The observation was an interesting process. I think I do a lot of observing subconsciously, so when I sat down to write, it was hard for me to decide what to focus on first. For example, I have spent a lot of time in China watching the customs of people from the corner of my eye and I have spent the same amount of time forming theories about why they do things the way they do. It's a unique experience when you don't know the language because it forces you to focus on cues--what people wear, the expressions on their face, their body language--but after you've watched them for a while, you forget how they struck you on first impression. You forget that you used to think it was strange that that boy is carrying his girlfriend's purse, or that those schoolgirls are holding hands...
So it was really kind of hard to decide what to write down.
One of the comments that you made was that I should have spent a little more time interpreting what I saw. I wondered about that. The thing is, I have a lot of speculations that I could write down about the things I see, but usually if I get off speculating, I miss what is there, or at least I have the potential to miss it. I think as part of this exercise, I was trying to stay present and not evaluate. I think for me those two modes, observing versus interpreting, are very distinct and I would have liked a little more structure in the assignment as to how much of each I should be doing (for example 60% observation; 40% interpretation).
What do you think? Would it have been acceptable for me to fall back on my years of experience observing Chinese people and start with themes--for example: "Chinese people have a collective culture. Let me draw all of the aspects of this scene that illustrate the collective nature of their society..." Would that have been a legitimate approach? I often explain my insights to people who are here visiting or who are new to China. To what extent does my historical observations count as legitimate data in a qualitative study?
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