Yijia (Evelyn) Zhang is a PhD candidate at the Department of Sociology of the University of British Columbia (UBC). She is a student fellow at the Centre for Migration Studies and the Institute of Asian Research of UBC and also a PhD fellow of Microsoft Research (Race & Tech). Her study examines the intersection of migration, race/ethnicity, work, and platform. After obtaining a BA in English from Fudan University, she studied media and communication at Simon Fraser University. Part of her MA thesis on the Chinese-language ride-hailing in the Pre-Uber Vancouver is published in the edited volume, WeChat and the Chinese Diaspora. Inspired by the sociological debates on the integrative potentials of ethnic economy, her dissertation explores the work and entrepreneurial practices around platform-based ethnic businesses, with a focus on Chinese immigrants and international students in Vancouver, Canada. Yijia is also the co-editor of the newsletter of the Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology (CITAMS) section of the American Sociological Association (ASA).

Research Topics

Platform Economy; Race and Ethnicity; Ethnic Economy; Transnationalism; Sociology of Work; WeChat.

Current Research 

A growing literature on platform economy finds that people of colour, immigrants and refugees frequently struggle on the lowest rung of the platform hierarchy. The advertised flexibility, autonomy and opportunity of Uber and Airbnb are somehow distributed unequally among racialized groups. Could there be an alternative platform economy where the racial hierarchy is not reproduced? Vancouver’s ethnic platforms (ride-hailing, food delivery, online supermarket, parallel trading, private kitchen, etc.) in the Chinese community serve as a case where platforms are invested and started by ethnic entrepreneurs, who hire co-ethnic professionals and gig workers to serve the everyday needs of the ethnic community members. Currently designing a qualitative research plan, I hope to explore how ethnic workers make decisions about working at ethnic platforms and how they experience race and ethnicity working in the ethnic platform economy, which is still situated in the Canadian city of Vancouver.

Journal Articles

Zhang, Y., & Hanser, A. (2023). Be the mother, not the daughter: Immigrant Chinese women, postpartum care knowledge, and mothering autonomy. Sociology of Health & Illness. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13631

He, G., & Zhang, Y. (2022). (Im)mobility and performance of emotions: Chinese international students’ difficult journeys to home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mobile Media & Communication. https://doi.org/10.1177/20501579221119585

Book Chapters

Zhang, Y. (2022). WeChat as everyday tactic: Ride-hailing and place-making in Vancouver. In Sun, W., & Yu, H. (eds.), WeChat and the Chinese diaspora: Digital transnationalism in the era of China’s rise. Routledge. doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003154754-3

Book Reviews

Zhang, Y. (2022). [Review of the book Mobile communication and low-skilled migrants’ acculturation to cosmopolitan Singapore, by R. G. Aricat & R. Ling]. Information, Communication & Society, 25(13), 2008-2011. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2021.2012221

Selected Conference Presentations

Zhang, Y. (2023, July 3). Ethnic platforms: Why do you work there? The 20^th IMISCOE Annual Conference. Hybrid.

Zhang, Y. (2023, June 27). Ethnicities in Vancouver’s ride-hailing regulation. Global Perspectives on Platforms, Labor & Social Reproduction: A Hybrid International Conference Convened at the University of Amsterdam, Co-Organized by the Platform Labor Project & the Global Digital Cultures Initiative. Hybrid.

Zhang, Y. (2023, May 25). Contested belonging, contested platform: Comparing perspectives on “illegal Richmond ride-hailing” in pre-Uber Vancouver. Inaugural Centre for Migration Studies International Research Conference, Vancouver, Canada.

Zhang, Y. (2023, April 18). Shanzhai’ed Chinese platforms? Comparing results from two fieldworks (2018 – 2023). UBC Centre for Migration Studies Grad Fellows Symposium 2022-2023, Vancouver, Canada.

He, G., & Zhang, Y. (2022, November 3). The motherland’s burden: Chinese international students’ difficult journeys to home during the COVID-19 pandemic. AoIR 2022. Dublin, Ireland.

He, G., & Zhang, Y. (2022, July 18). Loss of mobility: Multi-platform tactics of Chinese international students in their transnational journey home during Covid-19 pandemic. The 12^th International Conference on Social Media & Society. Virtual.  

Zhang, Y. (2022, June 26). WeChat as everyday tactic: Ride-hailing and place-making in Vancouver. WeChat and the Chinese Diaspora Conference and Book Launch. Virtual.

He, G., & Zhang, Y. (2022, May 27). Beyond informdemic: Chinese international students use social media to cope with the uncertainties amid Covid-19. The 72^nd Annual International Communication Association Conference. Hybrid.

Zhang, Y., & Hanser, A. (2022, May 19). Be the mother, not the daughter: How immigrant Chinese mothers use diverse sources of knowledge to assert their autonomy. The 56^th Annual Conference of Canadian Sociological Association. Virtual.

Zhang, Y. (2021, August 7). WeChatized economy in Vancouver: Ethnic enclave or mixed embeddedness? 2021 American Sociological Association Annual Meeting. Virtual.

Zhang, Y. (2021, June 27). WeChat as everyday tactics: Shanzhai-ed Didi making place in pre-Uber Vancouver. The 18^th Chinese Internet Research Conference (CIRC). Virtual.

Zhang, Y. (2019, June 6). WeChat, ridesharing and a “Chinese” problem in Vancouver. Annual Conference of the Canadian Communication Association (CCA), Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Zhang, Y. (2019, June 1). Being local in the transnational age: WeChat, ridesharing and a Chinese ‘problem’ in Vancouver. Annual Conference of the Cultural Studies Association (CSA), New Orleans, LA, the United States.

Zhang, Y. (2018, May 31). Transplanting technologies, transforming geographies: How WeChat became a platform for transnational Chinese life in Vancouver. Annual Conference of the Cultural Studies Association (CSA), Pittsburgh, PA, the United States.

Microsoft Research 2022 Global PhD Fellowship (2023-2025)

UBC Centre for Migration Studies Fellowship (2022-2023)

UBC Institute of Asian Research Fellowship (2022-2023)

UBC Institute of Asian Research Fellowship (2021-2022)

My doctoral supervisor is Dr. Amy Hanser.