“Graffiti” on protective gear in China's Covidscape: Mediated actions, affective regimes and resemiotization

IF 1.4 2区文学 Q2 COMMUNICATION

Language & Communication Pub Date : 2025-09-17 DOI:10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.005

Ran Liao , Brian Hok-Shing Chan

{"title":"“Graffiti” on protective gear in China's Covidscape: Mediated actions, affective regimes and resemiotization","authors":"Ran Liao , Brian Hok-Shing Chan","doi":"10.1016/j.langcom.2025.09.005","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>During the COVID-19 lockdown in China, frontline healthcare workers handwrote their names on protective gear for identification, often accompanied with slogans and images. Based on a dataset of 306 photographs, this research investigates the social actions performed through these “graffiti”, analyzing how they construct affective regimes and resemiotize the protective gear and healthcare workers. Five social actions are identified, namely, boosting public morale and social cohesion, enhancing the health workers’ own morale, envisioning the future, engaging in community celebrations, and, lastly, expressing love and longing. The affective regimes constructed include solidarity, pride and empathy, which mitigate tensions due to the unequal power relationship between healthcare workers and the public. The graffiti transforms the protective gear from a symbol of alienation and power inequality to one affording communication and friendship; it also turns the healthcare workers from symbols of health threats and power to peers and relatable individuals. Specific to the China context, these graffiti prominently reflect collectivist thinking, contrasting with individualized expressions in Covidscape elsewhere or other types of graffiti discourse. Moreover, metaphors of WAR and WINTER are always used to frame the COVID-19 crisis.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47575,"journal":{"name":"Language & Communication","volume":"105 ","pages":"Pages 37-51"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2025-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Language & Communication","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0271530925000850","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

During the COVID-19 lockdown in China, frontline healthcare workers handwrote their names on protective gear for identification, often accompanied with slogans and images. Based on a dataset of 306 photographs, this research investigates the social actions performed through these “graffiti”, analyzing how they construct affective regimes and resemiotize the protective gear and healthcare workers. Five social actions are identified, namely, boosting public morale and social cohesion, enhancing the health workers’ own morale, envisioning the future, engaging in community celebrations, and, lastly, expressing love and longing. The affective regimes constructed include solidarity, pride and empathy, which mitigate tensions due to the unequal power relationship between healthcare workers and the public. The graffiti transforms the protective gear from a symbol of alienation and power inequality to one affording communication and friendship; it also turns the healthcare workers from symbols of health threats and power to peers and relatable individuals. Specific to the China context, these graffiti prominently reflect collectivist thinking, contrasting with individualized expressions in Covidscape elsewhere or other types of graffiti discourse. Moreover, metaphors of WAR and WINTER are always used to frame the COVID-19 crisis.

查看原文本刊更多论文

中国新冠疫情下防护装备上的“涂鸦”：中介行为、情感机制和相似性

在中国新冠肺炎疫情封锁期间，一线医护人员将自己的名字手写在防护装备上以供识别，通常还附有标语和图像。基于306张照片的数据集，本研究调查了通过这些“涂鸦”进行的社会行为，分析了他们如何构建情感制度，并与防护装备和医护人员相似。确定了五项社会行动，即提高公众士气和社会凝聚力，提高卫生工作者自身的士气，展望未来，参与社区庆祝活动，最后，表达爱和渴望。构建的情感机制包括团结、骄傲和同理心，这缓解了由于医护人员和公众之间不平等的权力关系而造成的紧张局势。涂鸦将护具从异化和权力不平等的象征转变为提供交流和友谊的象征；它还将医护人员从健康威胁和权力的象征转变为同伴和相关的个人。具体到中国语境，这些涂鸦突出地反映了集体主义思维，与其他地方的Covidscape或其他类型的涂鸦话语中的个性化表达形成鲜明对比。此外，人们总是用战争和冬天来比喻新冠肺炎危机。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Language & Communication Multiple-

CiteScore

3.40

自引率

6.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： This journal is unique in that it provides a forum devoted to the interdisciplinary study of language and communication. The investigation of language and its communicational functions is treated as a concern shared in common by those working in applied linguistics, child development, cultural studies, discourse analysis, intellectual history, legal studies, language evolution, linguistic anthropology, linguistics, philosophy, the politics of language, pragmatics, psychology, rhetoric, semiotics, and sociolinguistics. The journal invites contributions which explore the implications of current research for establishing common theoretical frameworks within which findings from different areas of study may be accommodated and interrelated. By focusing attention on the many ways in which language is integrated with other forms of communicational activity and interactional behaviour, it is intended to encourage approaches to the study of language and communication which are not restricted by existing disciplinary boundaries.