Constructing play and the relational self: Chinese parents’ narratives of parent-child relationships in early years

The project is a narrative-based investigation of Chinese parents’ experience of play and of the potential for self-discovery when playing with their children. There are two primary research questions: How do parents experience play in their daily interactions? How is the relational self constructed in play-based interactions? Narratives from six parents (Jessica, Rob, Jasmine, Mathew, Olivia, and Jason) are collected via free-association interviews. Gee’s poetic approach is utilised in re-transcribing selected participant core narratives. ‘Cues’ internal to the text, which emerge from how the text is worded, provide the researcher with possibilities for analysis. The process of coherently representing core narratives then allows readers to link parents’ accounts to their own narratives. Data are analysed and discussed in a manner that accords with two theoretical frameworks: social constructionism and Winnicott’s theory of transitional space while Wang Yangming’s philosophical principle of ‘zhi xing he yi' (the unity of knowing and acting) is used as an organising principle throughout. The main research outcomes of the research are as follows. First, how parents experience play in their daily interactions: 1) play emerges in relationships with children; 2) play is constructed as different transitional spaces; 3) play is constructed as emerging in relationships between parents and family; 4) the capacity for play is in relation to emotions and the environment. From a social construction perspective, play is multiple, relational, changeable and dynamic in the current research. Second, how the relational self is constructed in play-based interactions: 1) in relationships with children, parents construct themselves in multiple roles; 2) in the transitional space, parents construct their experience, tending to be here fully; 3) in the transitional space, parents construct their experience in a state of flow; 4) in relationships between parents and family, they construct themselves to explore inner coherence and cooperation with the family; 5) parents’ discourse contains cultural meanings