Yichen Ma

I work on care, health, technology and ritual, and the concrete forms they take in everyday life

East China Normal University · Shanghai

01/ ABOUT

About

I am a doctoral researcher at East China Normal University, trained in social anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science

My previous work has included ethnographic research on vernacular ritual, public-facing anthropology content and cross-cultural health communication and project collaboration

I currently work on care, health, ordinary ethics, medical sociology and STS, with a continuing interest in how social research describes everyday life and in building connections between research, public knowledge production and cross-cultural practice

02/ FOCUS

Focus

01

Care / Health

Care, health, and the concrete forms they take across households, institutions and technologies.

02

Technology / Infrastructure

How technologies and infrastructures participate in everyday judgement and action.

03

Ritual / Everyday Life

How ritual, knowledge and experience enter and shape everyday life

03/ SELECTED WORK

Selected Work

Fieldwork, public scholarship and cross-cultural practice

Jiangnan Folk Ritual Research

Ethnography · 2020–2021

Fieldwork, interviews and the documentary Xuanjuan Renjia, leading gradually toward understanding how ritual exists in everyday life

Public Anthropology Project

2023–2024

Contributed to a public-facing anthropology content project, working on content planning, research-led audio courses and related discussion material

Cross-cultural Projects & Health Communication

2025–2026

Worked on cross-cultural health communication and project collaboration, gaining practical experience in cross-cultural project liaison, content operations and coordination

04/ NOW

Now

What I am working on now

Researching

Households, care, health and everyday infrastructure

Writing

A number of pieces on research method, empirical material and public expression

Also working on

Public knowledge production, AI-assisted research and some cross-cultural projects

Updated Sep 2026 · Shanghai

05/ NOTES

Notes

Research notes, reading and occasional writing

Public notes are still being organised

06/ CONNECT

Connect

If you would like to discuss research, public scholarship or a possible collaboration, feel free to get in touch.

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