| This is an empirical research into the changing perception of fate among Hong Kong Chinese women from the 1960s to the 1990s, with particular attention to the ways women express themselves. The distinctive features of this research are twofold. First, it attempts to integrate both Chinese and western concepts into a theoretical framework for empirical investigation, using concepts such as "fate" understood in the Chinese cultural context and "communicative action" borrowed from Jurgen Habermas's critical theory. Second, it employs research data of different kinds such as ritual laments, life stories and media texts and images. The variety of data enables the author to offer an interesting and vivid description of the lives of Hong Kong Chinese women. This research shows how the method of thick description, besides performing the task of presenting and analyzing data, can itself be constituted as an argument for certain purposes. As for the main findings, this research demonstrates some possible links between women's fate and the articulation of their experience. By comparing different forms of women's expression at different historical stages, it shows that, by the end of the twentieth-century, Hong Kong Chinese women have evolved a modern rational outlook on life and the world. The traditional Chinese worldview is losing its viability. |
