P022 → Interview Analysis


I asked for my friend Raymond. He studies sustainable development and often conducts interviews (though more often via email). He told me that they transcribe the interview content verbatim and then use code to identify the most frequently mentioned words by the interviewees. They then look at the context in which these words were used to understand what the interviewees care about the most, thereby uncovering some ‘hidden’ pain points. I used his code in Chatgpt to build a structure, here’s the main process:

# Target text segment / 目标文本段
# Clean and tokenize the text / 清理和分词
# Define stop words / 定义停用词
# Filter out stop words / 过滤停用词
# Count word frequency / 统计词频
# Get the most common words / 获取最常见的词


1. different and colour: These words mainly appear in the discussion about the statue becoming polished and changing color due to frequent touching. Specifically, parts of the statue become shiny or change color because they are touched frequently.

2.luck: This is a key theme in the conversation. People touch the statue for good luck. This behavior is not unique to the local area but is a common practice worldwide.

3. can’t and stop: These words emphasize the inability to prevent people from touching the statues, even though such behavior might cause damage.


4. shiny: This describes parts of the statue that have become polished due to frequent touching. It is an example of the physical changes the statue undergoes from being touched.

5. (I) mean and thats:
These words are often used to explain and emphasize points. For instance, they are used to convey the inevitability of people continuing to touch the statue despite potential damages. For example: "I mean, you can't stop people. That's what they do."

Based on this analysis and my interview experience, I found that the dialogue revolves around the custom of touching statues (especially Bobby's statue) for good luck. The participants discuss the reasons behind this behavior (such as bringing good luck), the consequences (statues becoming shiny or changing color), and the helplessness in preventing people from touching the statues. This reflects a cultural respect for these practices while also highlighting the concerns about preserving the statues.