Becoming In/Out of Place: Doing Research in Chinatown as a Chinese Female Geographer in the Era of Transnationalism

Abstract

Many scholars have discussed reflexivity and positionality in terms of relationship between researchers and the researched subjects. Rarely has the relationship between researchers and the researched place been discussed. The relationship between researchers and the researched place is constitutive, dynamic, and ever changing. Building on the methodologies of reflexivity, this article expands on the spatiality of positionality, particularly for the research that is centered around place. Drawing on my research experience in Flushing, Queens, New York City, as a Chinese female scholar, this article argues that the productivity of reflexivity lies in constant moving between “becoming” and “being” and between in-place and out-of-place. Becoming is the key to the space of in-betweenness, which implies movement (enter, exit, reenter), agency (strategies and power), and intersectionality (multidimensions) of the relationships between researchers and the researched place. Key Words: Chinatown, ethnography, methodology, place, reflexivity.