From self-reflection to facial recognition data: Forty years of ethnographic research in the People’s Republic of China

Based on the experiences and insights gained over forty years of ethnographic research conducted in the People’s Republic of China, in this article, Sabine Trebinjac reflects on the conditions under which she collected and shared her data, and on her steadfast efforts to protect those she interviewed. Operating in a shifting and unpredictable political context, it was crucial to develop strategies to ensure the current and ongoing protection of the ethnographic data generated by her anthropological research. The experience of seeing how earlier data had been used by the Chinese authorities served as a stark reminder of the responsibilities she shouldered as an ethnographer, sometimes better informed than her interviewees, and of the possible dangers involved in making her research data available.