Yihuan Jackie Hu
As a person who was born and raised in contemporary China, I was always amazed by how much I did not know about China. My curiosity towards China as an academic subject led me to choose Asian Studies (China focus) as one of the majors for my undergraduate studies. The learning experience I had in East Asia was incredibly eye-opening at UC Berkeley, which eventually inspired me to continue on this path in Oxford.
The MSc. program in Contemporary Chinese Studies truly embraced the diversity of the China-related disciplines and the Oxford student body itself. We were offered tremendous freedom to pursue the subjects we were personally interested in for many elective courses. Outside classes, students were also able to attend the seminar series held every Thursday to hear about the China-related research conducted by the visiting scholars from all over the world. Having studied in such a dynamic and inclusive academic community has truly become one of my greatest treasures for life.
During the time I spent in Oxford China Centre, I gradually became interested in how the Chinese youth used Internet as a weapon to contest some traditional Chinese moral standards that they were not able to openly discuss in their private life. I conducted my own research, with the approach of virtual ethnography and case study, on this online community called “Anti-Parents Group” to examine to what extent the Chinese one-child generation nowadays were discontent about their domestic life which were sometimes closely supervised by the parents. Based on my own research experience in Oxford, I can assure those who are willing to apply for this program that the research guidance provided by the method classes, library workshops and faculty supervision were sufficient for you to produce a great project.
After graduating from the MSc. program, I have returned to the U.S. in order to pursue a career in technology consulting that targets the East Asian market. The in-depth analytical skills I have developed from this program definitely makes me more than ready to face this challenging time of life transition.
Finally, I want to dedicate the last paragraph to expressing my wholehearted gratitude to my dissertation supervisor Prof. Rachel Murphy who spared no effort to motivate me during my writing process, and also to Prof. Margret Hillenbrand for her amazing lectures that inspired me profoundly in the class of contemporary Chinese film. I am thankful to the Clarendon Fund that provided me the full scholarship to take on this exciting Oxford journey, and I will definitely recommend this program to anyone who wants to know more about contemporary China.
Please feel free to get in touch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yihuan-jackie-hu
