Si-nais talking dirty : Hong Kong middle class working mothers on- and offline

Based on participant observation and content analysis of a web-based community of Hong Kong middle-class working mothers, I discuss narratives of ‘si-naihood’ (married motherhood), which have emerged from their online and offline interactions. This web-based space-time provided an unusual window into the multiplicities of motherhood articulation. The study found that although traditional motherhood narratives predominated, alternative narratives, which have emerged through ‘talking-dirty’, banter and teasing throw light on how sexual selves and si-naihood are articulated. While more or less routinely and consciously reproducing traditionally defined ‘si-naihood’, their performance occasionally ‘let slip’ and revealed the arduous yet fragile nature of this identity. Issues emerging from my role as ‘accidental researcher’ as well as the socio-cultural trajectory of the identity of si-nai in 21st-century Hong Kong are also discussed.