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Lost and Found in the Field: Methodology and the Research Process

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Everyday Gender at Work in Taiwan

Part of the book series: Gender, Sexualities and Culture in Asia ((GSCA))

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Abstract

Chapter provides a reflexive examination of the research design, as well as the research process employed during this study. The envisaged relationship between the researcher and the participants from a feminist perspective served as the starting point for my ethical concerns and therefore shaped the research structure and findings. The highly diverse and interactive nature of the interviews with participants is also discussed. The multilingual and international nature of this study also raises meaningful questions regarding data preparation. These factors therefore demand a discussion about the complexity of the research process as well as the methodological decisions I took in order to adapt that to complexity.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This passage is quoted from the original research proposal of this study.

  2. 2.

    All the names of the participants are pseudonyms transliterated using the Wade–Giles system. The process of deciding which transliteration system to use will be explained in detail later in this chapter. This is a quote from the interview with participant Chih-Lu.

  3. 3.

    Standard Mandarin in Taiwan has a female pronoun for the second person singular. In Chih-Lu’s original wording, she used this female pronoun to address the recipients.

  4. 4.

    Further discussion will be presented in later parts of this chapter.

  5. 5.

    The relationship status shown here is more about marital status. In the interviews, I only asked about my participants’ marital status as one of the standard questions. I did not ask whether they had a current partner or were in a romantic relationship, although some of them did reveal this information during the interviews.

  6. 6.

    This is a quote from my interview with participant Hsi-Shu.

  7. 7.

    This is a quote from my interview with participant Lu-Fan.

  8. 8.

    This is a quote from the interview with participant Hsiang-Yun.

  9. 9.

    This quote is from the feedback from participant Ya-Hsin. Her feedback was sent via email. I have acquired her permission to include the quote as research data.

  10. 10.

    Taiwan is a multiethnic and multilingual society with a complicated history of colonisation and immigration. With this specific background, Mandarin romanisation is scarcely the only linguistic issue that has significant political implications in Taiwan. There are currently other heated debates over various linguistic issues, for instance, the national policy on language education , the standardisation of writing of other vernaculars such as Taiyu and Hakka, preserving the endangered aboriginal languages and restoring Austronesian names for indigenous Taiwanese (see Hsiao 1990; Hsiau 1997; Klöter 2004).

  11. 11.

    Generally speaking, most Taiwanese people are not familiar with Mandarin romanisation. Romanised schemes have not been included in the national education curriculum. Mandarin romanisation is not a commonly written script. Prior to the unified policy discussion, the Wade–Giles system , the Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II, Postal schemes, the English K.K. phonetic symbols were all available schemes and could be adopted as romanisation systems. These multiple schemes therefore resulted in a ‘chaotic situation’ (Chiung 2001: 27).

  12. 12.

    Han [漢] refers to ‘the Han ethnicity’. Yu [語] means ‘language’. Hanyu literally means the language of the Han ethnic group. Pinyin [拼音] means ‘phonetic transcription’.

  13. 13.

    The literal meaning of Tongyong [通用] is ‘in common use’.

  14. 14.

    This is an informal colloquial expression. It could be understood as ‘it sucks’ in English.

  15. 15.

    This conversation is quoted from my interview with participant Han-Ting.

  16. 16.

    This is a quote from the feedback I received from participant Yu-Tai. It was sent as a private message via a social networking platform. I have acquired permission from this participant to include it as research data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of York, York, UK

    Ting-Fang Chin

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  1. Ting-Fang Chin
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Chin, TF. (2018). Lost and Found in the Field: Methodology and the Research Process. In: Everyday Gender at Work in Taiwan. Gender, Sexualities and Culture in Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7365-6_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-7365-6_2

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-10-7364-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-10-7365-6

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