Voices of the Other: Surrogate Illness Narratives of Cancer Caregivers and the Formation of Affective Publics on Chinese Social Media

The "illness blogs" of cancer patients constitute a crucial medium for understanding the lived experience of illness, while the narratives constructed by their family caregivers during the caregiving process hold distinct and significant value in their own right. Grounded in illness narrative theory, this study proposes the concept of "<i>surrogate illness narratives</i>" to investigate how relatives construct illness experiences through vicarious writing and generate alternative forms of health-related public expression within digital public health discourses. Drawing on data from a Chinese online community "Cancer Diary-2017," this study employs a mixed-methods approach, including computer-assisted content analysis, to systematically examine the thematic concerns, narrative strategies, and interactive dynamics of caregivers' posts. Findings indicate that, in terms of <i>what</i> is narrated, caregivers' posts primarily address four themes: medical and caregiving journeys of parents with cancer, illness progression and emotional expression, sharing on cancer-related knowledge and treatments, and cancer experiences of grandparents within intergenerational care contexts-all reflecting distinct familial attributes. As to <i>how</i> narratives are structured, caregivers predominantly adopt nodal narratives, detailed medical descriptions, self-documentation, and monologic expression. Regarding <i>how</i> the narratives are received, different storytelling features lead to divergent engagement outcomes: posts with a positive orientation and detailed accounts tend to evoke stronger empathy and response, whereas linear and lengthy accounts of illness progression tend to attract less interaction. By shifting the focus from patient-centered narration, this study illuminates how surrogate storytelling reconstitutes illness experiences and family relations in Chinese digital contexts, and further contributes to the formation of affective publics.