Cai CHEN (陈才)

This project investigates the ethnoracial dynamics among Sino-Congolese couples residing in postcolonial Congo (DRC).

The project aims to answer three questions:

1. How do the juxtaposing and overlapping national, ethnocultural, social, and racial differences between Sino-Congolese partners shape the formation of their intimate relationships? 

2. How do these couples collectively or individually navigate and mitigate the stigmatization and racialization they face due to perceived differences with their extended family, neighbors, co-workers, and acquaintances?

3. How do individuals negotiate the uneven conjugal power relations, marked by the intersection of multiple structuring inequalities, with their partners, and exert agency through intimate boundary work?

This research is based on an ongoing multi-sited ethnography in three provinces of Congo – Kinshasa, Haut-Katanga, and Lualaba – among Sino-Congolese couples residing in Congo.

Research Output:

Journal Articles:

• (2023). Un chercheur chinois sur le terrain en RD Congo : parcours, identités et relations d’enquête. Suds : Géographies critiques, perspectives des Suds, (288), 199–209.

• (2024). Situated Researcher: A Critical Autoethnography on Migrant Researcher’s Mobility, Positionality, and Agency. Belgeo: Belgian Journal of Geography, 2023(4).

• (2025). Living the Field: How Accommodation Choices Shape Research on Global China in Africa. Global China Pulse, 4(1), 34–45.

Book Chapters:

• (forthcoming, June 2025). Revisiting the Marriage-Migration Nexus in the Global South: Asymmetries of Chinese-Congolese Couples Under State Regulations. In D. Vandebosch & J. Jurado (Eds.), Reframing Journeys: Migration, Media Narratives, and Cultural Dialogues in Europe's Changing Landscape (pp. xx–xx). Peter Lang.

• (forthcoming). Chinese in DR Congo: Reciprocal Migration, Conjugal Mixedness, and Power Inequalities. In É. Tran Sautedé, Y. H. Zoubir, D. Sun, & S. Gaspar (Eds.), Handbook of Chinese Migration to the Middle East and Africa (pp. xx–xx). Brill.

Other Publications:

• (2023, November 12). “Rich but Vulnerable”: Chinese Migrants Meet Street-Level Bureaucrats in the DRC. Routed Magazine, 23.

• (2024a, February). A Chinese Ethnographer in DR Congo: Reflections on the Field and Fieldwork. Congo Research Network (Field Notes).

• (2024b, June 3). Intimité sino-congolaise : entre mixité conjugale et inégalités de pouvoir. L’Asie en 1000 mots.

• (2025, March 8). Les couples sino-congolais. In Histoire de Savoir. Radio Campus Bruxelles (Podcast).

This project investigates the interrelationship between migration and sexuality among Chinese gay students in France in three spacio-temporal contexts, pre-migratory, migratory, and post-migratory.

The project aims to answer three questions:

1. To what degree can sexual identity influence the decision-making of Chinese gay students to study abroad?

2. How does their lived experience as gay Chinese in French society shape their sexuality?

3. What is the impact of potentially transformed sexuality on the post-study projects of Chinese gay students in France?

This research is based on a seven-month virtual etrhnography among Chinese LGBT+ diasporic community in France, including online participant observation and semi-structured interviews with 16 informants.

Research Output:

Thesis:

• (2021). Sexuality and Mobility: The Trajectories of Gay Students from China to France and beyond [Master Thesis, Université de Lille].

Journal Articles:

• (2023). Migration et (re)socialisation sexuelle : le cas des jeunes migrants homosexuels chinois en France. Migrations société, 35(192), 131–145.

• (2023). (with Ponce, A. R.) Rethinking the Gay Chinese Migrant through the Prism of Migration Aspirations: Observations from France and Belgium. Journal of Chinese Overseas, 19(2), 220–247.

• (2025). Liuxue ('Studying Abroad'): A Pathway to Sexual Freedom for China’s Gay Youth?. Made in China Journal, 10(2), Online First.

• (2025). « Je veux obtenir mon diplôme et avoir une relation gay ». Aspirations des gays chinois en mobilité pour études en France. e-Migrinter, 25.

Book Chapters:

• (2024). (with Ponce, A. R.) Sexuality, Socialization, and Inequalities on the Move: The Lived Experiences of Young Chinese Gay Migrant Men in France and Belgium. In M. Thunø, S. Wang, É. Tran Sautedé, & Y. Tseng (Eds.), Handbook of Chinese Migration to Europe (pp. 494–525). Brill. (Brill Handbooks of Chinese Overseas, 1).

Other Publications:

• (2023, September 3). Racisme sexuel : quand les migrants gays asiatiques font face à la fétichisation. The Conversation (France).

• (2024, February 12). WeChat and the Chinese Queer Diaspora. Blog Scientifique de l’Institut Confucius, Université de Genève.

• (2024, October 8). Dis·illusion in Motion. Jeunes Chercheur⋅e⋅s Asie.

• (2025, March 8). Les jeunes migrants homosexuels chinois en France. In Histoire de Savoir. Radio Campus Bruxelles (Podcast).