Abstract:
International students often face significant challenges when transitioning to new cultural environments, making them particularly vulnerable to health and wellbeing issues (Russell et al., 2010; Shadowen et al., 2019). Health today is considered as an achievement, not simply a natural endowment but something actively produced and maintained at all stages of life and in all dimensions in society (McQueen et al., 2007). In this sense, health serves as a form of capital that creates pressure on international students to perform their health practices accordingly. This study presents a self-narrative exploring my personal health experiences as a Chinese international student living and studying in China, Japan, and Aotearoa New Zealand. The diverse experiences of living and studying in three different countries have profoundly shaped my views about health. Throughout this process of exposure to new and unfamiliar spaces, my health-related habitus has gone through different stages of maintenance, modification and integration. As Bourdieu (1990) points out, habitus are formed and reformed within certain conditions, and within fields of practice. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of ‘field,’ ‘capital,’ and ‘habitus,’ this narrative explores my different health habitus within different social and cultural contexts and how these are related to field and diverse forms of capital. Using a ‘past to present’ perspective, I delve into three stories about my own health experiences in China, Japan and Aotearoa New Zealand, to show how my pursuit of personal capital has transformed across various cultural fields, and the various nuances of the different cultural fields that have shaped my understanding of health.