Romancing resistance and resisting romance - Ethnography and the construction of power in the Filipina domestic worker community in Hong Kong

Ethnographic writing in sociology and anthropology emphasizes everyday strategies of resistance among disempowered individuals over their submission in relations of power. Rather than asking whether disempowered individuals resist or submit to their situation, this article examines how tales of resistance and submission get written. Both authors studied a community of migrant Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong. Yet, each came up with a contradictory tale: one of empowerment, and one of submission. Reflecting on the interactions that each author encountered in the field, this article argues that resistance and control do not exist outside the power relationships that ethnographers establish with their informants.