Abstract
This chapter introduces the research setting and reflects upon the research process and the fluid power relations between the researcher and the researched.
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Notes
- 1.
To protect confidentiality, both names of ‘Lianhe’ and ‘Hanshui’ are made up names.
- 2.
‘Team’ (dui) is the lowest and most basic social structure of rural society.
- 3.
Mu, a unit of area, a mu approximately equals 666.67 m2.
- 4.
QQ and WeChat are most popular instant messaging services in China.
- 5.
For more details, see their reaction to my questions about this period in Chap. 4.
- 6.
Only the youngest generation in the village could pick up Mandarin easily due to school education, the effect of TV and experiences of working outside Hanshui. There was a girl from that generation who asked me if she needed to speak Mandarin. I said ‘it is up to you.’ In the end, she chose local dialect. The mid-aged generation could speak some Mandarin, but it seemed a tough job for them. The oldest generation could understand (also due to the effects of TV) but could not speak Mandarin at all.
- 7.
Despite difference, all of them did not manage to get many years of education. Quite a few of them said at the beginning of the interview that they were afraid they would not have a good conversation with me because of their little education, or questioned the usefulness of their stories for me.
- 8.
‘Speaking bitterness’ was a strategy used by the CCP to establish socialist revolutionary culture and to narrate the history of the nation. It took place when peasants recounted their exploitation and denounced individuals identified as ‘class enemies’ in public struggle sessions. These testimonials were used as models for reworking consciousness in order to revolutionize the population.
- 9.
I did use some techniques to ask sensitive questions later, for example, questions about their annual income. I had never asked about their income directly. I normally estimated their annual income first based on their income sources, then used their non-farming occupation or the furniture they had as a way to introduce conversations about their income. I always told them my estimation first which was actually higher than my real estimation, and then they would correct me at once, stressing they could not earn that amount, and then told me the real number. These ‘techniques’ seemed really effective, but I felt terribly sorry later as I thought I was not being up front with them. In this sense, I was exploiting them for the information I wanted, which was not how I wanted to see in my relationship with them. Janet Finch also had the similar feelings when she used these so-called ‘techniques’ (1993: 174).
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Huang, Y. (2020). Insider or Outsider, Both or Neither: Researching Three Generations of Rural Chinese Women’s Lives. In: Transforming the Gendered Organisation of Labour and Leisure. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6438-3_2
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