‘Familiar strangers’: Western-trained Chinese scholars in the field

Drawing upon my fieldwork in Xi’an, I attempt to problematise the binary of insider-outsider by drawing on the term, familiar strangers, to describe the positionality of Western-trained Chinese researchers. Performing as familiar strangers opens up an alternative space for these Western-trained Chinese scholars to fully capture the nuances of the everyday while being critical and reflexive, writes Yang Yang.