The Strangers Next-door: A Case Study of a Chinese Family in Brno

                                             Liu Cheng


There have been abundant researches and studies on migrants in the Czech Republic. Brno, as the
second largest city and the capital of Southern Moravia region, is known for its cultural and
ethnic diversity. Migrants from many countries have been residing in this city since decades ago.
Yet, among the researches, comparably very little is done about Chinese migrants. What the
researchers have found out basically is that the Chinese community is rather not as intact as the
others are. Therefore, in this case study, I would like to focus on one Chinese family that has
been in Brno for almost 20 years, to see how they survive in the host society “alone” without the
help from a close-knit community. Besides the main research question mentioned above, I would also
address other issues, for instance, why they choose to stay a “stranger”; how they view the Czech
society and themselves within, at present and in the future.


I have already conducted the first round of interview with one of the family members and have
collected some basic first-hand empirical data. I am going to analyze the transcript of the
interview in this paper. There may be follow-up interviews in the course of analysis if it is
needed. For the conceptual construction of the paper, I start with George Simmel’s concept of
“stranger” in order to describe the essentially transitive relation between Chinese migrants and
the host society. Marketa Moore’s concept of “cloakroom community” is what I intend to explore and
supplement by my study. My hypothesis is that the Chinese family is part of a transnational network
spreading all over Europe, or central Europe to be more precise. The network is not largely
integrated into any host society, but self-sufficient. It transcends the geographical boundary and
is thus very liquid inside.


I am going to start my paper with a literature review for readers to grasp the over-all situation
of the field. As literature on this specific topic is not well available, I would use also those
that are closely-related to my topic, for example the works of Pal Nyiri and Frank Pieke on the
Chinese communities in Hungary; and to put it into a larger context, the studies of Chinese
communities in the whole Europe and US. After the literature review, there will be an overview of
Brno the city. A general description of the history of immigration in Brno is important for a
better understanding of the case. Second-hand data on the situation of the migrants, such as
policies and regulations, and the changes that have been made to them over the years, would serve
as a background for later analysis. The next part of my paper will be a detailed recollection of
the case, including contents of the interview, introduction of the family, and the direct answers
made by the respondent to the major research questions. The last part is the analysis of the case.
I am going to connect the empirical evidence with the theories to answer to my research question
and hypothesis.