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The concept of "reflexivity" has been described by Mead (1962) as a turning-back of one's experience upon oneself (Steier, 1991:2). There are many varieties of reflexivity, but the type I will focus on here is "reflection". More specially it is "benign introspection", which basically requires that we think about what we are doing in our research (Woolgar, 1988: 22).
In my case this was particularly important given that I shared many common characteristics with the subjects of my study. First, I was a Chinese researcher studying young Chinese adults in Britain. Not only did I share the same ethnic background with my subjects, I also possessed similar socio-economic background and history as the majority of these respondents. Furthermore, I fell into the age range of the target group of Chinese I was studying. Therefore, I typified everything I was studying.
Consequently, I had the advantage of the "insider" (in Merton's terminology) of the 'capacity to understand' (Merton, 1972). I strongly believe that 'who I am' has been both relevant and significant to the production of knowledge. In fact, the genesis of this research project grew from my general observations of my Chinese peers. I became increasingly curious to discover more why the Chinese youth I knew appeared to be displaying a particular trend. This was a bimodal distribution whereby the indications were that the Chinese second generation were showing a propensity to either become professionals or to work in the Chinese catering industry in Britain.
In addition to being responsible for leading to the idea of this research project, my insider status within the Chinese community in Britain undoubtedly facilitated the research in a number of other ways, most imperatively in the provision of privileged access.
Numerous researchers had already previously reported on the methodological difficulties of conducting research on the Chinese in Britain, such as sampling, locating, and gaining access to the Chinese. I believe that such methodological difficulties have contributed to the paucity of studies on this ethnic group in Britain, especially when compared to other ethnic groups such as those from the West Indies or those from the Indian subcontinent.
It is perhaps not an exaggeration to say that my doctoral research