Africans in China: A Sociocultural Study and Its Implications on ...

1.6. Methodological Orientations

In this section, I describe the methods I used for my research on the African presence in China, which is a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research methods on the African presence in China. I carried out empirically based sociolinguistic and urban anthropological surveys within a sociocultural framework in major towns in China with substantial African populations. This kind of survey is highly appropriate for teasing out issues within the growing disciplines of contact linguistics and cross-cultural studies.

These sociolinguistic and urban anthropological studies were conducted over 6 years, from 2005 to 2011. Each major survey was often preceded by preliminary visits during which I ascertained the area of study and identified field locations and significant players in the community. Based on the information I gathered, I developed initial questionnaires. Next, I administered these questionnaires in pilot surveys and compiled the results in reports which allowed me to identify which aspects of the questionnaires needed to be corrected and fine-tuned. In this way, I developed the questionnaires that would be used for the main survey.

The main survey report for each of the locations (which are described in greater detail in the following chapters) was often compiled over 1 or 2 weeks by me and by my African and Chinese research assistants. The surveys typically comprised two parts: questionnaire surveys of different lengths and in-depth interviews of community members, including community leaders and other influential people in the community.

The survey questionnaires were used to identify participants based on their countries of origin; gender; age; sociolinguistic profiles, such as which languages they spoke in different places as well as their communication patterns; and their sociocultural profiles, such as how closely connected they were to their host community. The data were then compiled into detailed statistical reports, which provided valuable information in the form of numbers. Various interviews with community members augmented the findings of the questionnaire survey, and these qualitative