Anna Iskra
Biographic Data
| ID | 83332 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Anna Iskra |
| GIVEN NAMES | Anna |
| FAMILY NAME | Iskra |
| SIGNATURE | ISKRA A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Hong Kong Polytechnic University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3005-403X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 8 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 8 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Sunflower Citizens? Resilience as Lived Negotiation among Mental Health Professionals in Zero-Covid China
This article examines how resilience and its key tool, adaptability, were defined, mobilized, and contested during Shanghai’s Zero-COVID period, foregrounding the understudied perspectives of psychological counsellors. Drawing on 30 interviews with 25 counsellors and a discursive analysis of 268 posts from the Shanghai Mental Health Centre (SMHC), it shows how state discourse framed resilience as optimism, acceptance, and disciplined self-adjustm…
Counselling in zero-Covid China: Affective dissonance and the regime of positivity
This study explores the frictions between state-imposed affective norms and individual emotional realities during the COVID-19 pandemic in Shanghai, focusing on the lived experiences of psychological counsellors. Based on ethnographic research, it examines how the Chinese state's promotion of positive psychology operated as a tool of affective governance, framing gratitude, hope, and optimism as civic virtues amid widespread hardship. During exte…
Crazy English: Nation Strengthening and the Changing Politics of Neoliberal Selfhood in Reform-Era China
Since the late 1990s, China has experienced an explosion of popular interest in English language study. This nationwide “English fever” reflects how, with the global spread of neoliberal doctrines that were gradually adopted by Chinese governments, English was naturalized as the language of competitiveness and entrepreneurialism. While there is a growing body of literature examining the English-learning craze as a facet of the transnational neoli…
Decolonizing affect: Resonance as an ethnographic technique
This article is a call to decolonize affect theory through deepening its engagement with fieldwork conducted in the global South. It examines the native Chinese concept ofganying, or resonance, as an ethnographic technique by engaging with the author's fieldwork experiences among Body Mind Spirit practitioners in China. Participating inganyingcaptures the formation of affective atmospheres through the ethnographer's involvement in their co-creati…
Be Soft like Water, Little Woman: Cultivating Postfeminism in Postsocialist China
The following study examines the practices of female “softening” among followers of holistic spirituality in urban China. Such practices are conceptualized as postfeminist navigational strategies offered to women who juggle the demands of career and family life. While a growing number of academic works conceptualize postfeminism as a transnational sensibility, attempts to examine the intersections of postfeminism and postsocialism are still uncom…
Navigating the Owl’s Gaze
Since the 2000s, Chinese society has experienced a state codirected psychologization of everyday life. This is reflected in the popularity of the Body-Mind-Spirit (shen xin ling), a New Age self-cultivation milieu that emerged at the intersections of religiosity and secularity. This essay examines the process of “parallel glocalization,” in which Taiwanese and Hong Kongese intellectuals and spiritual seekers engaged in creative translations of we…
Chinese New Age milieu and the emergence of homo sentimentalis in the People's Republic
The accelerating speed of economic, social, and cultural reforms in the past three decades in mainland China has created an atmosphere of moral uncertainty that encouraged many people to search for happiness by turning inwards. Shen xin ling (身心灵, translated as Body-Heart-Soul) fever refers to the growing interest among Chinese urbanites in various seminars that creatively transform the guiding principles of the Euro-American New Age movement, in…
Handbook on Religion in China
"Informative and eye-opening, the Handbook on Religion in China provides a uniquely broad insight into the contemporary Chinese variations of Buddhism, Islam and Christianity. In turn, China's own religions of Daoism, of filial piety and transmissions of rites have spread beyond China, a progression that is explored in detail across 19 chapters, written by leading experts in the field. Utilising a historical focus to emphasize developments and hi…
Be Soft like Water, Little Woman: Cultivating Postfeminism in Postsocialist China
The following study examines the practices of female “softening” among followers of holistic spirituality in urban China. Such practices are conceptualized as postfeminist navigational strategies offered to women who juggle the demands of career and family life. While a growing number of academic works conceptualize postfeminism as a transnational sensibility, attempts to examine the intersections of postfeminism and postsocialism are still uncom…
Chinese New Age milieu and the emergence of homo sentimentalis in the People's Republic
The accelerating speed of economic, social, and cultural reforms in the past three decades in mainland China has created an atmosphere of moral uncertainty that encouraged many people to search for happiness by turning inwards. Shen xin ling (身心灵, translated as Body-Heart-Soul) fever refers to the growing interest among Chinese urbanites in various seminars that creatively transform the guiding principles of the Euro-American New Age movement, in…
Decolonizing affect: Resonance as an ethnographic technique
This article is a call to decolonize affect theory through deepening its engagement with fieldwork conducted in the global South. It examines the native Chinese concept ofganying, or resonance, as an ethnographic technique by engaging with the author's fieldwork experiences among Body Mind Spirit practitioners in China. Participating inganyingcaptures the formation of affective atmospheres through the ethnographer's involvement in their co-creati…
Handbook on Religion in China
"Informative and eye-opening, the Handbook on Religion in China provides a uniquely broad insight into the contemporary Chinese variations of Buddhism, Islam and Christianity. In turn, China's own religions of Daoism, of filial piety and transmissions of rites have spread beyond China, a progression that is explored in detail across 19 chapters, written by leading experts in the field. Utilising a historical focus to emphasize developments and hi…
Chinese New Age milieu and the emergence of homo sentimentalis in the People's Republic
The accelerating speed of economic, social, and cultural reforms in the past three decades in mainland China has created an atmosphere of moral uncertainty that encouraged many people to search for happiness by turning inwards. Shen xin ling (身心灵, translated as Body-Heart-Soul) fever refers to the growing interest among Chinese urbanites in various seminars that creatively transform the guiding principles of the Euro-American New Age movement, in…
Navigating the Owl’s Gaze
Since the 2000s, Chinese society has experienced a state codirected psychologization of everyday life. This is reflected in the popularity of the Body-Mind-Spirit (shen xin ling), a New Age self-cultivation milieu that emerged at the intersections of religiosity and secularity. This essay examines the process of “parallel glocalization,” in which Taiwanese and Hong Kongese intellectuals and spiritual seekers engaged in creative translations of we…
Crazy English: Nation Strengthening and the Changing Politics of Neoliberal Selfhood in Reform-Era China
Since the late 1990s, China has experienced an explosion of popular interest in English language study. This nationwide “English fever” reflects how, with the global spread of neoliberal doctrines that were gradually adopted by Chinese governments, English was naturalized as the language of competitiveness and entrepreneurialism. While there is a growing body of literature examining the English-learning craze as a facet of the transnational neoli…
Decolonizing affect: Resonance as an ethnographic technique
This article is a call to decolonize affect theory through deepening its engagement with fieldwork conducted in the global South. It examines the native Chinese concept ofganying, or resonance, as an ethnographic technique by engaging with the author's fieldwork experiences among Body Mind Spirit practitioners in China. Participating inganyingcaptures the formation of affective atmospheres through the ethnographer's involvement in their co-creati…
Be Soft like Water, Little Woman: Cultivating Postfeminism in Postsocialist China
The following study examines the practices of female “softening” among followers of holistic spirituality in urban China. Such practices are conceptualized as postfeminist navigational strategies offered to women who juggle the demands of career and family life. While a growing number of academic works conceptualize postfeminism as a transnational sensibility, attempts to examine the intersections of postfeminism and postsocialism are still uncom…
Sunflower Citizens? Resilience as Lived Negotiation among Mental Health Professionals in Zero-Covid China
This article examines how resilience and its key tool, adaptability, were defined, mobilized, and contested during Shanghai’s Zero-COVID period, foregrounding the understudied perspectives of psychological counsellors. Drawing on 30 interviews with 25 counsellors and a discursive analysis of 268 posts from the Shanghai Mental Health Centre (SMHC), it shows how state discourse framed resilience as optimism, acceptance, and disciplined self-adjustm…
Counselling in zero-Covid China: Affective dissonance and the regime of positivity
This study explores the frictions between state-imposed affective norms and individual emotional realities during the COVID-19 pandemic in Shanghai, focusing on the lived experiences of psychological counsellors. Based on ethnographic research, it examines how the Chinese state's promotion of positive psychology operated as a tool of affective governance, framing gratitude, hope, and optimism as civic virtues amid widespread hardship. During exte…
China (6 works) · Sociology (6 works) · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance (4 works) · Gender Studies (4 works) · Politics (4 works) · Chinese history and philosophy (3 works) · Law (3 works) · Political science (3 works) · Archaeology (2 works) · Art (2 works)