KEY WORDS
Forward:
As one of Chinese students in the UK, in this participatory research, my role is not only a questioner but also an answerer. During the research process, one of my main challenges is to stay objective. I started this project with a rather one-sided opinion on students’ experience of living in Coventry. I assumed that the rate of hate crime in the city is high and Chinese students would have a relatively negative attitude towards their life in Coventry. However, after my research, I found that even though some students experienced hate crime, they still regarded their living experience in Coventry a positive one.
Working on this project has not only expanded my understanding of Chinese students’ experiences of living in the city, but also taught me the danger of a single story and the importance to allow multiple perspectives and voices to be heard.
About the Documentary:
Before the first official filming, I prepared the script based on previous 13 interviews I did for this project. As I started to film the first participant, I soon found that I received some important but unexpected information from my new participants. So I decided to leave my script aside and just focused on the stories they are sharing. Here I want to thank Wicky Guo, who is the photographer and editor and also a recent Chinese graduate from Warwick. Her unique insight on living in Coventry and studying abroad has made valuable contribution in making this video by including the undergraduate students’ experience.
The main objective of this documentary is to present the voices of Chinese student community in the city of Coventry and share their experience during the pandemic.
I explored some documentaries on YouTube about overseas Chinese communities and the lockdown in Wuhan, the most serious city suffering Covid-19 in China. I found there is a word “Sinophobia”. I looked it up and I was shocked. So, when I was editing the materials for the documentary, I imagined that I was telling the stories of Chinese international students in Coventry to people outside Chinese community. I hope this documentary can be a media that gives people access to understand and get to know us.
The Voice of Chinese Students in Coventry