An easy and useful research topic relating to the challenges celebrities face (in China)?
May 7, 2007 7:02 AM Subscribe
An easy and useful research topic relating to the challenges celebrities face (in China)?
Help me come up with a research topic relating to the challenges celebrities face in China. The hypothesis needs to be specific and the data accessible - I want to be able to use data gathered mostly through either interviews or surveys of common/accessible people.
For example, I would like to do something like "The film industry's working conditions in China are exploitative" or "Chinese theatre performers enjoy a relatively easy life", they are specific, but collecting data would be difficult as I would have to find specific people and go to specific locations and I am unable to do that. Any ideas???
Not sure if this makes a difference but I intend to use the results of this project for my next research project, which would also be about Chinese celebrity and stardom and by then I will be able to do more travelling around. Btw, I live in Hangzhou and my Chinese skills aren't very good.
Help me come up with a research topic relating to the challenges celebrities face in China. The hypothesis needs to be specific and the data accessible - I want to be able to use data gathered mostly through either interviews or surveys of common/accessible people.
For example, I would like to do something like "The film industry's working conditions in China are exploitative" or "Chinese theatre performers enjoy a relatively easy life", they are specific, but collecting data would be difficult as I would have to find specific people and go to specific locations and I am unable to do that. Any ideas???
Not sure if this makes a difference but I intend to use the results of this project for my next research project, which would also be about Chinese celebrity and stardom and by then I will be able to do more travelling around. Btw, I live in Hangzhou and my Chinese skills aren't very good.
Response by poster: Reusing interviews as source material, interesting!
As for the structured focused comparison of celebrities, that would involve reading bios and other texts right? I believe I can't do it since I have to gather my 'own' data as opposed to using secondary data.
posted by gttommy at 7:33 AM on May 7, 2007
As for the structured focused comparison of celebrities, that would involve reading bios and other texts right? I believe I can't do it since I have to gather my 'own' data as opposed to using secondary data.
posted by gttommy at 7:33 AM on May 7, 2007
Well, couldn't you do some sort of analysis of the existing texts? Word frequency, etc., would that count as your 'own' data, or do they expect you to go and interview these people yourself?
posted by signal at 7:38 AM on May 7, 2007
posted by signal at 7:38 AM on May 7, 2007
Response by poster: Well there's a list of methodologies I can choose from. An analysis of texts would probably fall in the "Literature review" category. It would involve more than a referencing more than few texts which would be difficult since I there isn't a big English library nearby, and I don't think relying only on web articles is sufficient.
It could also fall in "Media analysis". I think it would involve reading the Chinese media, but my Chinese is not good. I chose interview or survey because they seem easiest. If will however keep these ideas in mind, in case I can't come up with a topic for interview or survey.
posted by gttommy at 7:56 AM on May 7, 2007
It could also fall in "Media analysis". I think it would involve reading the Chinese media, but my Chinese is not good. I chose interview or survey because they seem easiest. If will however keep these ideas in mind, in case I can't come up with a topic for interview or survey.
posted by gttommy at 7:56 AM on May 7, 2007
who owns their paychecks? i'm not a sinologist, but i suspect that the answer is different for celebs in china than it is for our own freedom-loving celebs. i read somewhere that yao ming needed chinese army permission to go to houston, and i doubt that this permission came gratis.
posted by bruce at 8:23 AM on May 7, 2007
posted by bruce at 8:23 AM on May 7, 2007
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by B-squared at 7:21 AM on May 7, 2007