Reflection on First-round interviews

My research in Taiwan began within a few days after my arrival in Taiwan. My grandmother (Ah-ma in Taiwanese hoklo) took me to visit her classmates, relatives, and former neighbors in the Taipei area. Being the nice and enthusiastic person she always is, she wanted to make sure that she introduced me or "confirmed my relationship with her" before her return to the U.S. For three days straight, the almost-eighty-two-year-old A-ma took train and bus with me from morning to evening, traveling around the Taipei area. We visited her older sister, 96-year-old great-grandaunt, sister-in-law, former neighbors, and classmate.

The great part about traveling with her was that she reaffirmed or introduced my relationship to her. This enabled the interviewees to accept my presence. Ah-ma also persuaded everyone that "it was okay" to let me interview them and record the interview, and to allow me to use/cite the interview for my dissertation. Interviewees were more open and more at ease because Ah-ma was there with me. I also noticed that interviewees told me more stories and details as part of their conversation with Ah-ma. They often did not pay attention to me. Instead, it was a conversation that I listened to.

This "conversation-like" interview was also the less-good part about traveling with Ah-ma. In trying to be helpful, Ah-ma often repeated certain explanations that the interviewee had already provided. Sometimes Ah-ma explained terms that I already knew (according to her assumption of my level of Taiwanese hoklo). These "commentaries" made my recordings unusable for archival storage. There were also many off-topic "conversations" that made my interviews choppy.

On the second day of the interviews, I thought about setting some ground rules with Ah-ma. But I felt bad because we had conducted interviews a certain way, and I did not want to make her feel that I was ungrateful. She was also using the opportunity to visit people she had not seen in nearly 20 years.

The only interview without Ah-ma's presence was at my cousin's wedding. It was a remarkable interview because the interviewee, the grandmother of my cousin's bride, remembered a lot from her educational experiences, and was using mostly Japanese with me. The unfortunate part was that the wedding music, conversation, and other sounds overwhelmed the recording, and her voice was barely audible. I did not obtain her contact information because I plan to ask my aunt to connect me with this grandmother.

Nevertheless, these are great "pre-interviews." I have a general idea as to who the great interviewees were, and who were best suitable for which topics if I were to conduct follow-up interviews. I have established contact with these people, and obtained their contact information. I need to obtain textual and image documents before I conduct more interviews. I can interview more people by asking my relatives and friends to introduce me to their grandparents and friends.