Research Method

Abstract

This study is mainly based on participant observation and informant interviewing at a state-owned enterprise in the city of Guangzhou in the province of Guangdong in China, over a period of four months between September and December 1994. During this time, I paid several visits to the enterprise, lived in its vicinity and observed it at close range.¹ My role was that of a researcher from Hong Kong interested in how the enterprise ran its occupational welfare. It was in this capacity that I gained access to different kinds of information and conducted informant interviews with the help of two sets of ‘guides’ constructed before I entered the field, a ‘Fieldwork Checklist’ (Appendix I), which helped me identify relevant information while talking to people and asking for materials, and an ‘Interviewing Schedule’ (Appendix II), which structured my interviews with informants. Interviews ranged from formal meetings to informal conversations. I taped most of these and made notes of the rest. Altogether 28 informants were interviewed. Among them were senior cadres, managers, professionals, technicians and workers (Appendix III). ²