Week 3-4

Weeks 3-4

For the past three weeks, I’ve been pretty busy visiting colleges, but I have still managed to get a lot of work done on my project. The book I started two weeks ago, Sparks, continues to grow my interest in the history of Chinese advocacy. It is so interesting, in fact, that I will reach out to the author in the upcoming weeks once I have finished the book to hopefully interview him on the complex subject matter of underground journalism and grassroots democracy in China. Speaking of interviews, I am now in the process of reaching out to the Princeton Professor Rory Truex – I hope he will be a valuable resource in the coming months as I strive to gain a complex understanding of media censorship, not just in China, but in our own country as well.

Through my research, I have also begun understanding the importance of diversifying sources. As my faculty advisor Mr. Myer has pointed out, not all info can come from a single side of a sensitive issue, rather both sides need to have their points thoroughly analyzed before a comprehensive conclusion can be made. Author Robert Evans once said: “There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each differently.” As such, I’ve considered official statements from the US government, the CCP, anecdotes, and other outside sources when doing research for my project.

Something I’ve noticed throughout the research for this presentation, more than anything, is that history does indeed have patterns. Trends, whether in the past or present, will continue to pop up everywhere, and the same story will play out again and again. This is all the more reason to study history, not just for the sake of memorization but to prevent the same trends from repeating in the future.

Diving so deeply into one topic as dense as the Chinese history of media suppression has really given me an appreciation for thorough research, research that is so comprehensive that it helps to open so many new schools of thought.

That’s all for this week, dear readers.

I’ll keep you posted, and see you in the next update.