Kristy Bryant

kristy bryant
DPhil in Area Studies (China)

I am a doctoral candidate in Area Studies (China) at the University of Oxford. Before starting my DPhil, I completed a MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies (Oxford, 2021) and a BSc in Social Anthropology (LSE, 2020). Expanding my MSc thesis, my research seeks to develop an understanding of the Chinese gaze towards the West by analysing anti-Western, specifically anti-liberal, sentiments on Chinese social media. Through discourse analysis, I focus my research on how Chinese netizens interact with the neologism, baizuo (白左), which is adopted to criticise Western liberalism and its proponents, in relation to COVID-19 and various current socio-political developments. 

My broader research interests include concepts and expressions of identity, ethnicity, and transnationalism. While I focus on China, I am also interested in researching Transnational East Asia, specifically regarding Taiwan and Japan. 

Supervisor: Professor Anna Lora-Wainwright

Research Disciplines:

  • Area Studies
  • Anthropology
  • Media 

Research Keywords:

  • Discourse analysis
  • Nationalism
  • Identity politics 
  • Transnationalism

Countries/regions:

  • China
  • East Asia