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Contribution short abstract

Through co-constructed autoethnographies, this piece helps two young girls understand difficult, ambiguous experiences across intertwined roles: fieldwork partners, senior-junior peers, women companions, friends, co-strugglers, and open-relationship partners.

Contribution long abstract

The article uses co-constructed autoethnography to reconsider and reconstruct power, ethics, and care between two young Chinese student anthropologists. After two years of multi-phase and participatory group fieldwork in rural communities during their early research period, sharing the hope and responsibility of Chinese youth, they finally are co-authoring for the first time, creating a chance to confront and express painful and silenced experiences. First, the writing process reshapes the power relations between them. Co-constructed autoethnography allows them to speak openly about their fear of visible and invisible competition under demands for speed and novelty, and to change the situation by saying, “Yes, we both have our independent and equal spaces for writing.” Considering self vulnerability and broader context, this approach helps them understand difficult, ambiguous experiences across intertwined roles: fieldwork partners, senior-junior peers, women companions, friends, co-strugglers, and open-relationship partners. They express care in the process to revisit and reconstruct the past by saying, “Yes, you can write whatever you want,” bringing dialogue, healing, and a deepened bond. Moreover, co-constructed autoethnography itself is an ethical practice that asks how to write with care and responsibility. It requires both writers to engage with diverse narratives throughout their relationship and stories. Although co-authoring cannot fully resolve all ethical challenges, it enables them to take responsibility for co-producing knowledge, for the people they love intimately, and for themselves. This writing practice gives them the courage to say, “Yes, the future needs to be written together.”