ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I highlight details of several incidents bearing on ethnographic rapport from my research with marriage migrants (“foreign brides”) in Taiwan. I argue that facilitating ethnographic space for the marginalized researched subjects to feel confident to “talk back” is essential for creating equitable field relations. The incidents will illustrate that the moments of “conflicts,” or when I decided to “confront” my participants instead of merely establishing rapport with them, as most ethnographers are instructed to do, mark the tilting of the power relationship toward balance and symmetry. Of course, by leaning into disagreements and confrontations, I risked damaging my rapport, potentially leading to the collapse of the marriage migrants’ organization that I had helped create through my praxis-oriented research. I will describe my self-reflection during these conflicting moments, why I decided to become confrontational, and the consequences of the confrontations.
