‘It’s Coming Unstuck!’ WeChat Stickiness and the Social Lives of Chinese Students in Melbourne

WeChat, a dominant social media platform in China, has played a pivotal role in the lives of Chinese international students in Australia over the past decade, serving as a primary means of communication, a channel for information exchange, and a symbolic link to home. This doctoral thesis examines the evolving relationship between WeChat and its young overseas user base, with a particular focus on the concept of platform stickiness. Drawing on nine months of ethnographic fieldwork across Melbourne, Australia, survey data (n = 62), and over 60 participant interviews, the study reveals how WeChat operates simultaneously as both an essential digital infrastructure and an inescapable source of concern for them. It identifies a persistent tension between users’ functional dependency on the platform and their growing concerns, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The thesis comprises four core chapters, each on a different dimension of WeChat’s stickiness: WeChat and migration; WeChat usage; WeChat’s and censorship; and finally, WeChat and political depression. Collectively, these central chapters offer an integrated view of how digital platform governance, surveillance, emotional strain, and social dependency converge to shape overseas user engagement, with WeChat as the case study. This research contributes to the fields of platform studies and digital media ethnography by providing a context-sensitive investigation of WeChat usage among a transnational, youth-based user group. While existing scholarship has examined WeChat’s technical features, censorship architecture, and role within China’s digital ecosystem, little attention has been paid to the lived experiences of users outside Mainland China. By centring users’ affective responses, coping strategies, and shifting perceptions, this thesis bridges the gap between macro-level platform governance and micro-level user practices. Key contributions include the development of a staged model of WeChat usage, which captures temporal shifts in user-platform relationships—from initial dependence to reluctant disengagement; a refined conceptualisation of WeChat-based censorship; and an in-depth analysis of the emerging phenomenon of Chinese political depression in digital contexts. In doing so, the study offers both empirical insights and theoretical tools for understanding how digital platforms shape, constrain, and are negotiated by young diasporic users across geopolitical boundaries. Additionally, it addresses a critical gap in Australian media and digital policy scholarship, where Chinese-language platforms and their sociopolitical implications remain under explored. This thesis not only sheds light on how WeChat’s entangled role as both infrastructure and instrument of control shapes the everyday lives of Chinese international students abroad but also calls for a more inclusive understanding of digital citizenship under conditions of geopolitical asymmetry. Moreover, the thesis invites further research into the long-term psychological, social, and political implications of platform governance for diasporic communities, particularly in contexts where digital participation is both empowering and constraining.<p></p>