June 30th    Chicago-China   9pm      

Rany’s daily routine

         

 Observations                                                        Personal Reflections

I interviewed Rany at 12pm (Beijing time) about what she has done today, since her parents have slept she preferred to talk with me by wechat message rather than online video call. Due to this, visual data such as facial expression and gestures are not available, and I can only get textual data and her voice data.

 

 

  
She got up on 8am today. Usually she gets up on 6am, but she stayed up too late as to finish her study work last night, which will due the next Tuesday.

 

 Ranny just became a graduate student recently and she is now a research assistant of a professor. She concerns a lot on assignments her professor gave her. She mentioned a lot before, and she says she likes her professor.

 
Just after her waking up, she had a cup of warm honey water, which she stated that it’s helpful to detoxify and clean the digest system. She prepared a boiled egg and a tomato as her breakfast.

 

 Rany has been suffering from intestinal problems since I knew her. But she didn’t care before. I guess recently, due to she eagers to lose weight, she also began to care every aspect of her diet and health.

 
After having her breakfast, she went to brush her teeth, and tidy the .

 

 Went out for a walk and refresh. But food and plan for food is again a theme and within her concern.

 
About 11am, she went out to a baking store, called Haolila (a popular store). She bought a red bean bread, as a breakfast for tomorrow morning.

 

 Again, her daily routine is around food.

And she loves going to popular store. She knows well which store and which product is delicious.  Her ordering seems well balanced.

 
She and her mum went to haidilao (a popular hotpot chain-store) to have their lunch. She ordered beef, veggies and noodles. It’s the second time that she had hotpot this week (after I asked)

 

 Does shopping is the main activity she and and her family do together? Her idea of entertaining might relate to how her parents entertain themselves.  Habit of entertaining, and ways of entertaining.

Consuming culture in china.

 
After lunch, In the afternoon, they went to a shopping mall. They’ve bought some tissues and other staff for the family usage. She also got a new dress. Around 6pm, they went back to home. She had a bad relationship with her dad for a long time.

 
When I asked why her dad didn’t come with them, she said, he went to the health examination. She didn’t mention it earlier.  
After she arrived at home, she began to do yoga.

 

 Doing yoga, another indicator of her concern and anxiety of her body and weight. Her activity seems built around “having food  — doing exercise – having food”

 
 

Around 8 pm, she has already brushed her teeth. She didn’t plan to have dinner as to lose weight.

 

 

 She uses strategy to prevent her having food. A knowledge based self-discipline. Time, quantity and techniques.

 
After she going to the bed, she played video game on Switch and on Weibo (Chinese facebook) for a while.

 

  
About 10pm, she prepared to have a rests and went to sleep.

 

 Very early compared to average youth. For my experience.

 
After we finished talking about her daily activities, I asked her how she felt when doing each activity. She said she felt restless when tiding her room in the morning, she doesn’t like housework and arrange things.  She felt very happy to eat hotpot and shopping. And she felt tired when coming back home in the afternoon.

 

 Routine work: Self management: cleaning, tidy, perfect.

 
I asked whether tidying the room is her mum’s requirement, She said it’s her own thought. “it’s too messy, and I cannot leave it to be untidied”

 

  
She didn’t think she should clean her room everyday but once a week. Today she thinks her clothes are in a mess.

 

  
When Browsing weibo, she didn’t feel any special emotion. “it’s mechanical, I’ve built up a habit to on weibo for a while” (before going to sleep, added by me). I asked which post she feels most impressive today. She found the review of the TV show Cat’s Cradle or bad kids was the most impressive one. （ the show is very popular and highly praised recently in china, a Mystery/Suspense drama） Rany has Self consciousness that she didn’t get much happiness in browsing social media, but it’s a habit, already.

 

She is sensitive and have access to information of what and which is the trend now. Video games, restaurant, tv shows.

 
  However, she feels happy when playing the video game, she loves playing “animal crossing” recently. When I asked which  part she finds most attractive of this game, she says she love fishing in this game, and she can use fish to exchange for money.

 

 

 

 She likes life simulation video game. Gain reality and productivity in the video game.

 

 

Summary 1

Background info:

(1) I’ve known Rany for 4 years. She’s one of the best college friend of mine. We are very close.  So I know her parents and some family relationship. Also I know her habits and her concerns, such as she worries a lot on her body and weight, and she loves food.

(2) Rany just finished a very pressed graduate enrolment test. She was very depressed and under great pressure for a whole year as to prepare this very important test for her. She finally got enrolled in her ideal school, but she says her health and mind have worn away. She gained a lot of weight in the last one year and it’s one of the main task for her now to lose her weight. Beside, Rany has cared her body shape since many years ago and she is a fan of many quick methods to lose weight. She is now an assistant research professor, before the September’s college new term, her professor has assigned her some works to do.

(3) Rany lived with her parents, but she didn’t like to live with them. She says it’s not free. She wants to hangout with her friends, or travelling, but all her good friends are not in the same city of her or are busy.  Since she didn’t like socialize with new people, she can only stay with her parents, (especially her mum) or staying in her room.

Summary 2

This field-note records Rany’s daily routine on June 30th 2020.

(1) On this day, Rany’s life seems to develope around three themes: food, shopping and exercising. Diet managing, preparing for food, entertaining, and health are concerned most by Rany.

(2) She cares the tidyness of her room, and she hope to arrange her time schedule in a healthy way – getting up early and going to bed early.  She calculates and plan for her food carefully. And her goals is healthy and losing weight.

(3) I also find Chasing the trend (food, game, social media posts) is also a feature of her daily routine. The stores she went are all popular chain-store (bread and hotpot). The video game she plays.

(4) She recently loves playing life simulation video game, especially fishing in the game.

(5) She also builds a habit to on social media for a while , though she feels not so satisfying browsing social media. She says having hot-pot and shopping is the happiest moment of her day.

(6) Through this fieldnote, I notice she didn’t have a good relationship with her father.

(7) Me and Jonah both interested why she love life simulation video game and fishing especially. And how her relationship with her parents shape Rany’s daily life.

(8) Besides, Rany’s self discipline on diet, time schedule, is another interesting part that can be focused and digged more for further inquiring and observation.  Joanh pointed out that it is interesting that while Rany seems to be in control of her eating, exercise, work, sleep, etc, she seemingly controls less on her time and habit in the social media.

(9) Data improvement:  screen shots; pictures of Rany’s room, or the hot pot restaurant, or the mall, etc.  Because of the quantity of tasks it is difficult to imagine any single one of them; direct quote

(10) Background info, relation with Rany

 

Challenge:

  1. Unique details of each activity are not available

(1) Without video call, only participant’ s own textual statement are available. Data such as facial expression, and body gestures are not available.

(2) Details of each activity

(3) But zoom-out is also a phrase of ethnography. To gain a broader picture of participant life. We can zoom in later, when we know a participant after a period time.

 

  1. Challenge of virtual ethnography: by the mediation of camera, chat-box, etc… observers cannot with participant well with everything happening.

 

Disrupt natural processes

 

Extra Data

Comments (Reed and Jonah)

  1. Are the notes readable? Are the pages numbered and dated?

Reed: The notes format is a bit messy. Jonah’s format is better.

 

  1. What background material does someone need to understand the purpose and significance of this day-to-day task.

Jonah: Since the task was the subject’s daily routine, I wish we knew a bit more about her in order to understand how and why she does all of the different tasks.  On the theme of food, when did she change her mindset about her weight, and why?  On the theme of family, what does she think of living with her parents, and how does that affect her routine?  I think all of the individual tasks make sense, I just wish I had a better picture of the person.  However, this is difficult to achieve in a simple interview, and I am not sure if that is even necessary given what the assignment is asking.

Included that I know Rany before to make my  interpretations accountable.

– I’ve known Rany for 4 years. She’s one of the best college friend of mine. We are very close.  So I know her parents and some family relationship. Also I know her habits and her concerns, such as she worries a lot on her body and weight, and she loves food.

  1. Does the researcher include information about her subjective feelings as she observes?

Jonah: I do wish there was more subjective input by the researcher.  At some points I inferred the researcher’s own thoughts – for example, there seemed to be concern over how much the subject stresses – but I do not know if that is actually true.  More explicitly laid out thoughts would be helpful.

  1. What other details should she include so that another person could see, hear, and become immersed in the undertaking of this task from the perspective of the person doing it?

Jonah: Although this is difficult given the interview was after the day, I wish that there were some pictures given in order to help us picture the world of the subject.  For example, pictures of her room, or the hot pot restaurant, or the mall, etc.  Because of the quantity of tasks it is difficult to imagine any single one of them.

 

  1. What details are most interesting? What would you like the researcher to write more about?

Jonah: I am particularly interested in the subject’s relationship with their parents, given it structures their day.  Why is their relationship good with their mom but not their dad?  I am also interested in what makes them happy.  Why was hot pot and shopping so much fun?  Was it the actions themselves, or because she was with her mom?  Why does she enjoy Animal Crossing, and why does she go on Weibo?

 

  1. What other data do you need to confirm some of the researcher’s initial observations about this task?

Jonah: Screenshots of the messages may be helpful, since no quotes are given.  A lot of the initial observations are more deep-seeded, such as her relationship with her parents and her issues with her weight and stress, which are difficult to look at with some simple data.  I do wonder what the subject said regarding these themes though, so quotes may be especially helpful with these themes to better understand the perspective.