China 31: Working on the Questions
Weird food: pig feet. no meat, just fat and skin.
Air Freshener: Pineapple peels. My mom brought them into my room last night on top of some newspaper. It actually has a really good scent after about a day. Then again I probably just stink too much.
So for the climatical academic endeavor of our experience here, we are expected to write a research paper about anything from modern China. I guess it had to modern b/c we're supposed to use our experience and connections in China to help us in the research process which usually wouldn't be the case back in Brookline. However, when picking my topic, I also realized that we wouldn't have the literary resources that we would in Brookline. All we really had were 4 or 5 history/culture books, a travel guide, and a bunch of novels (thank Buddha the internet is available too!). As a senior my paper would have to be 10 pages long, which for me is really no big deal, the longer the easier is my philosophy. I probably could've wrote the entire 10 pages w/o any research and BS'd it all with personal semi-fabricated anecdotes based off of prior knowledge. I mean footbinding!? How easy is it to form a thesis about how binding the foot was an example of the tyranny of men? The idea of the "auto-A" is derived directly from the fact that all papers with theses condemning racism, sexism, or George Bush have consistently been awarded complement and honors.
And yet (and I fear this is where an Asian stereotype is only supported) I decided I wanted do some work on this paper. So I decided to research something that I myself was interested in and was causing enormous ponderance (is that a word?)in my young mind: Why am I on this trip? But the thesis had to be broadened a little more to answer: Why are we here? What is the purpose of cultural exchange?
And here I sit typing my blog instead of working on it. I've a lot of my research which was focused more on interviews than staring at books. So far I've interviewed all the kids and teacher on this trip, the Brookline High headmaster, some students from previous trips, some of the parents of the kids on this trip, the Chinese Exchange Initiative, the Newton Exchange, and a school in Saugus, CA planning on creating another exchange w/ GaoXin. (I say only some of the parents and previous students/teachers b/c I did a email interview to them and only a FEW have responded.) If anyone has ideas about "why we are here" please let me know. (celtics186@hotmail.com)
Anyway, I think I'm going to publish the paper I'm writing on this blog as I'm writing it b/c it might be interesting and I don't really have anywhere else to save it. If I do do this, please bare in mind that like all my posts, they're first drafts. Very first drafts. But feel free to comment.
yours truly,
david chin-fei wang, 18.5 years old, left-handed, right-footed, 5'10", student, artist, writer, sleeper, dreamer, traveler, athelete, PROCRASTINATOR, impatient, critical, quietly loud, loudly quiet, left eyed, dog friend, romantically crude, favorite phrases:"wingless angels" "Time, collared and leashed...", color: grayish bluish redish green, movie: "Many", music: "ecletic", GPA: who cares anymore, race: yellowish white, hair: beaver, eyes: oak, prefered deodorant: right guard power stripe, book: Dante and Catcher in the Rye, address: Earth, prefered ketchup: heinz?, prefered word: merde, prefered phrase: c'est la vie, africa, he ping, such is the life of david wang,
"anna begins" by the counting crows
my friend assures me/ she says its all or nothing/ but i am not worried/ and i'm not overly concerned/ my friend implored me/ just one time only/ come on make an exception/ but i am not worried/ wrap her up in a package of lies/ you send her off to a coconut island/ am not worried/ and i'm not overly concerned/ with the status of my emotions/ oh she say hey your changing/ but we're always changing/ and it does bother me to say/ this isn't love/ cause if you don't wanna talk about it/ then it isn't love/ and i guess i'm gonna have to just live with that/ and i'm sure/ something in the shade of grey/ or something in between/ i can always just change my name/ if that's what you need
my friend assures me/ she says look it's all or nothing/ but i'm not really worried/ i'm not overly concerned/you/ you trry to tell yourself the thing/ you try to tell yourself/ just to make/ yourself/ forget/ i am not worried/ i am not overly concerned/ cause if its love/ she said that we gonna have to think about/the consequences/ b/c she can't stop shaking/i can't stop touching her at this time/ kindness falls like rain and washes her away/ anna begins/ to change her mind/ in these seconds/ when i'm shaken be shuddering/ i'm not ready for this sort of thing/ but i'm not gonna break/ i'm not gonna worry about it anymore ..........
1 Comments:
I just CAN'T wait to read your paper! (i'm not joking, i trust you'll do fine)
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