The insider–outsider role of a Chinese researcher doing fieldwork in China: The implications of cultural context

Abstract

The discussion and debates regarding researcher's insider-outsider role in qualitative methodologies is not new in Western academia. But it remains to be ascertained and subjected to sustained analysis within Chinese sociological studies. This article addresses the influence of the relation-oriented nature of Chinese culture on researcher's identity in qualitative methodologies that require reflexivity. Confucianism considers proper human relationships as the basis of society and assumes that man exists in relationship to others. Considering such cultural characteristics, I analyzed the interactions between my interpersonal relationships with the research participants and my professional status in the fieldwork. I also uncovered how I moved from seeing myself as an insider to reconceptualizing the researcher-researched relationship as a dynamic one. This article maintains that a researcher's identity in Chinese context is subject to constant negotiation and re-negotiation through interaction between researcher and research participants as the research process proceeds.

Resilience of an Earthquake-Stricken Rural Community in Southwest China: Correlation with Disaster Risk Reduction Efforts

“…Then the principal researcher together with the social worker met the participants respectively at their convenience regarding time and space and gave each of the participants a hard copy of the survey questionnaire. The principal researcher and the social worker were not present while the survey questionnaire was being completed considering that the relation-oriented nature of Chinese culture might drive the participants to give positive scores to the survey [42]. Instead, the participants were given a week’s time to fill the questionnaire and simultaneously they were asked to call the social worker after finishing the survey.…”

“This Is My Responsibility”: Parental Experience of Former Soviet Union Immigrant Parents in Israel

“…In this study using qualitative methodology seems appropriate, as it can shed light on parents' life experiences and help the reader empathically share them, as well as reveal new data that were not assessed by previous quantitative research ( Roer-Strier & Kurman, 2009). Furthermore, qualitative methodology is claimed to be especially valuable in studies examining culturally embedded issues (Cui, 2015). Using qualitative methodology in this study will allow a deeper understanding of immigrant parents' realities and promote the ability to design prevention and intervention activities for the benefit of immigrant families.…”

Post-disaster Psychosocial Capacity Building for Women in a Chinese Rural Village

“…This study engaged women who were once the service recipients of the psychosocial capacity-building project to take part in the focus group interviews and structured survey on a voluntary basis. Considering the sensitivity and ethical concerns of the discussion of individuals' traumatic disaster experiences, as well as the unique ''relation-oriented'' nature of Chinese culture in social interactions (Cui 2015), the research design prompted the importance of pre-existed relationships between researcher and the research participants. Subsequently, based on the survey results, four of the participants (N 2 = 4) were selected to participate in individual interviews.…”

“…Two researchers who were unfamiliar with the participants collected and analyzed the data. The social worker involved in this psychosocial capacity-building project was also refrained from involving in the research process in order to avoid possible bias and generating socially desirable responses from the participants (Cui 2015).…”