Cai CHEN | Université libre de Bruxelles (original) (raw)

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Journal Articles by Cai CHEN

Suds : Géographies critiques, perspectives des Suds, 2024

Première femme : Qu'est-ce qu'il va faire au Congo, ce Chinois-là ? [Avec méfiance] Seconde femme... more Première femme : Qu'est-ce qu'il va faire au Congo, ce Chinois-là ? [Avec méfiance] Seconde femme : Bah, il veut peut-être visiter notre beau pays. [Toutes deux rigolent.]

Le 14 décembre 2022, j’ai pris un vol de Bruxelles à Kinshasa afin de réaliser une enquête de terrain exploratoire. La conversation précédente a eu lieu entre deux Congolaises lorsque j’étais dans la file d’attente pour accomplir les formalités parmi un bon nombre d’Africains subsahariens et quelques Européens blancs isolés. Elle s’est déroulée en français, la langue que je maîtrisais, contrairement à d’autres langues africaines dont je peinais à saisir le mot « Chinois ». J’ai fait semblant de ne rien comprendre, mais je ne pouvais m’empêcher de me demander quel était le sens de cette discussion.

Je doutais qu’il soit inhabituel pour elles de voir un Chinois (voyager) au Congo, car David Van Reybrouck a ironiquement affirmé qu’« [à] Kinshasa grandit une génération pour laquelle les Européens sont plus exotiques que les Chinois. » ...

Belgeo: Belgian Journal of Geography, 2024

Drawing on a critical autoethnography, this essay explores the lived experiences of a Chinese mig... more Drawing on a critical autoethnography, this essay explores the lived experiences of a Chinese migrant researcher in Belgium and the influence of Belgium as a place of knowledge production on both the researcher and the research itself. First, it highlights the challenges of academic mobility in Europe experienced by migrant researchers in the face of the multiscalar mobility regimes, and underscores how geographic mobility intersects with social class. Second, it reveals the impact of the dual, even plural, scientific socialisation across borders on the self-refashioning and self-evaluation of researchers with migrant backgrounds. Last, the essay argues that the insider/outsider positions of researchers are not static but are constantly (re)shaped by their identities, social positions, and geographic locations – Belgium, in this case, as a place of study, residence, and knowledge production. It further emphasizes the agency of researchers in negotiating complex field relations. This essay contributes to a nuanced understanding of the vulnerability and resilience of migrant researchers in the Global North and sheds light on the role of the place of knowledge production in shaping their ways of doing research and being a researcher.

Journal of Chinese Overseas, 2023

On the basis of data gathered by two independent ethnographic studies of gay Chinese migrants in ... more On the basis of data gathered by two independent ethnographic studies of gay Chinese migrants in France and Belgium, this paper aims to identify the role of intersecting and parallel aspirations which shape their migration trajectories toward Western countries. These aspirations include motivations to respond to or appropriate traditional family configurations, imaginaries that characterize the countries of destination, the desire to fulfill same-sex sexual and relationship goals, as well as class, educational, national, and ethnic affiliations. Using concepts of intersectionality and super-diversity, this paper further argues that the simultaneous and overlapping nature of these motivations deserves to be discussed as a subset of current Chinese diasporas.

Migrations Société, 2023

Alors que le genre est devenu une catégorie d’analyse essentielle dans les travaux scientifiques ... more Alors que le genre est devenu une catégorie d’analyse essentielle dans les travaux scientifiques sur les plus récentes vagues d’émigration depuis la Chine, la sexualité des Chinois en Europe reste peu étudiée, en particulier celle des LGBT+. Cet article s’appuie sur une enquête ethnographique menée entre 2020 et 2021 auprès de 16 jeunes migrants homosexuels chinois (vivant ou ayant vécu en France), pour explorer les multiples facettes des « changements sexuels » vécus par ces individus sous le prisme de la (re)socialisation sexuelle dans un contexte transnational. En premier lieu, l’article examine les processus d’acquisition et d’intériorisation des connaissances, des normes, des attitudes, des codes sociaux et culturels et des valeurs liés à la sexualité au-delà des frontières culturelles et nationales. Il se penche ensuite sur les sources de (re)socialisation sexuelle de jeunes migrants homosexuels chinois en France, en se focalisant sur leurs relations interpersonnelles avec leurs pairs. Enfin, l’article conclut en tissant des liens entre les études sur la migration queer et celles sur la diaspora chinoise, tout en appelant à davantage de recherches sur les liens entre migrations chinoises en Europe et sexualité en élargissant autant que possible la façon d’appréhender cette dernière.

Book Chapters by Cai CHEN

Handbook of Chinese Migration to Europe, 2024

While gender has become a salient category of difference in the scholarly portrayal of new Chines... more While gender has become a salient category of difference in the scholarly portrayal of new Chinese migrants, the sexuality of Chinese individuals in Europe-let alone the Chinese gay diaspora-remains understudied. Drawing on data collected in two separate research projects on gay Chinese migrants in France and Belgium, this chapter explores the multifaceted lived experiences of young Chinese gay migrant men in Europe through the lens of sexual (re)socialization and inequalities in a transnational context. First, this chapter gives an overview of the current research on queer Chinese migration, including in the European context. Second, it explores the processes of sexual (re)socialization of young Chinese gay migrant men in France and Belgium and the multi-level sources of this process. Finally, the last section highlights the health care and racial inequalities that gay Chinese migrants encounter in European host societies, as well as their agency, and delineates how these inequalities are produced and perpetuated within unequal power relations such as "race," age, class, and migrant status. We conclude with a discussion that bridges studies on queer migration studies and Chinese diaspora studies, calling for more sexuality-inclusive research on Chinese migration to Europe.

Scientific Blog Posts by Cai CHEN

Jeunes Chercheure·s Asie, 2024

It is a biographical story of a gay Chinese informant, Jie, whom the author met as part of his ea... more It is a biographical story of a gay Chinese informant, Jie, whom the author met as part of his earlier research on the interrelationship between migration and sexuality among gay Chinese (ex-) students in France. This short story traces Jie's migratory trajectory from China to France via West Africa, as well as his illusions and disillusions as a gay and a migrant.

L’Asie en 1000 mots, 2024

L’essor de l’influence chinoise et de la présence de Chinois en Afrique a donné naissance à des c... more L’essor de l’influence chinoise et de la présence de Chinois en Afrique a donné naissance à des couples dits « mixtes », constitués de partenaires sino-africains issus de différents pays, cultures et groupes ethno-raciaux. Au cours d’une enquête ethnographique menée entre 2022 et 2024 dans trois provinces de la République démocratique du Congo (ci-après dénommée « Congo ») – Kinshasa, Haut-Katanga et Lualaba –, l’auteur a rencontré dix couples sino-congolais hétérosexuels. En raison des différences perçues, les couples sino-congolais sont confrontés à de multiples inégalités conjugales, mais ils ne sont pas dépourvus de capacité d’agir.

Congo Research Network (Field Notes), 2024

Why would a Chinese PhD student choose to conduct anthropological research in Congo? How did he s... more Why would a Chinese PhD student choose to conduct anthropological research in Congo? How did he secure access to the field? Do Chinese-Congolese couples exist, considering the "selfsegregation" of the Chinese in Africa? How does a Chinese ethnographer navigate his identity and positionality with both Congolese and Chinese informants in the field? In a series of four blog posts, Cai Chen, a PhD student at the Université libre de Bruxelles, provides insights from his ethnographic fieldwork experiences in the course of his ongoing doctoral research on Chinese-Congolese couples in Congo.

Blog Scientifique de l’Institut Confucius, Université de Genève, 2024

"In the ethnographic study of Cai Chen about the interrelationship between migration and sexualit... more "In the ethnographic study of Cai Chen about the interrelationship between migration and sexuality amongst Chinese gay students in France, he finds out that WeChat enables Chinese queer diaspora to construct an Internet-based community across borders, embed transnational identity beyond geographic distance and express queerness in online and offline worlds. He also presents some methodological reflections on benefits and challenges of using WeChat as a digital tool to research Chinese queer diaspora. He argues that researchers should constantly navigate between physical and virtual social worlds to critically account for the ongoing, increasingly digitally mediated, social interactions and practices amongst the Chinese queer diaspora." (P. Bugnon & Y. Chen, 2024）

General Audience Articles by Cai CHEN

Routed Magazine, n° 23 (Inequalities and Migration), 2023

Contrary to media's depictions of China's expanding influence in Africa, the Chinese in Africa, d... more Contrary to media's depictions of China's expanding influence in Africa, the Chinese in Africa, despite their economic privilege, experience "politico-administrative vulnerability" in their interactions with street-level bureaucrats. However, they are neither exclusively privileged nor vulnerable.

The Conversation (France), 2023

La France attire les migrants LGBT+ originaires de régimes oppressifs tels que la Chine. Une fois... more La France attire les migrants LGBT+ originaires de régimes oppressifs tels que la Chine. Une fois sur place, ils ne sont pas à l’abri d'autres formes de discrimination, y compris le racisme sexuel.

Book/Film Reviews by Cai CHEN

African Studies Review, 2024

This text is a film review.

Advances in Southeast Asian Studies, 2022

Unpublished Theses by Cai CHEN

University of Lille, France. 120 p. [Unpublished master's thesis] , 2021

Drawing on seven-month online participant observation and 16 semi-structured interviews, this eth... more Drawing on seven-month online participant observation and 16 semi-structured interviews, this ethnographic study is conducted to examine the way in which the sexuality and migration processes of gay students from China to France are connected and interrelate with each other in three spacio-temporal contexts (pre-migratory, migratory and post-migratory). First, it aims to investigate how the sexual factors in contemporary China influence their motivation for studying abroad from a queer perspective. Second, this study seeks to uncover the lived experience of Chinese gay students in France and how the (homo)sexuality is shaped in a transnational context, within a systematic analysis of the intersection of sexuality, ‘race’, class and migration. Last, it intends to examine how the potentially transformed sexuality influences their decision-making of post-study projects (return, remain or re-migrate). Findings suggest that Chinese gay students who were generally “well-identified but not disclosed” do not portray their studying abroad as a sexual liberation journey but transnational capital accumulation, although they enjoy more sexual freedom on the move. The West is found out not ‘eldorado’ for gay of colour, who seek difficultly longings and belongings in the diaspora and experience multi-layered discrimination in the diaspora, but the host society potentially transformed their sexuality, which has implications for sexual health. Their post-study projects are filled with the uncertainties caused by career choices and migration policies, and informed by the negotiations between the pursuit of sexual freedom and the fulfilment of familial obligations. International student migration is believed to be not the finality but part of the (social and geographic) mobility of Chinese gay men, who negotiate queer kinship and relocate gayness through intra- or inter- national migrations.