EACS-2016. Book of Abstracts

Sociology & Anthropology 21st Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies 180 is not only to identify how actors move from one state of employment to another, how they size opportunities on the job market, or how they face difficulties, but also of course to identify the meaning they give to their actions. The biographical approach enables to reveal how, on job markets, individuals can be inventive, or and reveal their tactics—how they play in various situations with normative structures which are imposed on them. Hanisch Sarah (University of Vienna) All Access? Some Critical Reflections on Life Story Interviews with Chinese Migrants in Lesotho Key words: Chinese migrants, Lesotho, ethnography, access, non-institutional Getting access is a key challenge in qualitative research and often equated with obtaining assistance from local institutions. These institutions can provide guidance in approaching and selecting potential interview partners. On the other hand, as I will show in this paper alternative ways of getting access can be preferable and more conductive to certain research questions. My research projects looks at the life stories of migrants from Fuqing City (Fujian Province) who migrated to Lesotho. I conducted eight months of ethnographic field research in Lesotho in 2014 and one month of field research in Fuqing in 2015. My previous experi- ence with Chinese migrants in Lesotho (2012 for my MA thesis) was that migrants were suspicious of all local (including Chinese) institutions and organizations. Therefore, I decided against seeking their assis- tance and establishing contacts with these migrants by going directly to their businesses in different towns in Lesotho. I found it easy to establish relationships with some of these migrants, their families, friends or relatives. I got ‘access’ to the life stories migrants who were not closely cooperating with local Chinese migrant organizations. Although I interviewed leaders of local Chinese migrant organizations, I found that they did not want to share detailed life stories. Theirs was a story of harmony, while that of the others was a story of personal challenges and many frictions. Still my access did not mean all access, but was a negotiated interaction with my (interview) partners. This became apparent when I was planning my field research in Fuqing: while some did not hesitate to put me in touch with their friends and family in Fuqing, others felt it was not appropriate. To a lesser extent this applied also to their life stories which were also not all access. In sum, getting access off the beaten path of institutional assistance was more conductive to life story interviews and provided me with a different access Klotzbücher Sascha (National Chengchi University) A Socially Embedded Political Ethnography: The Search for New Homes for Chinese Elderly Key words: ethnography, elderly, local politics, embedded research, Wuhan This paper analyses how we can understand the ongoing construction of homes for elderly people without any Chinese official academic partners and without any invitation of local governments. I apply the method of a political ethnography, whern the researcher tries to enter and exit the field like the focus group of this policy: Socially embedded in the role as the filial son-in-law and together with my mother- in-law (as a potential buyer of this service), I selected my field sides according to advertisement leaflets distributed in the streets of Wuhan and my mother-in-law’s preferences. In several one day-trips (includ- ing bus transfer) financed and organized by the operating owner and the investment funds, we visited four locations of residential homes for the elderly people in the suburbs of Wuhan in August 2015. I conducted a political ethnography of these official presentations of the project, on the spot inspection of homes and environment, meals and sales conversations between people and the official staff, and money transfers. I argue that these interactions are situations where people and administrators/official staff meet, and when elderly people understand these policies for the first time. It is the critical moment when one owns’ needs become private or part of public policies. The perception of politics is practiced in these concrete situations. Our embeddedness in the policy’s focus group can drive us to change the perspective and to become more