1,720,985 research outputs found
Teaching ethnographic research methods in the time of COVID-19: Virtual field trips, a web symposium, and public engagement with Asian American communities in Houston, Texas
No full textThis article presents a detailed description of how I adapted an undergraduate ethnographic research methods course to a fully online format during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on my recent experience designing and teaching a new course titled Ethnographic Research in/of Houston Asia in Fall 2020 at Rice University, I illustrate the virtual learning environment I maintained in this course through ongoing collaboration with members of the Zoroastrian, Sikh, and Chinese Buddhist communities in Houston, Texas. Specifically, this article describes how I incorporated virtual field trips and a web symposium – two activities that I organized with the support of Rice University’s Course Development Grant – into my teaching of ethnography on Zoom. Such online activities, which are by necessity intensively interactive and community-oriented, enabled the course to cultivate a deep level of public engagement that arguably would not have been possible in the pre-COVID-19 period
Funny money circulation and fabric exports from China to Dubai through Indian trading networks
No full textChiefly drawing on my ethnographic fieldwork in the district of Keqiao in Zhejiang Province since 2009, I argue that irregular financial transactions—conceptualized as “funny money” in this article—play a significant role in the sustenance of otherwise tenuous business relations between Indian traders and Chinese suppliers in the China–Dubai fabric trade. Much of the fabric exported from Keqiao to Dubai relies on intertwined formal and informal transactions operated by Indian trading networks. These labyrinthine transnational funny money transactions aim to circumvent institutional hurdles and overcome deficiencies in operating capital, yet inherent to this system is a cycle of payment lags that cause tense relations between payers and payees. Funny money transactions facilitate eventual payment in most cases most of the time and maintain enough trust to keep the trade network alive. Furthermore, the interlocking circuits of funny money also prevent the overaccumulation of wealth and power by any particular stakeholder involved in the international trade and defy or at least circumvent the formal political authority of state and financial institutions that seek to curtail such practices. These transactions thereby create a larger space for business survival among the grassroots players, especially Indian traders who may not have enough capital available when they initiate a deal with a Chinese supplier
Diasporic convergence, sustained transience and indifferent survival: Indian traders in China
No full textThis paper analyses the way in which Sindhi traders – one of the largest Indian diasporic populations in Asia – have managed to live and work in China as de facto migrants despite their inability to be granted settled immigration status by the Chinese state. Drawing on long-term fieldwork that started in 2010, the paper offers a China-centric ethnographic perspective on how Indian traders, particularly Sindhis in the Chinese county of Keqiao, have been dealing with the incongruence between immigration policies that largely preclude the possibility of their permanent residency and their long-term entrepreneurial engagement in China. I argue that this incongruence, despite the tensions and uncertainties it continues to generate, has in fact become a crucial factor in stabilizing the diasporic convergence upon Keqiao by Sindhi traders. The eventual consequence is what I call ‘indifferent survival’: that is, the Sindhi traders, a group of non-white foreigners, are managing to stay together and even expand the size of their diasporic community in China despite their vast internal differences in class, local knowledge, and wealth
Migration, settlement, and remigration: a study of the Sikhs in Hong Kong
No full textThis paper provides an overview of the history of Sikh migration to Hong Kong. It will explore the Sikhs' experiences in migration, settlement, and remigratio
从移民企业家到跨国商人: 绍兴印度人的人类学研究
No full text文章以文献回顾讨论了关于印度商人的民族志研究，说明印度商业活动受到学者关注的原因，分析了移民企 业家这个概念为什么不能解释今天日益频繁的跨国商业模式。研究绍兴的印度商人，可以为学界提供及时的案例，让我们 更了解印度跨国企业的内部运作
印度妇女在中国轻纺城的社区网络探析
No full text以浙江绍兴轻纺城中的印度妇女为例, 认为轻纺城中的印度妇女因受“点对点”的中间商人跨国网络、贸易活动对秘密的重视、家室在中介贸易中的商业价值以及中国签证制度的影响, 无法在中国组织较具规模的同乡妇女互助网络, 这使她们在中国的生活进一步被边缘化及隔离化。由此来看, 宗教网络不一定与商业优势挂钩, 中间商人贸易活动的特性, 即中间商人所坚持的商业本钱, 会影响他们及其家室在居住地的社会网络的组合, 并削弱非商业参与家庭成员对公共宗教活动及社会群体生活的参与。A case study is conducted on the community network of Indian females in Shaoxing of Zhejiang province, which wins fame as "the City of Light t& Textile Industry of China". This paper argues that Indian females in the city of light & textile industry are influenced by middlemen's point-to-point cross country network, trade activities' stressing on secrets, kinship's business value in intermediate trade, and China's visa system, so that they cannot form a women mutual-assistance network on a relative large scale in China and would then be isolated and marginalized. From what's been mentioned above, religious network will not necessarily have connection with business superiorities. The nature of middlemen's trade activities, i.e. the capital in middlemen's business, will influence their whole family's local social network combination and will further diminish non-business family members' attendance at public religious activities and social group lives
回鄉、探親與跨國聯繫: 香港錫克家庭回訪印度的個案研究
No full text本文以香港錫克家庭回訪印度為例，探討回鄉探親這類活動，如何反映香港印度人與他們故鄉之間的跨國聯繫，以及他們如何運用這種聯繫去維持本身的宗教信仰及進行各項經濟活動。根據筆者自2005年在香港錫克教廟長期持續的田野調查，以及伴隨香港錫克家庭到印度旁遮普邦的探訪，本文考察香港錫克人回印探親對當地錫克家族跨國網路整合及本地日常活動的影響。以參與觀察所得的資料為基礎，本文分析香港錫克家庭回訪印度這一行為背後一系列的歷史及社會文化因素，並藉此展望在回鄉探親中展現的跨國聯繫，在全球疫情漸緩之後或會發生的轉變。In this article, I examine the transnational connections established by Hong Kong Sikhs through their regular visits to families in India, and how they have created, maintained, and mediated these connections. The research is based on long-term fieldwork conducted at the Hong Kong Sikh Temple, which commenced in 2006, as well as my observations during several trips made by Hong Kong Sikhs to the Indian state of Punjab. By utilizing ethnographic materials from multiple locations, I analyze the implications of these trips on the organization of transnational family networks among the Hong Kong Sikh community. In doing so, I delve into the historical and sociocultural factors that have shaped the significance of these visits in everyday life, while also exploring how these factors may evolve in the post-COVID-19 era
Yellow perils: China narratives in the contemporary world. Edited by Franck Billé and Sören Urbansky
No full textSindhi community in Hong Kong: a century-long tale of a South Asian diaspora
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic has raided the whole world, abruptly disrupting the cross-country, long-distance travels in an unprecedented scale. In Hong Kong, we do not know when and how international travels would resume to the pre-pandemic level. While we are still largely stuck in our own places, it may be a good time to rethink what human mobility really means to us and many others, especially people whose communal lives have been largely defined by ongoing mobility and transregional networks. Sindhis in Hong Kong are one such group of people, having formed what one may call ‘a transnational community’ in Hong Kong since the early 20th century. This article, based on author’s research on several Sindhis in Hong Kong, reveals some valuable information about this century-old South Asian diaspora
Waiting in Keqiao
No full text“Waiting in Keqiao”ICAS 13 exhibition ‘The Waiting Room’, in Surabaya, Indonesia. 28 July - 2 August 2024.Dr Ka-Kin CHEUKUniversity of SouthamptonIn the county-level district of Keqiao, a global hub for low-cost fabric trading in Zhejiang Province, China, waiting is a constant experience for both people and goods. Over half of the local population, including Chinese and foreign traders, especially those from India, Pakistan, and the Middle East, work in the fabric trading industries and related sectors. Many of them spend most of their time in offices, waiting for customers to make inquiries, collect samples, or call for updates on shipments. Fabrics often wait for long periods before traveling across the globe. Fabrics stored in warehouses wait to be processed, transported to shipping ports, and then shipped across oceans.The fabric trading activities in Keqiao - the focus of my long-term and ongoing ethnographic research since 2009 - are an integral part of the broader global textile supply chain that sources raw materials, processes them into fabrics, and then transports those fabrics to reach the next round of buyers. These downstream buyers will then manufacture the fabrics into final textile products - such as garments, home textiles, and other consumer goods - before they ultimately reach consumers. Within this larger system, the people and goods in Keqiao are constantly waiting on one another - whether it's fabric traders waiting for buyers to place orders, transportation companies waiting to pick up shipments, or warehouse operators waiting to receive new inventory. This interplay of waiting is not limited to just those in Keqiao. Stakeholders at every stage of the supply chain, from raw material suppliers to end consumers, are all impacted by these delays and interdependencies. Retailers waiting for new inventory, consumers waiting for products to become available, and even the end consumers themselves are all part of this complex web of waiting experiences.Ultimately, no single party - whether in Keqiao or elsewhere in the supply chain - is able to fully control the timeframes involved. These long and convoluted chains mean that the waiting times remain subject to ongoing communication, intense negotiation, and closely coordinated activities across the entire textile value chain. This helps limit the potential for any particular player to accumulate outsized power or authority within the system, serving as an everyday counterweight against the existing hegemonic regimes - especially those perpetuated by the global North - in international trade.<br/
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