Drawing primarily on my research and teaching in digital ethnography within the contexts of Houston and Hong Kong during the COVID-19 pandemic, this paper delves into the methodological implications of fostering inter-ethnic reckoning in the online realms of teaching, research and public engagement within migration and mobility studies. It explores the productive nature of inter-ethnic reckoning in uncovering the everyday experiences and, more significantly, the shared positionalities of migrants and diasporas that would otherwise be overshadowed by divisive racial politics. Within this framework, the paper illustrates how cultivating digital spaces for inter-ethnic reckoning presents new opportunities for reconciling divergent and competing decolonising perspectives from below, particularly in (post-)COVID-19 era.

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Ka-Kin Cheuk is Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Southampton. Trained as a social and cultural anthropologist (PhD, Oxford), his research revolves around the study of migration, transnationalism, diaspora, and inter-Asian connections, with ethnographic focuses on China, Hong Kong, India, and the Middle East. His recent publications include “Diasporic Convergence, Sustained Transience and Indifferent Survival: Indian Traders in China” (History and Anthropology 2022), “Inter-Asian Hinduism in East Asian Diasporic Nodes through the Material Lens” (in The Oxford History of Hinduism: Hindu Diasporas, Oxford University Press, 2023), and “Homeland Visit and Transnational Connections: A Study of the Sikhs in Hong Kong and their Family Trips in India” (Hong Kong Studies 2023). Having conducted fieldwork over the past 17 years on Sikh diaspora in Hong Kong and on Indian traders in southeast China, he is currently working on a new project on flower industries and Scotland-China circuits of environmental ethics.

 

Related articles by Ka-Kin Cheuk:

 

Cheuk, Ka-Kin. 2021. “Teaching Ethnographic Research Methods in the time of COVID-19: Virtual Fieldtrips, a Web Symposium, and Public Engagement with Asian American Communities in Houston, Texas.” Teaching and Learning Anthropology 4(1): 87–96.

Open access, available at: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/57f7c013

 

Cheuk, Ka-Kin. Forthcoming. “Digital Ethnography as Inter-Ethnic Reckoning Method.” In William Allen, Yvonni Markaki, and Carlos Vargas-Silva, eds., The Handbook of Research Methods in Migration (Second Edition). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

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