Berkeley emailed and asked for a one sentence summary of my research interests. I gave them this:
"Rural voice in Chinese environmental policy, social geographies in post-Marxism."
and I feel rather pretentious for my vocabulary. Also, had I not sent this immediately after waking up and reading the request on a Saturday morning, I might have thought more carefully and not said "post-." Though Reform and Opening starting in the 1980s has ended the 'collective period' of China's social (and especially land) organization, a number of banners in the National Day parade proclaimed that Marxism is still the official line ('马克思思考万岁!'－'May Marxist thought last ten thousand years!').
Did any of you watch this parade? I watched the soldiers march and the banners wave for a couple of hours, but I couldn't last the whole thing through. National Day is October 1st, so I'm a little behind on talking to you about it.
Here's a video of the first ten minutes: President Hu Jintao Reviews Chinese Troops
Interesting country, I'm living in.
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I think you can't get around being a little pretentious in academia. You have to use the correct jargon or you won't get any respect. At my defense, way to much time was spent on semantics, and not enough on ideas. Aaaahhh, grad school is so fun, are you sure you want to go through with it?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, my biggest piece of advice for grad school is to choose an advisor who has a good track record with mentoring students, and who you think you can work well with. This is more important the which program you decide to join and what research you do. If you get stuck with someone who's negative and destructive, it will be tough to finish your degree, even if it the coolest research project in the world.
Just my two cents...