Research and Postgraduate Centre congratulates Asst. Prof. Dr. Chen Lei from the School of Communication on his recent research article published in Social Media + Society, a SSCI Q1 journal with the latest impact factor of 6.8.

Dr. Chen Lei is the first author of the paper, co-authoring with Asst. Prof. Dr. Kim Sang Jun and Ms. Zhou Kun, a PhD candidate, both from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Iowa, USA.

Titled "'You Are Not Fat': The Postfeminist Contradiction in #RejectBodyAnxiety - A Computationally Assisted Critical Thematic Analysis", the research explores whether and how postfeminism - a dominant way in which contemporary women understand empowerment - has evolved in the context of increasing self-expression by ordinary women through short-form video on social media. Using a computationally assisted critical thematic analysis of 1,915 posts from a body-positivity hashtag on RedNote (Xiaohongshu) with over 540 million views, it identifies a new iteration of postfeminism, showing how such discourse simultaneously enables new forms of empowerment while reinforcing subtle modes of discipline.

https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051261419392

This research was supported by the Arts and Humanities Initiative (AHI) program at the University of Iowa.

Dr. Chen Lei is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at Xiamen University Malaysia. His research interests include online discourse, digital media, global communication, health communication, and computational approaches. Prior to joining XMUM, he received his PhD from the University of Iowa and conducted teaching and research in both China and the United States.