Choreographing digital love: materiality, emotionality, and morality in video-mediated communication between Chinese migrant parents and their left-behind children

Abstract

Video-mediated communication (VMC) has become particularly important for geographically dispersed families. Drawing on a 2-year video-based ethnographic study of under-resourced Chinese rural-to-urban migrant parents and their left-behind children, this article captures on-site distant parent–child VMC. Applying qualitative video analysis to study video calls, this article focuses on how people “choreograph” these video calls and investigates the improvised composition of actions and activities in mediated environment. The findings reveal that people coordinate the materiality, amplify the emotionality, and underpin the morality of love to sustain intimate relationships. Multigenerational parties, including parents, children, and grandparents, actively manage their connections through the moment-by-moment unfolding of choreographed actions in VMC. This study also highlights the bittersweet experiences, including the tension, contradictions, and asymmetries, among migrant parents, children, and the caregivers.