Hsin-fu Chiu* Co-construction of categorical power relations in kin interaction https://doi.org/10.1515/glochi-2018-0015 Abstract: Drawing upon ethnographic video-recordings of kin interactions in Chinese diaspora communities, I provide qualitative accounts of the parenting style by mothers of Chinese descent, and discuss the effect of their parenting on Chinese-American children’s development. My 72-hour digital data corpus yields evidence that a child, born to an authoritarian mother, assembles actions-in- interaction that not only position the mother high in esteem but also self- position his/her-self keenly alert to the mother’s effective power. In particular, prior to the enjoyment of, or privileged access to, leisure activities, the child will demonstrate his/her deference by initiating interactional rituals to secure par- ental approval; in responding to the mother’s moves of control, the child will display moral accountability by swift alignment with social impositions embedded in the mother’s control. By way of illustration, I argue that ways in which categorical power relations are orchestrated in kin interactions not only mirror mothers’ senses of themselves but also shape children’s construal of their own selves, the ones that are interdependent on other members in the family. Keywords: language and power, ethnography of communication, language socialization, actions in social interaction 1 Introduction When Amy Chua’s (2011) Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother shot to the top of The New York Times bestseller list, her tighter method of parenting stirred up heated debates in the U.S. public forum. While some scholars pit the Chinese way of parenting against the American way (Kim 2013; Nelson et al. 2006; Qin et al. 2009; Wang et al. 2007), others wondered why mothers of Chinese descent tend to be more controlling than their European American counterparts (Chao 1994, 1996; Chao and Aque 2009). A very interesting answer to that question was recently offered, and it is *Corresponding author: Hsin-fu Chiu, Department of Modern Languages and Literature, California State University, Los Angeles, 5151 State University Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA, E-mail: chsinfu2@gmail.com Global Chinese 2018; 4(2): 315–336 Authenticated | chsinfu2@gmail.com author's copy Download Date | 9/30/18 4:29 PM