My journey through GEM, and area studies in general at Wesleyan, has been comprised primarily of working through the themes of philosophy, religion, and political science, and their intersection. As an East Asian Studies major, I arrived at Wesleyan having already studied Mandarin Chinese and visited mainland China in high school. But outside of a surface level interest in Chinese language and culture, I had not investigated my interest in studying and learning from East Asia. Through the nexus of this course work and lived experience, both abroad and on campus, I discovered how my interest has been both personal and political, and this synthesis is what has guided my rumination up to this point.
Beginning with coursework in Chinese poetry, religion, and philosophy, I discovered a historical canon of individual expression within China. At the same time, this was often in response and conversation with social and political upheaval. Ultimately, I was fascinated by the ways in which individuals find personal meaning both amongst and shielded from the power structures they inhabit. I've found that, as Americans, it's often easy to engage with other cultures, and specifically China, through the lens of nationhood, because of the current political moment and a general lack of aware cross-cultural engagement. With this e-portfolio, I’m looking into this view, and beyond it, by focusing at the individual level and how this can both liberate and shelter oneself from the broader “powers that be” whether social, political, and economic. I found cases both on campus and in my time abroad in Taiwan.
This ground-level viewpoint helped me look beyond prescribed ideology and understand what the world looks like, as best as possible, while also recognizing that one’s own positionally and experience is not objective. The primary takeaway I hope to share from this blog is the humanity and experience of being an individual despite different cultural backgrounds, as well as finding common ground in culturally distinct communities and space.
Found Seekers:
The questions surrounding individual existence and the journey for self-knowledge. These specific individuals may have resonated with me initially, due to similar perspectives and curiosities, but ultimately our shared engagement from different cultural perspectives precipitated a changed way of understanding the world.
Crossing Paths:
How an understanding of topics like language and art changes from one’s local understanding (whether a U.S. perspective or cursory understanding over one’s life) towards tangibly distinct cultural spheres or bases of knowledge.
Power’s On:
The effects of power, nationhood, and governance as manifest in history and everyday lived reality. And in what ways these impacts, either marginal or large, can shift cultural make-up and one’s position in it.
