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Anthropology Questionnaire
Lisa-Jane Harding13 1/F Ko Long Village
The Department of AnthropologyYSW
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Sha Tin
New Territories
Background
I am currently doing anthropological research in Yung Shue Wan that aims to capture some of the social and cultural dimensions of life here in this unique transnational community. Some of you will know me personally already, I’ve lived here on Lamma for 2 years, and after a recent stint living in Ka Nam Village, in no less than an enchanting little orange house, formerly know as The Wisdom Heart Centre – with Autumn and Barry, we have relocated back into the heart (the ghetto!) of Yung Shue Wan again (good and bad points to that no doubt!). I would love for as many of you as possible to get involved in what I am doing, and this can be done in a couple of ways – firstly by just filling in the questions below: if you feel compelled, delete the questions and just write a brief low-down of your experiences, if that makes more sense to you. Ultimately, my main aim is to talk to you on a personal level as much as possible in the next four months about how it’s all happening here on Lamma, this is about “ethnicity” – how we all make sense of our lives here and how we all relate to one another in this unique environment. I am exclusively Lamma-bound for the next four months, and will be talking it out in informal interviews with friends, groups & individuals – the more input the better.
THIS FORM IS ALSO AVAILABLE IN CHINESE
Name:Address:
Know as:Contact Number
What nationality are you, and how do you maintain links with your country of origin?
Tell me about your cultural identity, what makes you who you are?
How did you end up living on Lamma Island, (consider how you first found out about it, and what other reasons encouraged you to make the move here? This bit is ‘Your Story’!)
Did you already know somebody on Lamma Island before you came here to live, and has anybody you know moved here as a direct result of you being here?
How would you describe the culture of Lamma Island?
Have you witnessed many changes on Lamma Island since you have been here? (Environmental, types of people moving here…etc)
Are there any particular hardships you face (being a foreigner/or local Chinese) on Lamma?
Would you describe Lamma as a community, if so why?
How often do you leave Lamma, i.e. for daily work/overseas business/holidays etc?
How would you describe the relationships between people of different nationalities on Lamma?
What do you know about the history of Westerners on Lamma?
What connections (if any) to any other part of the world do you currently have, besides relatives/friends?
What places do you avoid socially on Lamma, and what types of social events are you most likely to go to, explain?
What conflicts do you see within the Western community, South/S.E.Asian community, within the Chinese community, and in general between all groups? (just focus on one area here if you prefer)
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Thanks for taking part: Anthropology is the study of cultures. People around the world create different social, political, economic, and religious systems in different environments. Anthropologists aim to research the similarities and diversity of such processes from the unique shared perspective of actually living as part of the larger community. Many people think of anthropology as the study of "ancient traditions" and "exotic tribes", this is a misunderstanding. Most anthropologists today study phenomena belonging to modern societies, such as the USA and Japan, and in many cases, how these leaders of globalisation have impacted on the rest of the world.
I am interested in the cultural intersection between the ‘local’ and the ‘global’, and the impact global processes continue to have on indigenous communities. I am also interested in Majority ethnicities and the deconstruction of “whiteness” in order to explore how movements of people: Cosmopolitans, forced migrants and domestic labour migrants re-create their ethnicities in the face of unequal access to resources and ascribed sets of restrictions by their host communities.
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