Negotiating transnational ambivalence: how ageing parents grapple with family separation across time

Ken Chih Yan Sun*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

    12 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This article uses older parents of parachute kids as an example to explore the ways in which the heads of transnational households assess intergenerational intimacy at a later stage of their life trajectories. I argue that transitioning to a later life stage motivates or even demands older parents reorient their perspectives on the separation from their children overseas. Specifically, I offer the concept of transnational ambivalence to analyse the processes whereby older parents grapple with the meaning of being physically separated from their children. This study demonstrates how the interplay between extended family separation and human ageing provokes complex feelings and emotions among parents. In addition, this research chronicles the factors that explain the variation in parental ambivalence. In so doing, this article contributes to the literature on transnational families by illuminating the temporal reflexivity of parents ‘left behind’.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)590-605
    Number of pages16
    JournalIdentities
    Volume24
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 3 Sept 2017

    Scopus Subject Areas

    • Cultural Studies
    • Anthropology
    • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)

    User-Defined Keywords

    • Ageing
    • family
    • generation
    • intimacy
    • time
    • transnationalism

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