eEM Questioning Ethnographic Texts Sketch Elaborative Review
According to the sketch, the text is about colonial inheritance in China, with a focus on its' impact on the global economy.
According to the sketch, the text is about colonial inheritance in China, with a focus on its' impact on the global economy.
Each chapter focuses on a different Chinese city and its' social structure, with visuals utilized including maps, newspaper clippings, and photographs.
The cover is fairly minimal, with the title in red and a smokey, shadowy image that almost seems to invoke a face. I think the imagery is stark and somewhat haunting, invoking colonialism's shadowy legacy in China.
I was interested in how the various players are included in the text and how they are related by "increasingly intertwined economic investment." These seemed like an intereseting phenomenon to explore.
They propose a number of options including an audio installation, a digital story archive, and a photographic architectural exhibit. Given the photographic and narrative nature of the data, I think these options would all communicate the findings well and in a way that was interactive and accessible.
The writer of the sketch discusses the relevance of the text beyond just the geographic region it explores, noting "the U.S. has a huge moral and financial debt to descendants of enslaved people yet there is utter refusal to provide reparations despite acknowledgement of historical atrocities." Perhaps this ethnography could also be transformed into a history lesson for undergraduate students, to trace the impact of colonialism in China and then draw connections to the United States's history of settler colonialism.