Fieldwork
Since the late 1980s I have been fortunate to conduct or participate in fieldwork involving three unique Chinese sites, including two remote rural sites in different areas of western/southwest China and one urban institutional setting in Hong Kong. Because fieldwork in China as conducted by foreign scholars presents perceived challenges to the ideologies of local determination in the use of research data and of the security of protected information, my autonomy as a researcher was always at issue in China proper, placing my consultants in the unenviable position of collaborating in research they judged to be significant while needing to protect themselves from censure. Whereas in the Hong Kong legislative setting, once official permission was obtained for me to gain access to legislative sessions and their tape feeds, little interest in my activities was shown by any relevant official.
Despite the contingencies of data collection and unavoidable ensuing delays in processing the data upon my return to everyday life, my experiences in the field shine as some of the most exhilarating of a lifetime. The snapshot (courtesy Deborah Davison) illustrates a chance encounter with staff of the Jianchuan County Guesthouse on a Jianchuan streetcorner in July, 1994. These women cooked tasty meals for us morning, noon and night.
- Jianchuan and Heqing counties, in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan
- Throughout my initial trip to Jianchuan and Heqing, I was accompanied by Li Shaoni, my Bai language consultant, during the spring months of 1989. Subsequently I was able to launch four solo follow-up visits from Hong Kong, in February, 1992; June-July, 1993, July, 1994 and February 1995, to recheck data recorded earlier and explore new areas of research including experimental field analysis of voice quality tokens. To see a map of Yunnan showing the position of Dali, with clickable access to the outlines of Jianchuan, Eryuan and Heqing counties, you can visit the Diamond Bay Research site (a framed site) and go to the "maps" frame, then choose the "Yunnan Province web map interface."
- Aba Qiang-Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan
- In July and August of 1991 I spent six weeks traveling as interpreter with an American team of highland pasture researchers in a remote area of northern Sichuan, part of the Tibetan territory of Amdo. The team effort was to conduct a pilot study for subsequent investigation of pasture use and seasonal rotation by nomadic family groups living in the area. We visited tent-dwelling households north of Dzorgai, and from there southward almost to Hongyuan. To find out more about the eastern Tibet culture area, and Aba in particular, you can visit the Tibet Information Network site and browse the available touring information.
- Hong Kong Legislative Council
- During the final six months of its existence as a semi-representative organ of colonial government (December 1996-June 1997), I observed sessions of the Hong Kong Legislative Council (Legco) from the press room and made recordings from the Chinese (Cantonese) and English tape feeds of routine legislative debate. Among my recorded data are the final debates and farewells delivered by popular legislators during the overnight closing session of June 16, 1997, just prior to Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty and trial governance by a fully appointed "provisional" legislature.
