I am happy to help one reader to conduct his online survey about cross-cultural values. It seems interesting topic to me. Here is the letter.
Hello Jian Shuo,
I am a doctoral student doing cross-cultural values research and am in urgent need of help to complete my dissertation research. I have encountered a serious problem obtaining enough participants in China and am hoping that you may be able to help me. I found out a short time ago that copies of my survey were not distributed weeks ago in China as planned. Only a small amount of the data I had expected to receive by now has arrived.
I have now created an on-line version in (simplified) Chinese that could be distributed and collected quickly (on-line survey link):
http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB226D77RPTBB
My urgent request is that if possible, please forward the link below to friends, relatives, and colleagues in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. I would greatly appreciate it.
At this point, I am hoping to get about 30 additional respondents (more is better). The only mandatory requirement for a respondent is that they be at least 18 years old. I will be collecting responses for a few more days and will start analyzing responses as soon as I get enough.
Please let each person know that no personal information (like name, address or phone) will be collected, only the data they chose to enter.
It is okay if the participant does not want to answer some of the background questions, but it is very important for them to provide answers for age, travel, internet usage, and all of the 57 value items.
I realize that some of the standard web survey commands are in English, and it is important to ask all respondents to click on the purple arrow at the bottom of each web page marked “start survey” and “submit.” This needs to be done to have the responses recorded.
Thank you in advance for any assistance that you might be able to provide.
Regards,
Matthew Knight
Obviously Matthew doesn’t understand the cultural issue…
Chinese usually prefer not to do surveys (especially to strangers) because they prefer to keep their opinions to themselves. Voicing your opinion publicly means you could be thrown into a labor camp! I know what you all are thinking… it doesn’t happen anymore! Mmm…. read some international news.
If you want to a survey in China, you’ll need to go through friends and family that are local and get introduced. Guarantee that they remain anonymous, and you might have a chance. The problem with this method is that your sample population may be skewed due to the fact that the people you survey, know you already, and may not be interested in giving you an honest opinion (they fear you may be offended).
Sockr:
Please show us one person who was thrown in gaol for doing a survey.
Herbert:
Do you mean “jail”?
Do you know what 50th anniversary (1957) in China it is right now? Do you know what happened to the premier, Mr. Zhu Rongji in 1958? Or did they not teach you that in school?
I have done the survey.
Shockr, please.
1) “Gaol” is the British spelling of “jail.” I’m not condoning it, I’m just telling you.
2) Your point about people not wanting to do surveys is quite right. But nobody is afraid of going to, er, prison. Of course China is an authortarian country and you can find examples, but as a daily life issue for most people, it’s no more an issue here than in any other country. Please don’t be alarmist.
ddjiii:
Thanks! I didn’t know gaol is a word for jail. You learn something new everyday.
I’m not being an alarmist. I had a similar experience with a friend that was looking for local Chinese to do a survey also. Barely any local person wanted to help her out, so I asked local people to see if they were interested in doing surveys. Hence, where I got my conclusions from.
1957 is a year most people should be familiar with… even foreigners as there are many international stories out there right now about the “silent 50th anniversary”.
Shockr, please.
“Gaol” is the British spelling for “jail.” So the answer is probably yes.
And your comment about Chinese people not liking to answer surveys is quite right in my experience. But it has nothing to do with, er, prison, and your comments are needlessly inflammatory. China is an authortarian country and of course you can find examples, but in daily life people are no more afraid of authority here than they are anywhere.
Sorry, I didn’t realize my comment went through the first time.
50 years is a long time. Interestingly, I was telling a Chinese friend about the McCarthy hearings and blacklists, which took place in the States about the same time (it was mentioned on “Studio 60.”) And yet most Americans are not afraid of speaking out, nor is that anniaversary marked as much as maybe it should be.
ddjiii:
Tell that to the FLG! ;-)
Shockr:
FLG? Have you heard of Waco?