Chinatown “Sympathizers”: A Duo-Ethnography of a Mother-Daughter Dyad Recruit for Community-Based Critical Research

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 5:25 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Leading by Example: Critical and Innovative Methods in the Social Context of Education (Table 13)

Abstract

This intergenerational duo-ethnography documents the processes and reflections of a mother-daughter duo, both of them Chinese immigrants, as they collect data for the daughter’s Critical Race Theory-based dissertation. They collectively and individually make sense of our relationships with Chinatown(s) and the people within and their developing racial awareness through day-to-day dialogs. The insider/outsider and somewhere-in-between perspectives highlight the hybridity of new immigrants bridging their lives from East to West. The transparent dialogues address the gap of the lack of documentation in the critical research process and extend the understanding of the development of critical awareness for immigrants. This duo-ethnography calls for other critical researchers to share their journeys because bravery is contagious!

Authors

• Xiaohan Yang Zhu, Texas A&M University

• Wenjuan Yang, Fordham University