Cruel promise, everyday mobile belonging and emotional geographies
At the time of writing this review, many universities around the world are facing unprecedented challenges brought forth by the COVID-19 global pandemic. Almost over night, universities have had to
The making of transnational distinction: An embodied cultural capital perspective on Chinese women students’ mobility
Transnational distinction is highly relevant in an age when western degree inflation intersects with harsh gender expectations for Chinese women student migrants, a significant group of players in the scene of UK higher education. Drawing on participant observation and interview data and building on existing theories of cultural capital, this article explores how 25 Chinese women students constructed ‘transnational distinction’. Through investiga…
Time, class and privilege in career imagination: Exploring study-to-work transition of Chinese international students in UK universities through a Bourdieusian lens
Existing research and policy on international students' study-to-work transition fall short of a temporal theoretical perspective that is sensitive to the fluid and class-stratified nature of their career imagination. Career imagination refers to how international students conceive of, enact and reconfigure their careers as they encounter novel circumstances along their life courses. Drawing on in-depth interview data with 21 Chinese internationa…
Portraying the ‘Chinese international students’: A review of English-language and Chinese-language literature on Chinese international students (2015–2020)
The Chinese international students are often portrayed in a monolithic manner in popular discourse. To offer a more comprehensive and critical representation of the Chinese international students, this paper conducts a thematic narrative review of 128 English-language and 74 Chinese-language peer-reviewed articles published between 2015 and 2020. Drawing on post-colonial theories, this review identifies four subject positions portrayed of the Chi…
Getting ahead while retaining ethnic salience: Educational mobilities, class, and empowerment of a Tibetan student in China
Adopting empowerment as a theoretical lens, this paper examines how a combination of structural (particularly class background) and individual factors (particularly empowering agents and a strong personal will to achieve) have contributed to school success and ethnic identity formation of minority students in China. Our longitudinal study on a Tibetan student (Dolma) from middle-class background who completed seven-year dislocated secondary schoo…
Family-mediated migration infrastructure: Chinese international students and parents navigating (im)mobilities during the Covid-19 pandemic
The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated responses such as border closure, lockdown measures and flight controls have severely disrupted transnational infrastructures that sustain, channel, organize, and condition international migration. This infrastructural disruption has led to the double exclusion of temporary migrants from both sending and host societies. In this context, we explore how Chinese international students in the Unite…
Examining Burmese students’ multilingual practices and identity positionings at a border high school in China
This study explores a cohort of Burmese students’ lived experiences at a border high school in China and demonstrates that their multilingual practices and identity positionings constitute exclusionary effects that limit their interactions with their local Chinese teachers and peers. The paper argues that these Burmese students’ in-group interactions reproduce the process of exclusion, further complicating their identity positionings. This paper …
Geography-mediated institutionalised cultural capital: Regional inequalities in graduate employment
This article investigates how regional inequalities shape the employment seeking experiences and behaviour of graduates by drawing on the case of Chinese Master’s graduates under COVID19. Based on interviews with graduates who chose to work as the ‘targeted selected graduates’ (TSG) of University A, located in the underdeveloped regions of North-western China, we show how their employment seeking was jointly impacted by three different but inter-…
Epistemic injustice and neo-racism: How Zhihu users portray ‘Chinese doctoral supervisors’ working in Western academia
The image of Chinese doctoral supervisors working in Western academia is riddled with stereotypes in urban myths but little research to date has been conducted on these portrayals of Chinese supervisors. Drawing on postcolonial theories, including notions of epistemic injustice and neo-racism, this research conducts a thematic analysis on around 450 Zhihu comments. It proposes that the Zhihu community has portrayed three images of the Chinese sup…
Confronting racialised temporal inequalities: A post-colonial analysis of Zhihu users’ portrayals of doctoral supervisors in Western academia
When navigating the confusing scene of doctoral applications to Western higher education institutions, international and racialised doctoral applicants sometimes turn to online question-and-answer fora such as Zhihu in China for advice. How then, do such social media fora portray the desirability of doctoral supervisors from diverse racial backgrounds? Drawing on critical race theory, postcolonial critiques of the ‘modern time’ and conceptions of…
Sociology (16 works) · Political science (15 works) · Gender Studies (11 works) · China (10 works) · Social science (10 works) · Gender Studies (9 works) · Politics (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Cultural capital (7 works) · Geography (7 works)