The Locations of the Fieldwork and How They Mattered to the Data

As stated above, the interviews of Western expatriate teachers (Sample Two) were conducted in Nanjing, Suzhou and Ningbo. As demonstrated in Figure 3-1, these cities are all located around the Yangtze River Delta, which is arguably one of the richest and most cosmopolitan areas of China.18 Nanjing is the capital city of Jiangsu Province and also the

18

In Figure 3-1, A represents Nanjing, B represents Suzhou, C represents Ningbo, and D represents Shanghai. The annual GDP of Jiangsu Province (where Nanjing and Suzhou is located) is 4911.027 billion RMB in 2011 (Jiangsu Statistic Bureau, 2011); the equivalent figure of Zhejiang Province is 3200.01 billion RMB (Zhejiang Provincial Bureau of Statistics, 2011). Whereas in some inner regions, the figures are much lower in comparison. For instance, the GDP of Hunan Province in 2011 is only a little over 1/3 of that of Jiangsu

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cultural and political centre of the province. It is famous for its historical significance to China as the capital of the six dynasties. It is also a landmark city for the Yangtze River Delta area due to its importance in culture, history, politics and economy. Suzhou has historically been a popular destination for tourists due to its attractive natural scenery. It is also becoming the economic, commercial and international trade centre of Jiangsu Province because of its high capability in industrialisation. Ningbo, the second largest city in Zhejiang Province, is famous for private business ownerships and is also an economically advanced city, with a GDP figure of more than that of the whole Gansu Province in inner China in 2012.19

Participants in Suzhou were teachers at the Xi‘an Jiaotong Liverpool University (XJLU) and those in Ningbo were working at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China (UNNC). Both are Sino-British university setups where the majority of academic and English language teachers are from Western countries, primarily Britain, and the administration staff are mostly Chinese. The teaching programs are delivered in an identical way as their mother universities back in Britain while the administration procedures are conducted by Chinese staff.20 Both campuses are located in the suburban areas of each city, and are highly self-contained environments which are relatively isolated from the urban centres. Chapter 5.3 and Chapter 6 will illustrate how understandings formed primarily through contacts on university campuses (where most teachers were native English speakers, the rest of the working staff understood English quite well and the students had already achieved certain levels of English language abilities) might differ from those established elsewhere. On the other hand, participants in Nanjing were based at university campuses that were part of the urban area and quite close to the urban centre. These campuses were not as self-contained as XJLU and UNNC, and were in fact interactive with and integrated into the surrounding local communities. On these campuses, native English speakers were an extreme minority as most of the population, both teachers and students, were Chinese. Nonetheless, it is important to note that all the participants in

Sample Two had travelled across China and had different experiences in different regions.

The later chapters will explain in detail the ways in which experiences in different regions of China differentiated perceptions.

Province (Statistical Information of Hunan, 2011); and in provinces such as Gansu, the figure is even drastically lower, with its GDP only being equivalent of ¼ of that of Hunan (Gansu Statistical Information Network, 2011).

19 _{Zhejiang Provincial Bureau of Statistics, 2012 and Gansu Statistical Information Network, 2012.}

20 _{It was noted by participants that the administrations procedures were also identical to those implemented in} their mother universities in the UK, but they were carried out in adjusted ways by the Chinese staff.

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Figure 3- 1 Political Map of China21

In the case of Chinese students and teachers in Britain (Sample One), the participants were all based in Glasgow, which is the commercial centre and largest city of Scotland.22 The experiences of participants based in large cities like this might be different from those formed through studying in small university towns. Furthermore, the political and cultural histories between England and Scotland may highlight the differences in comparison to the ones experienced by students in England. Nonetheless, as listed in Tables 3-1, 3-5, and 3-6, four participants had lived in England for an extended period of time before relocating to Glasgow, and all participants had travelled across Britain, and many to other European countries and regions. Unless the comments were made specifically on Scotland or Glasgow, it is assumed in this study that the ‗Britain‘ referred to by the participants in

Sample One was an indication of a generalised comment towards to the country as a whole,

that is, they did not differentiate between ‗Scotland‘ and ‗Britain‘. As mentioned in the beginning, in Note on Terminology, Chinese students in this study also constantly used ‗the West‘, ‗Western countries‘, or even ‗foreign countries‘ and ‗foreigners‘, to generalise the

21 _{Retrieved from: http://www.ezilon.com/maps/asia/china-maps.html on 20/04/2013.} 22

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society they referred to (where they lived in) and the people they had interacted with.

Figure 3- 2 Political Map of the UK23

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