Quasi-exile as a condition: ‘Rùn’ from a post-COVID-19 China

This article introduces quasi-exile as a condition of displacement, where the act of leaving one’s country of origin takes precedence over the desire to arrive at a specific destination. Departing from rùn – a viral term for migration that emerged amid China's post-pandemic uncertainties – I conceptualise quasi-exile as a mode of mobility shaped by political disillusionment, affective estrangement, and existential precarity rather than direct persecution. Unlike refugees or economic migrants, quasi-exiles do not fit into legal migration categories and live in an unsettled state of unbelonging. I examine how quasi-exiles navigate home, uprootedness, and alternative transnational spaces, resisting both state control in societies of origins and integrationist pressures in host societies. Rather than seeking permanent settlement or diasporic continuity, they engage in situational return, forging alternative communities, and cultivating third spaces of cultural production that operate beyond national frameworks. Digital platforms further entrench their liminal condition, enabling transnational visibility while reinforcing fragmentation, censorship, and surveillance. I argue that a defining characteristic of quasi-exiles is their agency in claiming the right to unbelong. Quasi-exiles offer a critical lens for rethinking displacement not only as loss, but also as a site of ambivalence, creativity, and reimagined political belonging.