Presented by Dr. Meng Li
Associate Professor, Communication Studies Department, Loyola Marymount University
Time：Nov. 9th, 2022; Wed. 9:30 AM
Please register for the event at
https://csun.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMsc-uhpjgoE93go41oKkQF6zDCrss9omU4

Abstract: Since the mid-2010s, the concept of family of origin, first developed by American psychologists and family therapists in the 1970s and 1980s, has gained prominence in China. Popularized by family television dramas and heatedly debated online, the ideas that a family can inflict horrific harm on a person and a child has every right to escape from their family of origin have been widely acknowledged. Tracing the discourse in high- ranking online videos, this talk identifies the manifold objectives of the family of origin discourse. It also interrogates why and how a system of meaning, knowledge, and practice that severely challenges traditional Chinese family values and contemporary family ideals has achieved surprising popularity.

A Short Bio: Meng Li is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at Loyola Marymount University. She holds a Ph.D. in communication studies from the University of Iowa. Her research interests include interpersonal communication and relationships, family communication, migration and mobility, and qualitative methods. Most of her scholarship has examined the human and relational consequences of large-scale social transformations, such as migration and globalization. She has studied, for example, family and relational communication in rural-urban migrant families, public discourses and media representations of family issues, and the transformation of mobility cultures, infrastructures, and politics in China. She is currently working on a book project exploring the rise of the family of origin（原生家庭）discourse in China. This event is sponsored by CSUN China Institute and the College of Humanities. It is free and open to the public.