{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,10]],"date-time":"2026-07-10T04:17:03Z","timestamp":1783657023133,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":39,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,9]],"date-time":"2026-01-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1767916800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc\/4.0\/"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,9]],"date-time":"2026-01-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1767916800000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/page\/policies\/text-and-data-mining-license"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100009708","name":"Novo Nordisk Fonden","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["NNF21SA0072914"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NNF21SA0072914"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100009708","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001732","name":"Danmarks Grundforskningsfond","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["DNRF171"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DNRF171"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001732","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Transcult Psychiatry"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study explores the frictions between state-imposed affective norms and individual emotional realities during the COVID-19 pandemic in Shanghai, focusing on the lived experiences of psychological counsellors. Based on ethnographic research, it examines how the Chinese state's promotion of positive psychology operated as a tool of affective governance, framing gratitude, hope, and optimism as civic virtues amid widespread hardship. During extended confinement, food shortages, and restricted healthcare access, counsellors encountered pervasive anxiety, depression, and anger in both their clients and themselves\u2014emotions at odds with the state's emotionally prescriptive narratives. Trained to validate and explore \u201cnegative\u201d emotions, counsellors responded in divergent ways: while some affirmed the state-promoted discourse of positivity as a form of coping or professional compliance, others challenged it by attending to the dissonant emotional experiences around them. The concept of affective dissonance serves as the central analytic tool in this article, revealing how emotional misalignment in this context is not merely psychological but also political and structural. For those who resisted, affirming disallowed affects became a mode of preserving self-integrity, fostering solidarity, and opening space for critique. In authoritarian settings where emotions are ideologically scripted, acknowledging dissonant affects becomes central to both therapeutic practice and political consciousness.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/13634615251409634","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,9]],"date-time":"2026-01-09T19:23:09Z","timestamp":1767986589000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Counselling in zero-COVID China: Affective dissonance and the regime of positivity"],"prefix":"10.1177","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3005-403X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Anna","family":"Iskra","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"The Hong Kong Polytechnic University"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"179","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_3_2_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/00223989909599754"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_3_1","volume-title":"The cultural politics of emotion","author":"Ahmed S.","year":"2004","unstructured":"Ahmed S. (2004). The cultural politics of emotion. Edinburgh University Press."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1215\/9780822392781"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_5_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2307\/258824"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_6_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1146\/annurev-orgpsych-041015-062322"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_7_1","unstructured":"Bandurski D. (2020 March 7). Thank you no thank you. China Media Project. chinamediaproject.org\/2020\/03\/07\/thank-you-no-thank-you"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_8_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1215\/9780822394716"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_9_1","volume-title":"Manufacturing happy citizens: How the science and industry of happiness control our lives","author":"Cabanas E.","year":"2019","unstructured":"Cabanas E., Illouz E. (2019). Manufacturing happy citizens: How the science and industry of happiness control our lives. Polity Press."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_10_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1515\/9781503620766"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_11_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/aphw.12359"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_12_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1037\/1076-8998.5.1.95"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_13_1","volume-title":"The burnout society","author":"Han B.","year":"2010","unstructured":"Han B. (2010). The burnout society. Stanford University Press."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_14_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Harmon-Johnes E. Willardt R. Harmon-Jones C. (2025). Discreet emotions of dissonance. Motivation Science 11(4) 408\u2013424. https:\/\/doi.org\/101037.mot0000389","DOI":"10.1037\/mot0000389"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_15_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/1464700112442643"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_16_1","first-page":"106","volume-title":"Chinese discourses on happiness","author":"Hird D.","year":"2018","unstructured":"Hird D. (2018). Same yourself happy: Zheng Nengliang and the discursive construction of happy subjects. In Chinese discourses on happiness (pp. 106\u2013128). Hong Kong University Press."},{"issue":"1","key":"e_1_3_3_17_1","first-page":"23","article-title":"Zheng Nengliang and the pedagogies of affect in contemporary China","volume":"65","author":"Hizi G.","year":"2021","unstructured":"Hizi G. (2021). Zheng Nengliang and the pedagogies of affect in contemporary China. Social Compass, 65(1), 23\u201343. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3167\/sa. 2021.650102","journal-title":"Social Compass"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_18_1","volume-title":"The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling","author":"Hochschild A. R.","year":"1983","unstructured":"Hochschild A. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_19_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s11013-017-9553-8"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_20_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0920203X20939238"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_21_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1525\/nr.2022.25.4.5"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_22_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/723271"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_23_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/726052"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_24_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s10902-022-00554-x"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_25_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/15267431.2025.2494627"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_26_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0920203X211030869"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_27_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7208\/chicago\/9780226436395.001.0001"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_28_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1108\/eb028484"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_29_1","volume-title":"Ugly feelings","author":"Ngai S.","year":"2005","unstructured":"Ngai S. (2005). Ugly feelings. Harvard University Press."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_30_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1177\/0018726718809166"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_31_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/717656"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_32_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.22459\/MIC.05.02.2020.20"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_33_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0305741021000680"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_34_1","volume-title":"Rip it up: The radically new approach to changing your life","author":"Wiseman R.","year":"2012","unstructured":"Wiseman R. (2012). Rip it up: The radically new approach to changing your life. Macmillan."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_35_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.25158\/L13.1.4"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_36_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.7312\/yang20046"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_37_1","volume-title":"Disaffected: The cultural politics of unfeeling in nineteenth-century America","author":"Yao X.","year":"2021","unstructured":"Yao X. (2021). Disaffected: The cultural politics of unfeeling in nineteenth-century America. Duke University Press."},{"key":"e_1_3_3_38_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S1053-4822(02)00048-7"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_39_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/S0260210522000018"},{"key":"e_1_3_3_40_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/727725"}],"container-title":["Transcultural Psychiatry"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/13634615251409634","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1177\/13634615251409634","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1177\/13634615251409634","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,2]],"date-time":"2026-04-02T09:39:20Z","timestamp":1775122760000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/13634615251409634"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,9]]},"references-count":39,"alternative-id":["10.1177\/13634615251409634"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/13634615251409634","relation":{},"ISSN":["1363-4615","1461-7471"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1363-4615","type":"print"},{"value":"1461-7471","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,9]]},"article-number":"13634615251409634"}}