While studying abroad in Hong Kong during the fall 2012 semester, I noticed that students from mainland China and students from Hong Kong didn't really interact much outside of class. I decided to study this for my senior honors thesis. While I was in Hong Kong I did fieldwork, including interviews with students, to try to see how they perceive this issue, and why they think it happens. Once I got back I wrote up my research.
I found that while students always attribute this separation to "language and culture differences", these differences exist more in the minds of the students, and how they construct their identity in opposition to each other than in actual measurable differences. Yet, these perceived differences play an important role in their everyday lives.
Methods
I used qualtitative, ethnographic, and anthropological research methods. I conducted one-on-one and small group informal, unstructured interviews with students from both groups. I began with the same set of questions, but adapted to where the discussion lead. I mostly talked with undergraduate students, but I also included one postgraduate student. I was particularly interested in the perceived "language and cultural differences" that almost every student mentions as the reason for the separation. I also looked at the students' reasons for choosing to attend a university in Hong Kong, to see if that plays any role in their social interactions. I selected interviewees first from people I knew, and then used snowball sampling by finding out who they interact with. This helped me look at the interactions as a network, and see if the people one interacts with has the same ideas as them or not. I also interviewed two administrators at CUHK, both of whom had attended university in Hong Kong as undergraduates, although at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). I conducted these interviews for two main reasons. First, I wanted to get some historical context for education in Hong Kong, and the differences among the universities. Second, I wanted to see if these issues between mainland Chinese and Hong Kong students existed or how significant it was at the time when they were students. Third, as administrators at CUHK, I wanted to see how they see the issue now, and what they are doing to change the situation, and if they deem any action necessary.
Reflexivity
In any anthropological research, it is important to understand the anthropologist as well as those being studied. Where the anthropologist is coming from can influence what they see and the conclusions they draw. Event the identity of the anthropologist can influence what they observe and learn from those they observe and talk with. Therefore, I will include a brief background of myself as related to this research project. I am a fifth year senior in the Sociocultural and Linguistic Anthropology track at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I am a white American man, and I was born and grew up in the Champaign, Illinois area. I am an outsider to both groups I researched, and it was clear to me that students in Hong Kong perceived me as an "other", which I was reminded of many times as I was called a "foreigner", or when people were surprised when I knew something about Hong Kong. I have studied abroad in Asia four times. Freshman year I did a two week program that visited universities in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and meeting students there is what first interested me in Asia. I also did two summer exchanges; one in Taiwan and one at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, in the summers of 2011 and 2010 respectively. Finally, in the fall of 2012, I studied abroad at CUHK again, this time for a full semester. I have been learning Mandarin Chinese on my own ever since my first trip to Taiwan; however I am not comfortable enough to conduct anthropological interviews in Chinese, therefore all my interviews were conducted in English. Although I was somewhat familiar with Hong Kong and its culture before my fall 2012 study abroad, I took an anthropology class on the culture of Hong Kong with Professor Wai-Chi Chee and a class on ethnic groups, ethnic relations, and identities with Professor Paul O'Connor while I was at CUHK, and both of these courses helped me greatly with my research. I am still very interested in Hong Kong and its culture, and I am planning on doing more research on this topic in the future. Being perceived as an outsider had its benefits and negatives. Students from both groups were comfortable in talking with me, because non-ethnic Chinese students are often seen as not being involved in these tensions. They are just "there", and have friends in both the local and mainland Chinese groups. On the other side, since I didn't speak either of their native dialects, they sometimes had trouble finding the best way to express their feelings in English. However, in the end, I believe that being an outsider gave me the best opportunity to talk to students from both groups.
On April 22, 2013, I gave a poster presentation at the Department of Anthropology Senior Capstone Conference.
All seniors working on theses presented at this conference.
My poster can be found in the Supporting Documents section of this page.
My BA honors thesis was my first academic year long project, and I learned a lot about time management and organizing and planning. I was also able to apply many of the skills I learned in my anthropological research methods class, which I had taken the summer before. I used qualitative, ethnographic research methods, and unstructured, informal interviews, which I had originally learned how to do in that course. I also learned a lot about how to write a long academic research paper, and how to make it interesting and entertaining to read, as well as convey all the information I learned. I used charts, maps, and photos, and I separated my paper into logical sections. I also included an appendix with additional quantitative data organized in tables.
Another very useful experience I had while working on my thesis was obtaining Institutional Review Board approval for my project. Because my thesis was going to be published, and it involved interviews with real people, it had to undergo their review. I had to think about all aspects of privacy and safety for the people I interviewed, and how I would store and manage the information I learned from them. This was very useful, as IRB approval is something I will need again in the future if I work on more anthropological or user research projects.