Doctoral Research

Brokering Global Trade: Relational Work and Identity Formation of Chinese Muslim Translators in Yiwu

My doctoral research examines the economic practices and identity negotiation of Chinese Muslims (Hui) who work as Chinese–Arabic/Persian translators within the global trade economy in Yiwu. Drawing on analysis of documentary evidence and three months of ethnographic fieldwork in Yiwu in 2020, the dissertation demonstrates the emotional and relational labor of Hui translators in brokering transnational trade and navigating informal labor relations, as well as the ways in which they draw on ethnic capital as transnational market resource to negotiate class, ethnic, national hierarchies in national and global spaces.