The Love Child and the State: Transnational Family Formation in Guangzhou

Abstract

Transnational families are becoming more common in China. They emerge within a social system that is designed for sedentary rather than mobile lives and favours two-parent households over other family forms. Chinese citizens who have children with foreigners must navigate national and local bureaucratic institutions while building and maintaining social relations in transnational fields. The bureaucratic challenges associated with transnational family formation can cause emotional and financial friction within intimate relationships, while gender norms shape how various family members manage these frictions. Gender and race intersect through the ways ethnic boundary crossings are judged differently for men and women, while immigration status affects prospects for meeting gender-specific expectations in romantic relationships. Drawing upon data from ethnographic fieldwork among Chinese−African families in a multi-ethnic neighbourhood in Guangzhou, the article explores tensions that arise as families pursue cosmopolitan aspirations at the same time as they struggle to access basic welfare services and legal and social recognition of their family relationships.