Editor's note: Everyone is an "information consumer", but not everyone is qualified to be an "information producer". Chizuruko Ueno, professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, in her new book, From Question to Output: Chizuruko Ueno's Knowledge Production Techniques (translated by Cao Yibing, Wenhui Publishing House· New Classic Culture, October 2024 edition), introduces the basic ability of information producers to learn to ask their own questions. She emphasized that "ask questions that can be answered", "ask questions that you can solve", "choose research objects that can obtain information", and "learning is an extreme way that only seeks one's own pleasure and rests until death". This article is an excerpt from the first chapter of the book, "Before the Information is Produced." The Paper is published with the authorization of New Classic Culture.
From Question to Output: The Knowledge Production of Chizuruko Ueno, by Chizuruko Ueno, translated by Cao Yibing, Wenhui Publishing House· New Classic Culture, October 2024 edition
The Fallacy of Writing Education
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Let me stress again that being an information producer is much more interesting than being an information consumer.
What we want to do is "research". The content of this work can be summarized as "check and write". This is the difference between research and "feeling and writing".
"Write down your feelings as they are" – did your teacher teach you this during your long writing education that began in elementary school? I've always found this kind of guidance to be a real headache. "Start with data, present arguments, and write your ideas in a way that others can understand" is a more desirable concept of writing education.
It's not enough to just "think before you write". Unsubstantiated ideas are synonymous with prejudice. No matter how deep you dig within yourself, you won't find much of a great discovery. People don't want to hear your feelings, experiences, prejudices, and beliefs. You should be well aware that no one really cares about other people's lives. To be an information producer is to incorporate information that is valuable to oneself and others into the "public intellectual property", so we must produce information with corresponding value.
I took the opportunity to be angry, most of the Chinese textbooks after compulsory education are mainly based on the works of writers, which makes me very annoyed. Prose and rhyme texts have multiple meanings, no matter how they "interpret" and "appreciate", and the Chinese teachers are all down-and-out literary youths, this kind of language education is simply wrong. It is precisely because education is going further and further in this direction that it is often said that the Japanese language is not suitable for logical thinking, but this is not the case. This kind of person has never read or written a logical article. I believe that Chinese textbooks should include more logical articles written by humanities and social scientists.
The question should not ask "what is the author's feeling at this time", but "whether this method of argumentation is persuasive". When a child who is not trained in this area goes to college, the teacher has to teach him how to write an essay.
Logical articles do not allow for multiple interpretations. All terms should be clearly defined to avoid ambiguity. The finalized terminology must be used from beginning to end, and it cannot be changed even if you are tired of reading it. Arguments must be carefully constructed to ensure logical rigor. Because the purpose of the article is to convey the point of view to the other party accurately. In case of misreading, the responsibility lies with the author. That's the rule of a research paper.
It's boring, it's so troublesome...... If you think like that, you're not fit to be an information producer. Of course, in a broad sense, writers and poets are also information producers, but information is only valuable if it is consumed. Information that is valuable to oneself is not necessarily valuable to others. There are people from all walks of life who want to produce information that is very urgent, crucial, and dedicated to them, but if there are no consumers, they are just singing a one-man show. There are "closet poets" and "bloggers" who don't have readers, but for researchers, information that isn't shared is worthless.
There are intersecting discussions
The social sciences are empirical sciences. We must base our findings on verifiable facts, rather than making claims based on beliefs and creeds. I often remind the students in the seminar group, "I didn't ask you about your beliefs," and I chase them and ask them "Why do you say that?" Unfounded beliefs are nothing more than preconceived prejudices. If all that is published is bias that cannot be argued or refuted, then no matter how hot the atmosphere of the symposium is, it will end up with "everyone has their own ideas" and no conclusions can be drawn. This is not a discussion.
Seminars at some universities seem to be full of speakers, but in fact there is no overlap in the discussions. In the Ueno group, whenever someone answers a question, I ask the questioner, "Does that answer your question?" Because today's students are generally afraid of noise, even if the other person's answer is not convincing or wrong, they will accept it silently.
“Did s/he answer your question?” - As long as you guide the temptation in this way, you will know that the questioner is not convinced. They'll say "that's only half ......" or "uh, that's not what I wanted to ask about ......". If there is a moderator for the workshop, it's up to her/his job to lead the discussion that intersects.
When you think about it, Japan's parliamentary defense is an out-and-out chicken and duck story. "Whether the statement just answered your question" is the most important thing that should be clarified in each round of defense. What if you make children think that the kind of conversation that flickers to stall for time is a discussion?
Yo, as soon as you move, it's far away.
……
Questions
Research begins with asking questions. Research-level questions are called research questions. "What is your research question" is a question that every researcher can't get around.
Asking questions is perhaps the most difficult part. Because the way to answer questions can be taught, but the way to ask questions cannot be taught. Moreover, asking questions that no one has asked and have not yet answered is a test of the questioner's attitude and personal taste.
This session was also previously known as "Problem Awareness". There can be no problem without problem awareness. To borrow a term from information science, problem awareness can also be described as "sensitivity to capture noise". Noise is a sense of awkwardness, questions and obsessions with reality. People who stop thinking in a self-evident (and taken for granted) world don't make noise.
Ask questions that you can answer
Some questions can be answered, others can't. For example, the question of whether the soul exists or not cannot be verified or disproved empirically. The difference between the social sciences and metaphysics with the attributes of empirical science is that the former does not deal with concepts (e.g., God, soul) that do not have empirical referents. Another example is "whether there is a meaning in human life", the question may be very urgent for the questioner, but it is an unsolvable question. Social scientists will try to contextualize this question and change it to "when do people feel the meaning of life", so that the answer can be made.
By the way, social scientists do not use such an ahistorical concept as "essence". For example, we cannot prove that the essence of a woman is maternity, but we can answer the question of "when did the perception that the essence of a woman be maternity?" and "What kind of person thinks that the essence of a woman is maternity?"
Information producers must ask questions that can be answered. And the answer is always temporary, and sooner or later it will be replaced by a new one. Such is the development of learning. If you're asking a question again after you've done your research, it's a sign that you're not satisfied with your previous answers.
There are "old-fashioned" and "unique" questions. Old-fashioned questions are something that many people can think of, so it's likely that many people have already studied and answered them (see the "What is Established Research" section in Section 3 for details). For example, the question "where will United States go after Trump takes office" is of great interest and unpredictable, and has not yet been answered. But no matter how much you care about this issue, if professionals who know Trump better have done an in-depth analysis, how can your research be compared, and it would be wise to withdraw from it.
Unique questions are those that no one has ever asked. All you have to do is give us the answers, and you'll be a pioneer in the field. And no one competes with you, the highest authority in the field is you. However, such a unique issue is naturally rare, and there may be no literature available, or even information. In the early days of women's studies, the question was asked: What menstrual products did women use in the Edo period? Sanitary napkins in Japan appeared in 1961. If you ask what menstrual products were available before the birth of sanitary napkins, you can still collect testimonies from older women, but once you go back to the Edo period, there are no personal witnesses, and there are no written records, so you can only speculate or judge based on folklore materials and a few historical materials from Hanakai. According to the information, the women of Flower Street at that time used thong belts shaped like crotch cloths, or rolled red silk into a spindle shape to use as tampons, which were washed and used repeatedly, but the information on Flower Street can only reflect the situation of Flower Street. The "virgins" of that time could not use such "tampons". So what do ordinary women use? What is the difference between a samurai woman who values chastity and a peasant woman who has the custom of mixing young men and women before marriage? …… There are a lot of questions I want to solve, but unfortunately there is no information.
Access to information was a key point in the Q&A session. No matter how much you want to understand the inner world of a condemned prisoner, you can't get into prison for interviews. If the question is "what is the last meal of a condemned prisoner", you may be able to find the answer by interviewing prison guards. If you want to study addicts, you have to give up if you can't reach the research subject. Researching secret societies or closed groups of parties may also be able to penetrate the interior to obtain information, but later on to make the information available to the public will make it even more difficult.
Break it down into smaller problems
There are also big and small problems. "Where is global warming going?" is a very big question that I am afraid you will not be able to answer in your lifetime. What happens in the temporal dimension of natural history may be a big problem for humanity, but it may not matter for the planet. But we can break down the big problems into smaller ones. Because big problems tend to be made up of a series of small problems.
For example, "how Japan's mass media report on global warming" can be answered within a certain time and scope. After all, "global warming" is a relatively new word that has not been on the stage of history for long. There are many types of mass media, which can be limited to "national newspapers with databases", and it is sufficient to search for information on the term "global warming". Recently, with the use of search engines, it is relatively easy to collect information. However, the amount of data that one person can handle is difficult to exceed a thousand.
In the 90s of the 20th century, a student in the Ueno Seminar Group wrote a graduation thesis on the theme of "AV Social History", and I was impressed by his questioning ideas. As we all know, AV only appeared in Japan around the 70s. Home video recorders were introduced at the same time, and early AV was popularized as a promotional giveaway. Therefore, he only needs to trace the history of more than 20 years at most. And the research in this area is almost blank, and this paper has brought a gratifying "giveaway" that catapulted him to a pioneer in the field.
I take the trouble to remind my students to "ask questions that can be answered", "ask questions that you can figure out", and "choose research subjects for whom you can obtain information".
The more inexperienced the beginner, the easier it is to spread the furoshiki too big. If you want to ask a good question, the key is to master the trick of "stacking the baggage". This is called "focusing" or "narrowing down".
There may be students who want to challenge themselves with more difficult questions. However, the "exercises" of the workshop group are designed to allow everyone to experience the process of asking questions and giving answers. Once you have mastered the method of solving problems, you will be able to use them flexibly. Start with simple questions, then gradually increase the difficulty to take on bigger problems.
Research is the ultimate way
One more important point is this.
That is to ask questions that do not belong to others, but belong to oneself.
When I was instructing the workshop, I set a rule for myself: no matter what questions a student asks, I will not judge its value or merits. Because all problems are their own problems, my problems are not yours. No one can solve other people's problems.
It is none of your business – There's a saying in English, and my opinion is It is your question, but none of my question. This may seem contradictory to the idea that the production of information is the production of public goods that are valuable to the knowledge community, but the reason why I emphasize the need to ask my own questions is because research is a tedious, time-consuming, and laborious undertaking. If you don't have a problem to solve, you can't stick through this troublesome process. Even if a question is not meaningful to others, as long as it is meaningful to the researcher himself, he or she can reap the feedback called "satisfaction". "Oh, I see!" - For those who do research, there is no more rewarding than this kind of sudden enlightenment.
I always treat my students with this attitude, and as a result, students come up with topics that would never appear in other groups, some of them whimsical, some of them straightforward and some of them frowning. From inconsequential topics like "how to spend Christmas Eve" (but I would never say that the question is worthless) to "what's the most erotic sex (for yourself)" and "what do customers buy at a love shop"...... There are all kinds of problems. "Well, no one has done research on this, so you're going to have to collect the data yourself." I said this and encouraged the students to do their own research, and they came up with convincing research results based on first-hand information and left the nest to graduate.
It is said that in some workshops, the teacher sets the topics and assigns them to the students, but I never do that. Unlike the so-called "investigative learning", I never ask students to collect ready-made second-hand information and come up with several reports that are similar to those written by anyone. From this point of view, the Ueno Symposium has created an environment that is less repressive (i.e., prone to noise), which may be the reason for the proliferation of individual talents.
I'll answer my questions
Let's talk about "party research".
The research originated from the "Bethel House" in Urakawa Town, Hokkaido, but my first reaction was, "That's not what we've been using for years." The parties study, to put it bluntly, "I will answer my questions". Women's studies is a discipline in which women themselves solve the mystery of "women". In retrospect, we can be regarded as pioneers in the study of parties.
Looking back at the resistance faced by women's studies, it is not difficult to imagine the obstacles faced by the parties in the academic world. Resistance is the reaction force that is recognized. If there is no resistance, then it proves that the research has not been recognized by the academic community, and is only regarded as a "survival technique" for people with mental disorders, similar to psychotherapy for social skills training, but it only calls itself "research". Today, women's studies have gained a firm foothold in the academic world, with academic societies, academic journals, and research institutes, lectures, positions, and research grants, but it is still unclear whether the research parties will be able to follow the same path (Ueno, 2017).
To ask a question is to ask a question, and a question can be either a question or a problem. Women's studies starts from women's issues, but it is not only about women's problems, but also questions raised by women.
To me, being a woman is a huge mystery. Just because you are a woman, you will be treated unreasonably by others in society. I wanted to solve this mystery, but I found that previous research was full of "men teach you to know women", and the attitude of "Lao Tzu knows women best, you just listen obediently" jumped on the page. Not only did the research not convince me, but it was full of man's delusions about women, and I was so disgusted that I thought, "You guys really feel good about yourself."
What kind of people women are, what they have experienced, and how they feel, women themselves know best. The reason for the low number of women's studies conducted by women is the sheer number of female researchers in academia. As a result, we created Studies on Women, by Women, for Women, and women's studies were born.
"It is too subjective for women to study women", "If you are not neutral, you are not considered to be a scholar", "Why can't men study women"...... As soon as women's studies were established, they were criticized from all sides. The belief in "neutrality" and "objectivity" in academia is still deeply ingrained, and some people even say to me in person: "Women's studies? What kind of knowledge is that? ”
The position of the person concerned is that "I am my own expert". Women know women best, so let's let us women study women - women have changed from the object of learning to the subject, so there is women's studies. "How can I consider myself a subject of study?" I still remember the first time I was introduced to women's studies. Because until then, I had always believed that learning should be neutral and objective.
So, the first question has to be the question you want to ask.
One of the students in the seminar group once asked this question: "Teacher, what is the problem?" Sometimes, the simpler the question, the more straightforward it leads to the most fundamental answer. I subconsciously replied, "It's just holding on to something that you won't let go." I was amazed by the answer I blurted out.
Growing up, "being a woman" was a mystery that stuck with me, so I decided to make it a research question. Coupled with the fact that my mother was a housewife and an unfortunate housewife, I asked one after another, "What is a housewife?" What kind of people are they doing? "Why do women become housewives?" "What happens when you become a housewife?" …… In the process, I realized that "housewives" is an esoteric subject of study. My book, Patriarchy and Capitalism (1990/2009), exposes the structure of modern society through the use of housewives. Women being housewives were considered "taken for granted" at the time, so no one seriously raised the issue, and there was little research.
In the same way, as a person with a disability, a Korea in Japan/North Korean, and a victim of sexual assault...... It could also be a problem that holds you back. Japanese women born and raised in foreign countries say that "being Japanese" is a bigger mystery than "being a woman". Everyone has a wide variety of questions to answer, depending on their environment and life experience. It is a great happiness for researchers to encounter the questions they really want to answer. It's not a question that you really want to answer, and you can't devote yourself to research.
Learning is the ultimate way
I often say that learning is an extreme way that only seeks one's own pleasure and rests until death. Some people compare learning to "the pastime of the poor", but it is time-consuming, laborious and costly, and it really does not match the "poor". The reason why I use words like "extreme way" and "pastime" is actually to warn myself: don't think that compared with various "extreme ways" such as music and theater, there is much special value in learning. Because if it is not restrained, people who do learning tend to be arrogant, mistakenly believing that learning is at the top of the pyramid of various cultural undertakings of mankind.
Asking questions always means "asking your own questions". That question can't be someone who stuffed it to you. That's why I often remind graduate students who complain that their research is not rewarded and that they can't get a job: "You are taking the extreme path of answering your own problems, and the problems are not imposed on you by others, so who can you blame?" Is there anything more extravagant in the world? ”