Zou, Xiang http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8808-5605
Nie, Jing-Bao
Article History
Received: 6 March 2019
Accepted: 14 March 2019
First Online: 23 March 2019
Compliance with Ethical Standards
: The Human Ethics Committee of the University of Otago in New Zealand approved the research (Reference No. 15/106).
: All participants involved in this study have given their informed consent in oral form, as participants might have been reluctant to express their experiences and perspectives if they would have been required to sign a written consent form, especially with the research involving personal information. On the one hand, signing a document is a quite serious undertaking in a Chinese cultural context, and on the other hand, oral consent is generally honoured and accepted in Chinese society. Therefore, taking consent orally was helpful in minimising the participants’ fear of identification and establishing their trust in the researcher. Additionally, written consent was impractical given that many of the participants were illiterate.To protect the confidentiality and privacy of the research participants, all identifying information was removed. For example, the names used in this paper—including those of informants and locations—are pseudonyms.