Seeking spirituality: lifestyle migrants forming the community culture in China
Tao, Lele |
This thesis explores the phenomen of lifestyle migration in China, focusing on young urban migrants who relocate to X City in search of healing, emotional rest, and alternative community life. Framed by Bauman’s concepts of liquid modernity and cloakroom communities, and Illouz’s emotional capitalism, the study argues that the emotional labor and individualization of modern urban life is reproduced through comminity forming. Community becomes performative, belonging is fleeting, and emotional intimacy is carefully curated. This research contributes a new perspective to lifestyle migration studies by applying these frameworks to the Chinese context, offering insight into how emotional economies structure contemporary forms of mobility, identity, and community under late modern conditions.