We had five arranged interviews today, one after the other with an hour break for lunch after the first two. Our first interview was unremarkable; the only thing that stands out in my mind is that the lady really wasn't too fond of her son-in-law. Our second interviewee was quite lively and didn't sit down for much of the interview. She repeatedly emphasized the need for "everyone to work together to build a harmonious society." Everything pretty much came back to that. After that, lunch on the "bar end" of the street--the street that we're working on right now was kind of Shanghai's red-light district for awhile; although it seems to have calmed down a little in recent years, it's still a pretty lively place at night. I thought it was pretty funny though, when we asked our interviewees what they thought about all the bars, if they could see signs of changing morality or what they thought about the place in general, they almost all replied that they were old and didn't frequent that end of the street. That's for the young folks. And the foreigners, of course.
The first interview of the afternoon three was interesting. We talked to a husband and wife who had both been in the PLA, she as a radio operator (our translator first translated this as "radioactive," but got it straightened out after he saw the expression on our faces), and the husband was a combat medic. He was part of the "volunteer" "north-east border security" force that fought in Korea, and she had raised their two children pretty much by herself. We asked him about his impressions of their neighborhood when he fist joined his wife there after he retired from the army, and he said that after living and fighting in small villages and inhospitable terrain, he thought the Shanghai neighborhood was excellent.
This stuff wasn't the focus of our interview of course, but I'm finding that many times the most interesting information from an interview comes out when we're trying to get context to understand how the changes in Shanghai have affected people's lives--the main goal of our research here. But context is certainly important, especially since we didn't start out with a good understanding of many of the issues and events that shape life here. For instance, reading about the Cultural Revolution for History class and talking to people who lived through it are totally different experiences. There's nothing in U.S. history that even comes close to the extensiveness of that chaos. I knew it had happened, but when we first started doing interviews I didn't really include it in my conceptualization of what these people's lives had been like. It was only after a couple of our interviewees mentioned it almost in passing that I realized how this kind of event, maybe like 9-11 for Americans but spread out over several years and bringing destruction to the entire nation, would be part of the frame of one's life story.
Our last interview of the day was awesome. Ms. Zhou ushered us in and offered us our third round of tea for the day, this time a very nice kind I had never had. She said it was so nice to have young people visit, and she thought France must be an interesting place. When we told her that we were actually from the U.S., she said "Oh good, I know a little English." Then, in English, "I don't get to speak it much; in fact, I haven't really used it since the 1950s. I'm afraid I don't speak it very well--I know my grammar is not very good." Just like that. I commented that she was being too modest--her English was excellent--to which she replied in Chinese, "No, it's only so-so. I think your Chinese is better than my English." Well, she was flat out wrong on that point. Most of the interview was in English, and I was amazed at how eloquently she expressed herself. It wasn't just that her vocabulary was extensive or that her grammar, contrary to her disclaimer, was really good, it was the way the communicated deep ideas simply but effectively. I guess another part of the delight was her manner, which was earnest and very kind. Her Chinese was also easy for me to understand.
She told us about how she loved her neighborhood and was very thankful for her neighbors, who looked took care of her. Her son too, she said, was a very good son, although she wished he would just stay and visit with her instead of insisting they go to a restaurant to eat. "But he's very busy, I suppose I shouldn't be so selfish." She told us about her grandsons, whom she delighted in, and about visiting them in Hong Kong when they lived there for a few years. We asked her what she did to keep busy, and she told us that she sometimes tutored students when her health permitted. She explained that now the education system is extremely competitive, and families who can afford it pay for after-school tutors for their children. Parents also help as they are able. Students whose families can't afford tutors and whose parents aren't educated are really at a disadvantage, so she likes to help these students whenever she can. A few questions later, she told us (reluctantly, because he was dead and she didn't want to speak ill of him) that her husband had "loved younger and more beautiful women" and had left her to raise their son by herself. "It was difficult." "But," she added, "my son helped me, and he didn't ask for expensive things like many children do." So now she helps women in similar situations whenever she finds the opportunity. She said, "I really want to be able to help people. Now my health is not very good, so it is often difficult. But I do not want to be useless." Judging only from our hour and a half interview, I can't imagine that to be the case.
