Using Narrative Interviews with Photo-elicitation to Explore Family Negotiations between Chinese LGB People and their Parents after Sexual Identity Disclosure

This article explores how the use of narrative interviews with photo-elicitation can deepen sensemaking in studies of family relations and sexuality. Specifically, the study combines narrative interviews with a participatory photo-elicitation method to examine how Chinese parents and their adult lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) children negotiate family ties after the adult child’s sexual identity disclosure. During in-depth narrative interviews with 20 families in Hong Kong, the visual method allowed participants to anchor narratives within the socio-cultural and historical context and visually depict turning points, tensions, and evolving ties. Rather than treating these visual artefacts as transparent windows into authentic realities, they are analyzed as cultural constructions produced in dialogue with lived experiences, social norms, and expectations regarding gender, sexuality, and family. The photo-elicitation method, through which participants shared photos that represented their family before and after coming out, conveyed participants’ family imaginaries (i.e., how they think and feel about ‘family’, such as unmet or reconciled familial expectations) and practices of intimacy (such as care, emotional support, or managing tensions). This visual approach foregrounds locally grounded knowledge and agency of people who have experienced challenging journeys, engaging participants as co-creators of meaning and knowledge.