How to do fieldwork in China?

China Studies Centre, University of Sydney

2:00 pm – 4:00 pm, Wednesday 10 October 2018

Seminar Room 342, New Law School Annexe

Cost: Free

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/how-to-do-fieldwork-in-china-tickets-49079892279

Is there a right way to do fieldwork in China? What things do we have to consider when planning research in China? This event presents examples from experienced fieldworkers, to research students and early-career researchers who plan to conduct fieldwork in China.

Doing fieldwork in China can be an invaluable experience, but without sufficient consideration of the particular political, social and cultural environment, it can also be a daunting task. Join us to hear from three speakers with diverse fieldwork experiences, as well as networking with like-minded attendees, to feel more confident when you start to plan, prepare and carry out your fieldwork in China.

Speakers will approach the topic from different perspectives, sharing their personal experience during the phases of fieldwork (pre-fieldwork, fieldwork and post- fieldwork), what challenges they encounter, what coping methods they adopt, and how the fieldwork experience contributes to their China research.

Speakers

Dr Olivier Krischer, Deputy Director, China Studies Centre, University of Sydney

Olivier is an art historian whose research regards the role of art theory and practice in modern and contemporary China-Japan relations, and more recently networks of artistic activism from Hong Kong and across East Asia. Prior to joining the Centre, Olivier was a Visiting Fellow in the Institute for Modern History, at Academia Sinica, Taiwan, and a post-doctoral fellow at the Australian Centre on China in the World, ANU. He completed his PhD at the University of Tsukuba on a Japanese Government monbukagakusho scholarship, studying China-Japan relations through art in the early twentieth century.

Dr Peter Jia, Senior Research Associate, Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney

Peter has been engaged in archaeological research on prehistoric agro-pastoralism for many years. At present, he is evolved in the project of Xinjiang prehistoric archaeological study in China, which is in cooperation with the Archaeological Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, is mainly responsible for the fieldwork supervision and theoretical interpretation on the archaeological discoveries. Peter’s special interest is the ethnological investigation on modern nomadic ethnics and interpretation on archaeological discoveries of the prehistoric pastoralist settlements.

Ms Shuxia Chen, PhD researcher in photography history, Australian National University

Chen Shuxia is a PhD candidate at the Australian National University. Her research focuses on Chinese photography and its aesthetic transformation in the 1980s in China. Shuxia’s essays have been published in Trans Asia Photography ReviewChina Story Year Book 2014Made in China Year Book 2018Art Chinaartforum.com.cn, etc. Currently she is curating a series of exhibitions on amateur photography groups active in China between mid 1970s and late 1980s. The first one on the Friday Salon is just opened at the Taikang Space, Beijing.