When I was a child, I had a neighbor who I spent many hours shadowing as he puttered around his house and yard. He was very much a Mr. Wilson to my Dennis the Menace. He
had been stationed in various parts of Asia after WWII, consequently, he and
his wife’s home was well appointed
with collections from his time spent in China, Japan, and Thailand. “What’s this?
… and this? … and this?” were the words that
always seemed to be pouring from my mouth as I explored what to me seemed a
museum. Their house was full of exotic novelties the likes of which I had never seen or heard of before.
His stories of the distant places and peoples excited my imagination in ways that
I still remember to this day. To my benefit and delight, he was a patient and generous
man. This marked the advent of my interest in Asia and in particular
China.
My Grandmother and mother were both teachers and so it was always assumed that I
would become of Software Architect. That is what happened in any event. I started
a software company when I finished high school and while I had started college,
I abandoned it, choosing first to focus on my career as the demands of both were
unmanageable. In 1994, my career had reached a stable point and I enrolled at Macalester
College in St. Paul Minnesota. I was not there because I needed the degree for my
career, I had already achieved the success in my field that I desired, but rather
because I had promised myself that I would.
In 1999 I did finish (not gracefully but I did receive my degree) in Computer Science with a minor
in History. It was during this time that I became interested in History
as a possible profession. However,
my career still beckoned, and I continued in
my field with some satisfaction for several more years. However, always nagging me was my love of
history and interest in China. I decided in 2002 that a career working for machines
was not intellectually and spiritually rewarding enough despite the financial rewards
that it offered. I left technology and returned to Macalester to pursue my passions and earn a History degree.
It was during my initial stint at Macalester that I first encountered the individual who would
become my mentor and change my life, Professor Yue-Him Tam. To fulfill
the elective requirements of my Computer Science degree, it was only natural that
I followed my
passions to the History Department. His classes on China and Japan were perfect for
my interests. Despite my status in the department as a non-major, Professor Tam spent a great deal of time encouraging and pushing me in my studies of China. It has been his guidance and continued
support that transformed me from a dilettante to an aspiring Sinologist.
It was on his
urging in 1999, while still a Computer Science major, that I submitted a paper to an
Asian Studies Conference held in Washington D.C. Much to my surprise, it was accepted and I
was invited to present my paper Symbolic Warfare: An Examination of the Chinese
Perspective on the Role of Warfare During the Opium War at George Washington University. This would be the first of several conferences that I would
present papers at as an undergraduate.
Since then, I have presented two other papers
at conferences in the China, England, and the US. I presented at the 6th International
Biennial Conference of Sino-Japanese Relations in Beijing, China in 2004. My paper, The Ideological Roots of Japanese
Militarism: Why Good Japanese Turned Into Beasts at War, continued my explorations in Confucianism and explored
how Confucian ideas during the Tokugawa period, mingled with native Shinto and helped
lay the foundations for the militarism of Japan in WWII. I also was invited to present at the SEAS Postgraduate Inter-disciplinary Conference in East Asian Studies held at Sheffield
University in Sheffield England in 2004. This paper, The Confucian Vitality in an Anti-Confucian Movement:
Revisiting the Taiping Rebellion, was the result of an independent research project.
It explores the persistence of Confucian ideology under extreme duress, using the
Taiping Rebellion as an example. I was especially honored to be invited
to this conference as I was the only non-doctorial candidate presenting. This paper
was also subsequently presented at the Association
for Asian Affairs Midwest Conference
in 2004. It was ultimately published in the Wittenberg Journal for Asian Studies
as the lead article. My senior thesis, Robert Hart and the Chinese Maritime Customs:
Is "Our Hart" Chinese or British?, explored identity and collaborative Chinese and
Western efforts aimed at reforming and modernizing China. It has also recently been
published in the Wittenberg Journal of Asian Studies. These papers are all available
for viewing here on my website.
I also have been fortunate enough to have received several honors
in the form of financial grants and awards for my research efforts to date. When I graduated
as a Computer Science major, the History Department awarded me with the Yahya Armajani
Prize for Non-Western History. This is only award the department has for non-Western
pursuits and I was flattered and honored to have been selected to receive it. This
is especially true as I was not a history major at the time. It hangs framed on my
wall and is one of my most treasured possessions. When I finished my history degree, I was awarded the Ernest R. Sandeen Memorial Prize which is for “an original project reflecting
exceptional skill, imagination, and effort, all hallmarks of the scholar for whom
the prize is named” for my research on my senior thesis. In addition, I have twice been given grants from the Elmer
Smith Fund to assist in my research and travel costs for conferences, as well as
grants from the Freeman Fund and a Macalester Presidential Grant. I also received
the Sidney DeVere Award from the Midwest Conference of the Association for Asian
Studies for the best undergraduate paper of 2004. This was for my paper, The Confucian Vitality in an Anti-Confucian
Movement – Revisiting the Taiping Rebellion. I am particularly proud of this award
as it comes from the regional chapter of the major association for Asian Studies
in the US. While my awards from Macalester reflect the department’s attitude towards
my work, an award such as the DeVere Award from an outside organization, with much
broader scope, was incredibly validating for me.
My areas of research interests are in Confucianism and early East/West interactions
during the Ming and Qing
dynasties. I am interested in Confucianism not as an abstract
philosophy, but with how it interacts and creates concrete
social and political institutions and notions of reality. How does
this philosophy impact the role of government and its offices? What does the acceptance
of this philosophy mean to the individual who then has to live in this world
order? What happens when this belief and its institutions are challenged from within
or without? How do you rectify
the seeming disconnect between the success and longevity of the Confucianism system
with the corruption and seeming intellectual stagnation that has at times occurred?
Secondly, although related, I am
interested in the interactions and hybridizations of the early East and West contacts
during the Treaty Port and Early Post Treaty Port era. My senior paper was an exploration of
Robert Hart, an English Subject serving as the Inspector General of the Chinese
Maritime Customs Service, and how his understanding and acceptance of the prevailing Confucian
mind-set and bureaucracy
made him successful enough within the system to be accepted as a Chinese
bureaucrat of the Qing court. His success stands in stark contrast to many other Westerners who were not nearly as flexible in their activities and failed as a result. My research and work to date has all focused
strongly on various aspects of Confucianism within these themes and I want to continue
my explorations in these areas for my doctorate.
Professionally,
besides continuing to explore the above ideas, I want to teach.
I have received so much from my professors in the past that I want to give back
and hopefully encourage future generations of scholars to take an active and inquisitive
interest in the world around them through an understanding of both their past and the
larger world. I love working with other students, and as such I worked as a teaching assistant to Professor Tam for three of his
classes: Introduction to Asian Civilization, History of Traditional China, and History
of Modern China. I did this
purely for personal enjoyment and fulfillment, I received no pay or class credits
for my time.
I am extremely excited to begin work on the next leg of my academic journey.
I have learned and experienced much which has not only been educational, enlightening
and rewarding, but has truly changed the trajectory of my life. I think that my
neighbor would be pleasantly surprised to see what became of that inquisitive child
who dogged his heels so many years ago. My greatest hope is to have that same kind
of impact, to provide awareness, a curiosity, and a desire, for a future generation
of scholars.