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Understanding Sweden’s COVID-19 Pandemic on Chinese Social Media: Public Perceptions Comparison Between Chinese Residing in Sweden and China

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Comparative Studies on Pandemic Control Policies and the Resilience of Society

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Abstract

Sweden’s COVID-19 pandemic strategy attracted global attention and criticism for its liberal approach without a complete lockdown of society. Unlike many other countries, Sweden kept its schools, industries, and most of society open. Global Times, a Chinese mainstream media outlet, published a commentary on March 13, 2020, regarding the severe pandemic situation in Sweden and how shocked it was that a democratic country abandoned its citizens during the pandemic crisis. As a result of Sweden’s opposite approach to China’s severe lockdown, this commentary caused millions of discussions on Chinese social media and constructed a negative national image of Sweden. This study aims to understand how Chinese social media constructs the understanding of Sweden’s pandemic among Chinese people. Therefore, two groups of Chinese people living in Sweden and China were selected to compare their perceptions of Sweden’s pandemic on Chinese social media within different resident contexts. Previous research has studied Sweden’s pandemic performance through media representations in domestic and international contexts, but very little is known about how social media constructs the understanding of Sweden’s pandemic. By employing qualitative inquiry in a Chinese context, this study collects data through 20 semi-structured interviews and applies critical discourse analysis (CDA) at the analytical level. By exploring the construction of Sweden’s pandemic on Chinese social media and comparing the public perceptions among two Chinese groups, this study demonstrates the heterogeneity of social media use and pandemic understandings in the Chinese community. This study argues how the pandemic in Sweden is mediatized by social media, which theoretically contributes to conceptualizing the interaction between social media use and the pandemic. In addition, this study employs Sweden as the story of otherness in a Chinese context and provides Sweden’s exceptionalism as another perspective to global pandemic narratives.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    SVT is the shortened name for Sveriges Television AB, the Swedish national public television broadcaster.

  2. 2.

    Dagens Nyheter is a Swedish daily newspaper. It is published in Stockholm and aims to cover national and international news.

  3. 3.

    SvD, or Svenska Dagbladet, is a national magazine with publication in paper and digital channels.

  4. 4.

    Data from Statistic Sweden in December 2020. The Chinese immigrant community is one of the largest Asian communities in Sweden and occupies 0.3% of the Swedish population. See http://www.scb.se/en/finding-statistics/statistics-by-subject-area/population/population-composition/population-statistics/.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bei**g Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University, United International College, Zhuhai, China

    Liming Liu, Chally Chai Lee Lim, Chengxi Yao & Zhiyi Liao

Authors
  1. Liming Liu
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  2. Chally Chai Lee Lim
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  3. Chengxi Yao
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  4. Zhiyi Liao
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liming Liu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Bei**g Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China

    Simon X. B. Zhao

  2. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Bei**g Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China

    Kam Tong Chan

  3. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Bei**g Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China

    Selçuk Çolakoğlu

  4. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Bei**g Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China

    Qiaoyun Zhang

  5. Faculty of Humanities and Social Science, Bei**g Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China

    Bo Yan

Appendices

Appendix I: Demographic Information About the Interviewees

There are twenty interviewees evenly distributed between China and Sweden.

Name

Age

Gender

Location

Profession

CN-Interviewee 1

29

Male

Bei**g, China

Product Manager

CN-Interviewee 2

28

Female

Bei**g, China

Journalist

CN-Interviewee 3

20

Male

Harbin, China

Undergraduate student

CN-Interviewee 4

26

Male

Bei**g, China

Editor

CN-Interviewee 5

26

Female

Bei**g, China

Internet practitioner

CN-Interviewee 6

23

Female

Chengdu, China

Marketing

CN-Interviewee 7

23

Male

Chongqing, China

Freelance

CN-Interviewee 8

27

Female

Bei**g, China

Community operator

CN-Interviewee 9

37

Male

Guangzhou, China

Programmer

CN-Interviewee 10

24

Female

Jiaxing, China

Human resource intern

SE-Interviewee 11

23

Female

Uppsala, Sweden

Postgraduate student

SE-Interviewee 12

26

Female

Malmö, Sweden

Service

SE-Interviewee 13

25

Male

Lund, Sweden

Freelance

SE-Interviewee 14

24

Female

Uppsala, Sweden

Consumer marketing

SE-Interviewee 15

23

Male

Lund, Sweden

Postgraduate student

SE-Interviewee 16

26

Male

Stockholm, Sweden

Bank

SE-Interviewee 17

24

Female

Göteborg, Sweden

Research Assistant

SE-Interviewee 18

24

Female

Uppsala, Sweden

Postgraduate student

SE-Interviewee 19

31

Male

Vallentuna, Sweden

Data scientist

SE-Interviewee 20

22

Female

Uppsala, Sweden

Postgraduate student

Appendix II: Interview Guide for Chinese in China

Demographic information: age, gender identity, location (city in China), profession.

1.1 Social Media

  1. 1.

    What social media platforms do you usually use?

  2. 2.

    How often? How do you use these platforms?

  3. 3.

    Do you use these platforms for seeking information?

  4. 4.

    What kind of information do you seek? Please provide examples.

1.2 Sweden’s Pandemic

  1. 1.

    Which social media platform did you use to know about Sweden’s pandemic? How do you find these information regarding Sweden’s pandemic?

  2. 2.

    Why do you know about Sweden’s pandemic?

  3. 3.

    How would you describe Sweden’s pandemic?

  4. 4.

    What kind of content did you read on these platforms? Please give one or two memorable examples.

  5. 5.

    What is your opinion about these contents? Why do you think so?

  6. 6.

    Have you ever posted related content? Why (or why not)?

  7. 7.

    During your understanding of Sweden’s pandemic, what is your opinion about social media? In what ways does social media affect your understanding?

1.3 Sweden’s National Image

  1. 1.

    After reading these contents, what is your impression of Sweden (as a country)?

  2. 2.

    What is your impression about Sweden before the pandemic?

  3. 3.

    Did your impressions of Sweden change before and after the pandemic? Why (or why not)?

Appendix III: Interview Guide for Chinese in Sweden

Demographic information: age, gender identity, location (city in Sweden), profession.

1.1 Social Media

  1. 1.

    What (Chinese, English, Swedish) social media platforms do you usually use?

  2. 2.

    How often? How do you use these platforms?

  3. 3.

    Do you use these platforms for seeking information?

  4. 4.

    What kind of information do you seek? Please provide examples.

1.2 Sweden’s Pandemic

  1. 1.

    Which social media platform did you use to know about Sweden’s pandemic? How do you find these information regarding Sweden’s pandemic?

  2. 2.

    What kind of content did you read on these platforms? Please give one or two memorable examples.

  3. 3.

    What is your opinion about these contents? What is your attitude about these contents? Why do you think so?

  4. 4.

    Have you ever posted related content? Why (or why not)?

  5. 5.

    Are there any people around you who posted related content? If so, what was it like?

  6. 6.

    What other social media platforms did you use to learn about Sweden’s pandemic besides Chinese social media platforms? Why (or why not)?

  7. 7.

    During your understanding of Sweden’s pandemic, what is your opinion about social media? In what ways does social media affect your understanding?

  8. 8.

    What do you think of the pandemic in Sweden? How has it affected your life?

1.3 Sweden’s National Image

  1. 1.

    After reading these contents, what is your impression of Sweden (as a country)?

  2. 2.

    What is your impression about Sweden before the pandemic?

  3. 3.

    Did your impressions of Sweden change before and after the pandemic? Why (or why not)?

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Liu, L., Lim, C.C.L., Yao, C., Liao, Z. (2023). Understanding Sweden’s COVID-19 Pandemic on Chinese Social Media: Public Perceptions Comparison Between Chinese Residing in Sweden and China. In: Zhao, S.X.B., Chan, K.T., Çolakoğlu, S., Zhang, Q., Yan, B. (eds) Comparative Studies on Pandemic Control Policies and the Resilience of Society. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9993-2_10

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