From Mourning to Healing
Continuing Bonds With Strangers in Chinese Social Media
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 13629948 |
|---|---|
| Authors | HU An-qi (0009-0002-0276-5026, Anhui University, corresponding author), Hong Jiang (0000-0002-9299-5484, Anhui University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Pages | 302228251319834-302228251319834 |
| Publication date | 2025-02-17 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0030-2228 • E-ISSN: 1541-3764 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00302228251319834 |
| PMID | 39960093 |
| OpenAlex | W4407649244 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 31 |
The study examined the distinctive characteristics and underlying motivations of communication behaviours within the comment sections of Weibo posts belonging to deceased strangers. Taking the comment section of the last post of deceased user @Zoufan on Weibo, one of the most influential social media platforms in China, as a case study, the study adopted the humanities computing method to develop an artificial 'close reading' based on quantitative descriptions and topic clustering of the texts of more than 80,000 comments. Findings showed that in China, people engage in conversations with other mourners, the deceased, and themselves on the deceased's Weibo. Mourners built a social support network through emotional communication among mourners and constructed continuing bonds with the deceased through self-expression. The motivations of the mourning practices are self-help mental healing. The findings contribute to the scholarship on stranger mourning and the mediatization of mourning practices and dialogic healing in China
China · Dialogic · Media studies · Pedagogy · Political science · Reading (process · Scholarship · Social media · Sociology · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Digital Mental Health Interventions · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · Law · Mental Health via Writing · Psychology · Social Psychology
The Logic of Connective Action
New mourners, old mourners
Social media-enabled healthcare
Mourning and memory in the twittersphere
Some thoughts on celebrity deaths
The Dual Process Model of Coping with Bereavement
The Living and the Dead
Social Media Mourning
Computer-Mediated Communication
And Connective Memory
Role of Attachment in Response to Pet Loss
Continuing Bonds in Coping With the Death of a Husband
You Don't De-Friend the Dead
Public Space and Political Public Sphere—The Biographical Roots of Two Motifs in my Thought
Introduction to the Special Issue on the Death, Afterlife, and Immortality of Bodies and Data
Mapping Charles Taylor
Social Support as a Moderator of Life Stress
What Kinship Is-And Is Not
From social integration to health
Digital activism and collective mourning by Chinese netizens during Covid-19
Bereavement Research and Theory
Stress, Coping, and Social Support Processes
The Social Shaping of Emotion
You're Just Playing the Victim
Researching the Ends of Identity
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |