‘You are (Hong Kong) Chinese! You should Understand our Culture!’: Reflections of a Chinese Male Ethnographer on Researching Nepali Drug Users in Hong Kong

This chapter provides a reflexive account of my research experience as a Chinese male ethnographer with male and female Nepali drug users in Hong Kong within various drug settings. Specifically, the chapter describes how I use various strategies to create multiple gender identities to approach male informants at drug rehabilitation centres and female informants on the streets, and how this flexible gendered performance has helped me to obtain a better understanding of the informants who are also practising multiple gender identities throughout their drug career. The chapter draws a contrast with previous drug studies done by male researchers who have often highlighted the importance of performing a hegemonic masculine identity in their fieldwork. Their approach is similar to transparent reflexivity, which overlooks the complexity and uncertainty of the research process. This chapter highlights the intersectional approach to reflexivity and emphasizes the correlation between the generation of knowledge and the performances of the researcher and researched in a particular social space.