Written Report on talking heads

Written Report on talking heads

1. What is your interview about?

My interview is about names of my interviewees. Their Chinese name, not English name or nick name. I would like to know about how much they know about their name, do they like their name and also any interesting things about their name in their own personal history.

2. Why would you like to conduct an interview (research) on the name of your interviewees?

I myself always have a feeling that in different kinds of social practice, our name is always in a condition with out much care. We also do not have an active attitude towards our names, we do not think much on our name, and we usually take it as just a simple calling. Therefore the interview would like to catch the immediate response of the interviewees when they were asked about their names.

3. What is the language of your interview? Including the replies of the interviewee and also your questioning language?

The interview conducted in Chinese (Cantonese), both the interviewer and the interviewee use the language of Cantonese to communicate with each other.

4. Is Cantonese the mother tongue of both the interviewer and interviewee?

Yes. Therefore the interviewer and the interviewee have no language understanding problem in communication during the interview.

5. What questions you have prepared for the interview?

I have prepared an outline for my interviewees to talk about their names. The outline basically is: a) What is your full Chinese name? b) Do you know the meaning of your name? c) Do you know why you have this name? d) Do you like your name? Why? e) Any interesting things or things you would like to tell the interviewer about your name in your own personal history?

6.Who are your interviewees?

My interviewees are 3 female university students studying in School of Creative Media in City University of Hong Kong. They are: Tracy Tse, Siu Ying, Ting.

7. In the interview, besides of the content , what have you found in their behaviour?

The followings are some common behaviours of them: a) afraid of forgetting the outline of the interview. b) no intention to look at the camera when thinking. c) when they are nervous they tried to laugh. d) they have intention to ask the interviewer questions when they are in the performance.

8.So, any significance behaviour of each of them?

Tracy Tse tried to stop the camera recording when she feel uncomfortable that she have nothing to talk any more.

Siu Ying is the most frequent to ask “any more to talk?”

Ting is the most active infront of the camera. She have many facial expression and she have strong intention to tell the tales.

9.What have you found in the content of the interview?

a) The interviewees all come from families that have brother or sisters. Therefore their names have a strong connection with their brother or sisters. b) All of their name have a good meaning to their parents. c) Their names are choose by their parents directly. d) 2 of them like their names and one of them doesn't. e) They have an intention to emphasise the influence of their families.

Conclusion

In the interview, the researcher discovered interviewees are so passive in front of the camera ad always would like to seek for help from the interviewer. Sometimes, the interviewees would like to try to make use of the camera to express themselves when the were placed in a passive place. For example, Ting would like to tried to make use of the camera and interview as a space to complain about her parents. Also, one topic of interview can leads to many issues. In this interview, obviously is an interview about names, but issues about family power, authority of parents, discourse of Chinese characters meaning come out. The founding of the interviews is very useful for researcher working on these issues.