How could we know if a fish is happy?

“One day, Zhuangzi was crossing a bridge with Huizi over a river. Zhuangzi said, “ The fish are swimming happily.” Immediately Huizi countered this with: “ You are not a fish, how can you tell when a fish is a happy?” “You are not me, How do you know that I can’t tell when a fish is Happy” replied Zhuangzi.”(1)

Beyond a philosophical riddle of rationalism and empiricism, I think this fable reveals much about research process especially in the arena of cross-cultural research. In our ‘scientific empirical’ enquiry, we may often assume the authority in decontextualizing and evaluating evidences, participants and their lived experiences. Comparing to the Maori research which had to be conducted under a post-colonial academic setting, studies about China are divided between cross-cultural research(done outside of China) and native ones(done by Chinese and published within China) , and both are with corresponding reflexibility to consider.

“The world is progressing and China is rising, the era that agency and voice come only with political influence and power has long passed.”(2) Looking beyond the limitation of the statement itself, there is some truth in it to the research and studies about China especially modern China. Fontes noted that conducting research and disseminating findings are political acts , and as Tracey argued that in many cases, subject of research have not been beneficiaries of the research process(3). This is particularly relevant when thinking about the motive for researchers, there is much to be done than identifying the oppressed and the privileged(as they are often done based on a prexisting set of values), the lived experience of participants and their assessments of their experience should be given weighty value as well. I think this is crucial in studying historic subjects (the pivotal role catering biscuits had played in Winter’s relevant research) but also contemporary issues that are political and controversial(such as human rights violation in China and Asia).

We will never be the fish, therefore we may never experience their happiness first-hand and know for sure. What we can accomplish though, is to not create a power-imbalance between our interpretation of the fish’s feelings and how the fish are actually feeling in our journey of finding out whether they are actually happy.

1. Ames, Roger T., and Takahiro Nakajima. Zhuangzi and the Happy Fish. University of Hawai’i Press, 2015.

2. Weiwei, Zhang. China rises(Shanghai Century Publishing(group)Co., Ltd, 2012), 125

3. McIntosh, Tracey. “Māori and Cross-cultural Research: Criticality, Ethicality and Generosity.” New Zealand Sociology 26 (2011).