Caught in a "West/China Dichotomy": Doing Critical Sociolinguistic Ethnography in Zhejiang Schools

This article focuses on how issues of power and identity were negotiated when doing a critical sociolinguistic ethnography as a Spanish researcher in the Chinese educational context. Data come from fieldwork conducted in 3 different primary and secondary schools together in Zhejiang province, where inside- and outside-classroom interactional/discursive practices were analyzed in relation to the current sociopolitical/socioeconomic conditions of China. The study shows how new cultural resources are being legitimated by the institutionalization of new rituals based on the contemporary Chinese nationalism. In this research context, relationships with all my participants were fully built up around my regional identity as a "Westerner." Although that category did not make sense to me at the very beginning of the fieldwork, it became a key issue through the research process, as it was reproduced to negotiate both my own role within the schools and the meaning of everyday practices.