What does it mean to do fieldwork on Global China? This issue explores the methodological, ethical, and political challenges researchers face when studying China’s global presence from the ground up. From African mining towns to Southeast Asian scam compounds and digital platforms, contributors reflect on the emotional, moral, and geopolitical complexities of fieldwork. Rather than offering tidy solutions, they foreground doubt, negotiation, and reflexivity as essential to producing knowledge in contested and often marginalised sites.