What I have learnt over the Summer

My professors told me that the only way to learn Ethnography is to try it out. I guess that's what I have done over this summer. I still don't know exactly how to define what ethnography is, but at least I have for the first time designed my own research project and carried that out. Research is not as scary as it seemed to be anymore, but at the same time I realized there are a lot more small details and ethical issues that I have previously overlooked. I still have a long way to go in my project. It is time to analyse the data and to do the write up. I don't know how well I have done in my fieldwork, but at least, I enjoyed the experience. Now I am confident enough to say that I really want to continue my study in anthropology.
In a classroom setting, I used to think a lot about the theoretical aspects of anthropology: Is it useful? Is it a real science? what is the point of doing anthropology? I went into my ethnographic experience with these questions in mind, and came out with the same questions. The difference is, they no longer matter as much as before. Over the summer, I did something that gave me a great sense of satisfaction, and hopefully at the same time something that is contributive to the community. That, in itself, makes anthropology an academic discipline that worths pursuing.

About my 3 weeks in Hong Kong...

Unfortunately things have not got any better. I enjoy seeing my family and my friends again, but in terms of fieldwork I am not too satisfied with my progress. I still don't have much success in eliciting participants. Even if I get people to talk to me, they are all short conversations, and people are so alienated about having the interview taped. I did manage to get quite a lot of interesting observations in the cafes, but I keep worrying about whether my fieldnotes would be sufficient to yield cultural insights. I hope to move beyond the superficial, but now I doubt if I have sufficient data to convincingly theoretize my findings.
Perhaps my fieldwork in Chicago was too smooth to be realistic. I was lucky enough to be in a welcoming community where I found little difficulty getting to know people. I am grateful to have undergone this second part of my fieldwork - at least it shows me that things do not always work the way I want them to. Flexibility remains one of the keys to ethnographic study.
So instead of interviewing people, I put extra attention into observing people's interactions and writing detailed fieldnotes. I also spent time browsing through newspaper, magazines and books to get a sense of how Chinese cafes are represented in popular literature. As an alternative to interviewing cafe customers, I contacted writer, university professor and politician to talk about their work as related to Chinese cafes. This is not exactly the kind of data that I was planning on getting, but I hope that this could enable me to gain some insight into the issue.
Another lesson from the experience: I am never going to do fieldwork in Hong Kong again.

The Native Anthropologist

I miss Chicago the most when I do my reserach in Hong Kong. My thesis is intended to be a comparison of cafe culture in Hong Kong and Chicago Chinatown. So my 3 weeks of "vacation" in Hong Kong are not exactly break time. I need to replicate my reserach methods in 2 cafes in Hong Kong. I think after the training this summer, I am more confident (and hopefully more skillful too) in conducting fieldwork. Surprisingly, this is not at all easier than Chicago, and I don't think my data yield information as interesting as those I got in the first part of my summer.
I am a bit discouraged - it is not as fun as my adventure in Chicago, at least not in the beginning. After 5 weeks of mingling with the crowd in Chicago, I feel totally comfortable in the cafes there. People know what I am doing, and they are happy to talk to me since they start to take me as an innocuous being after all this time. I am starting it all over again here in Hong Kong. I got turned down by a number of cafe owners, saying that my fieldwork could be in the way of their business. Even after I gain access to my field sites, things are not running as smooth as I hope. Hong Kong is a fast-paced city to start with. People here don't have the time nor the patience to talk to a random student in cafes. Although the supervisors of the cafes approve of my study, they don't seem to be particularly incline to the idea of having me eating my noodles for 2 hours everyday - particularly not over weekends. In Chicago I dealt with 2 streets, about 30 restaurants and a Chinese population of less than 10,000. Here I am in a 7-million-people-city with thousands of restuarants around. People seldom go back to the same restaurant everyday, which means that there is no way that I can befriend the customers in the cafes.
Here in Hong Kong I no longer stand out - I am no longer the only girl in an all-male cafe. I am no longer one of the few 20-year-olds who speak both Chinese and English. I am no longer the customers' conection to the long-forsaken motherland. Why should people be interested in talking to me? I finally understand what my professors always tell me about it is not easy being a native anthropologist. In Chicago it is ok to ask people who a cafe means. Here I don't even have the courage to ask "dumb" questions because people would simply think that I am just joking around. I always have to be cautious about not adulterating my "common sense" as a Hong Kongese in my data. It is a wierd feeling - I am in a place where I have spent 18 years of my life. And yet it feels so alienated. I should know how things work here, but in fact I cannot make any progress in getting the information I need. I find it impossible to distant myself during observations and interviews. I am not only an anthropologist here. I am also a native. I am studying myself - is that ever possible?

Friends that I left behind

I am back in Hong Kong. After 8 weeks of Chicago, I somehow find it hard to get used to home again. There are more to adjust than the time difference. My time in Chicago has been so amazing. I enjoy the city, I enjoy my volunteer work, I enjoy my fieldwork. I am still amazed by how such strong bonds of friendship could be made with people who are so different from me in less than 2 months' time. They are the ones who so genorously share what they know with me. They are the ones who welcome me to their lives, which I am more than grateful about. They are the ones who help me through my very first ethnographic project, and give me the confidence that it is something that I, too, can accomplish. I still think about the cafes and the people. Perhaps I don't miss them as much as I thought I do. What truly throws me off is the apprehension that I don't know whether I am going to see these people again. That was my first time being in Chicago, and who knows when I will go there again. Somehow I feel indebt to their hospitality - having finished my research and simply went away. I don't want our friendship to terminate with the end of my research.

A brief report of debriefing

Finally. August 10, we got together for one last time in this little place in Evanston for the final debriefing and presentation section. I was nervous. I am never good at presentations. It is such a difficult job to distill 2 months of findings into 5 pages of executive summary and 20 minutes of presentation. 2 months past by so swiftly. And yet, it was not until this moment that I realize how much we have achieved, and how much work is yet to be done.
They were here, those who gave me so much support over the summer, those who care about the project as much as I do. I am entrusted with their cultural knowledge. I hope that I did not disappoint them.
I will write more later. But now, it is break time. It is time to enjoy home.

Fieldnotes and Diary

I know write-ups are important. I know field notes should be written as soon as observations or interviews are done. Into the 6th week of my reserach, I can't help feeling wary about field notes. Information overloaded I guess. I start to hate jotting down every single details everyday, and spend an hour or two typing up my observations. I feel as if I am a big bottle that keeps emptying myself every night only to be filled with new content. Worse still, I feel the bottle is about to burst. Never in my life have I hated writing diary so much. I used to enjoy recording my new learning experience everyday. But now I find that recollection could be tedious too - when it has turned into an assignment to be accomplished everyday.
I have been keeping up pretty well with field notes and diaries for 2 weeks. But this week, I finally feel that I need a break from it. There are times that I just want to be part of the experience, instead of standing aside jotting notes for the recollection of the experience a few hours later.

Undercover

"When someone is doing something else but glances casually at you from time to time, he is a cop."
A quote from Infernal Affairs, one of my favourite movies. This quote popped up in my mind yesterady when I was sitting in the Cafe. Hey, is that what I have been doing? Mingling with the breakfast crowd while busy noting down my observations?
I don't know how people feel about me looking at them and writing things down all the time when I am in the Cafe. I start to feel comfortable with it. Every morning when I set myself down in the Cafe, the first thing I do is to take out my pen and notebook. Some people get curious, but I never get shouted at for writing notes in the Cafe.
I remember I was skeptical in the beginning. I was worried about how people would see me if I jot notes during conversations. Now I come to accept it as my assignment here. I am still observing. I am still staying slightly away from what the others are doing. But at least, there is no pretension. Only cops go undercover. For me, I am perfectly happy presenting myself the way I am.