Passing Through Shanghai: Ethnographic Insights into the Mobile Lives of Expatriate Youths
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Description
Contents
Reviews
Language
English
ISBN
978-3-946054-03-0
Frontmatter
Dedication
Motto
Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
Introduction
Paul’s Experience Growing up on
the Move
Is Paul a “Third Culture Kid?”
How does being young shape the expatriation experience?
How can we understand the cultural entanglements
of Paul’s world?
Why are spatial practices insightful?
The structure of this book
Part I. Getting Acquainted
Chapter 1. Expatriates in Shanghai
Chapter 2. Going to School
Chapter 3. Joining Two Peer Groups
3.1 Fieldwork with “the girls:”
real ambitions and fake Louboutins
3.2 Fieldwork with “the boys:”
repulsive moments and aesthetic jellyfish
Chapter 4. Meeting Individuals:
Four Students’ Narratives of the Self
4.1 Antonia: I consider myself Shanghainese, but others see me as a foreigner
4.2 Bjorn: Shanghai is the best thing that can happen to you, if you’re a villager
4.3 Arnaud: When you are in-between,
you can’t be the best at anything
4.4 Xia: I’d like to be like Einstein, a citizen of the world
Chapter 5. The Common Ground:
Capturing the Heterogeneous Experiences of Expatriate Youths
Part II. Leaving
Chapter 1. Retrospectives on the Decision to Move
1.1 To move or not to move: the decision-making process
1.2 Family relations and the idea of “best interest”
1.3 Caught in limbo: fearing the next move
Chapter 2. The Emotional Challenges of Moving
Part III. Arriving
Chapter 1. Making Sense of the City
1.1 Navigating the city
1.2 Sensing the city
1.3 Concluding thoughts on managing life in the city
Chapter 2. Making Home(s): Houses, Belongings,
and Belonging
2.1 Gated community living
2.2 Material practices: belongings, food, and family
Personal objects
Food
Family life and settling in
2.3 (Trans)local ties: theorizing students’ negotiations
of home and belonging
Talking about home and belonging
Students’ positions on home and belonging
2.4 Concluding thoughts on home
Chapter 3. Building Community: The Role of International Schools
3.1 Shanghai’s landscape of international schools
3.2 Image and community
3.3 Learning and living “expatriateness”
Example 1: Everyday Comforts
Example 2: Cultivating Concern
Example 3: Convenient Cosmopolitanism
3.4 Privilege and pressure: youths’ experiences at school
3.5 Concluding thoughts on “expatriateness” and the role of schools
Part IV. Living
Chapter 1. "My Time is Now:” The Role of Age
1.1 Wrong time to move, right time to be there
1.2 Future benefits and the art project “My time is now”
1.3 Rejecting “old people”—claiming spaces
Chapter 2. Nightlife: Going Out
2.1 Shanghai’s nightlife spaces
2.2 Open doors and open bars: negotiating access and parental concern
2.3 Practices and transformations: the Friday night routine
2.4 Staging youth culture: concluding thoughts on
nightlife practices
Chapter 3. The Shop: Hanging Out
3.1 “The shop is our place to chill”
3.2 “The shop is not expat:” The shop as an in-between
space
3.3 “The shop is somewhat like a park:”
The shop as an open space and street
3.4 Concluding thoughts on the shop
Chapter 4. “Guests Stay Guests:”
The Lack of “Local” Friends
4.1 Autonomous and special? The demarcation of the expatriate community
4.2 “We don’t fit in:” The gaze of the “other”
4.3 Barriers to “integration,” or, the difficulties of
making “Chinese” friends
4.4 Youths’ perceptions of local attitudes towards foreigners
4.5 Concluding thoughts on the local-expat
youth divide in Shanghai
Part V. Moving On
Chapter 1. Goodbyes and Graduation
1.1 Leaving Shanghai
1.2 Celebrating twice: graduation and goodbyes
1.3 Moving on: anticipation and anxieties
1.4 Reflections on leaving Shanghai and what lies ahead
Chapter 2. New Beginnings and Concluding Thoughts
Appendix
Appendix A: Transcription Key
Appendix B: Student Directory: Who’s Who?
Bibliography
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