I am a PhD candidate at the Department of Sociology and I conduct my research under the supervision of Professor Sarah Franklin and Dr Marcin Smietana. My research concentrates on the experiences of in-vitro fertilization (IVF) decision-making in the Chinese context. IVF could be regarded as an index of the intersectional factors in the situated contexts of ambivalent decision-making. Through the lens of IVF negotiation, I aim to explore the perceptions of reproduction, family, kinship, and gender; to examine the relationships between traditional and modern values and further delineate the individualization process in the domain of reproduction; and to unpack the impact of the population policy on reproductive understandings and behaviour. The goal of my study is to use the reasoning and conversations around this complicated IVF choice as a lens to understand the reconfiguration of ‘modern families’ – and indeed modernity -- in China.
