"Uneasy Reunions achieves what all ethnography aspires to: rich and textured portraiture of a corner of the human experience that speaks to the largest issues and experiences of our times. . . . [It] strikes a perfect balance: careful ethnographic portraiture, well-chosen scaffolding of relevant area and theoretical literature, and pitch-perfect reference to other global instances of migration across political ... Read moredifference. We applaud Newendorp for this parsimonious, evocative, inspired, and analytically impeccable contribution to the ethnography of East Asia."
Nancy Abelmann, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Chair, 2009 Francis L.K. Hsu Book Prize Committee "[This book is] a testament to Newendorp's sensitivity and skill as an ethnographer and her facility with the Cantonese language . . . Newendorp excels in presenting complex ideas in clear ways. She takes on many sophisticated debates from what it means to be Chinese in different 'Chinese' locations to the complexities of power and mobility in a transnational milieu. Overall, the book makes a unique and refreshing contribution . . . This ethnography will have broad appeal to a wide variety of readers."
Caren Freeman
Journal of International Migration & Integration
"This empathetic ethnography explores identity, migration, and difference through the prism of contemporary mainland Chinese women married to Hong Kong men who are seeking rights to live and form families in Hong Kong. Since Hong Kong formally returned to the People's Republic of China in 1997, many families who share culture and national citizenship nonetheless have remained separated by political history and divergent cultural formations. Images and expectations divide as well as unite women who want to migrate and the society that receives them, as the author shows through extensive fieldwork since 2000 with wives, children, social workers (an especially rich portrait), and other Hong Kongers."
CHOICE "This study is a contribution to our understanding of the city's dynamic social and political life .... Newendorp provides remarkably nuanced details of the daily challenges, desires, and hopes of immigrant women."
Helen Siu
Journal of Anthropological Research
"This book provides a compelling contribution to the topic of marital immigration from China and sheds light on the new challenges Hong Kong faces as a post-colonial society. By integrating issues central to the transnational world in which we live, Newendorp delivers an engaging and well-researched ethnography of citizenship."
Sara Friedman
Indiana University, author of Intimate Politics: Marriage, the Market, and State Power in Southeastern China
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