Keeping Fit in the Smog: Health, Self-Tracking and Air Pollution in Post-socialist China

Abstract

This article concerns the relation between health, the embodied self-tracking subject and the environment in postsocialist China. Instead of simply expanding the framework of neoliberal subject to the question of health and the phenomenon of tracking and sharing data of “smog jog” in the Chinese context, this article addresses the following two inter-related questions: (1) how might an investigation of the practices of self-tracking “smog jog” in the context of postsocialist china afford a reconsideration of health; (2) how might an examination of the ways in which health is interpreted, performed and negotiated through practices of monitoring, measuring and recording a jog and the air quality in postsocialist China rework the conception of self-tracking. This article examines posts on Sina Weibo, which is one of the most popular social media platforms in China, in which Weibo users record and describe their jog in the smog. It argues that the configuration and performance of health and the embodied self-tracking subjects are multiple, and are informed by, negotiated with and find expressions in the environment in postsocialist China.