XXXX University is my first choice for graduate school towards the MA Degree in Asian Studies for a variety of reasons, most importantly the fact that there are several faculty members at XXXX whose research dovetails nicely with my own research aspirations for the future. The Bay Area is also where I want to be because I am an activist for the LGBT community. I am committed to studying the cause of modernization in my country, China, particularly with respect to issues of gender and sexual orientation. I feel strongly that my undergraduate studies have prepared me for excellence as a graduate student in Asian Studies at XXXX.
I want to promote greater social equality in China in particular – and Asia more generally speaking - for a host of discriminated and marginalized groups, rural-urban immigrants, sex workers, gay people, “left-over women” (women who are still unmarried after the age of 28), etc. Closely observing recent processes of legalization of same-sex marriage in Taiwan as well as Germany has me enthused with respect to our hopes for mainland China. Gay people in China suffer from different degrees of social discrimination at the hands of both the State and private individuals and groups. For many of those who choose to embrace their identities, family issues, mental illness, workplace discrimination and harassment etc., continue to plague them, which may lead to distorted lives for them and their surroundings.
As a result of pressure to continue the family line, for example, many gay men lie to straight women about their sexual orientation in the hope that their proposals of marriage will be accepted, and an heir produced to appease their parents. The result is traumatic for everyone involved, the gay man at the center, the woman duped into a false marriage, their respective families, and any children that might result from such a marriage, all locked in a cruel charade.
There is a lot of work to be done in China before the validity of same-sex marriage is recognized. Yet, I look forward to consistent, yet gradual, increases in human liberty and the recognition of human rights in this regard. At the current stage, the Chinese State is not the key issue for most LGBT groups in China. Rather, these groups tend to focus more on the area of public opinion, addressing what is seen as a lack of understanding and communication between the minority and the majority. China has a lot of “coming out” to do, not just gay people coming out to their parents, but also parents coming out to the public through their public acceptance of their gay children.
I look forward to an in-depth analysis of the many ways in which Chinese people are becoming more flexible with respect to gender issues. Thus, it would be a special honor for me to study under Professor ____ whose primary research focuses on the role of transnational capital in the transformation of (East) Asian societies.
I also profoundly admire the work of Professor ____ that deals with the centrality of social identity, especially relevant for China. I find his reflections on the fluidity of the “social self” to be especially inspiring. I seek a full immersion as well in social media, the Internet, and the role of state censorship in China. Thus, studying under Professor Xiao Qiang would be another dream made reality at Berkeley, learning everything that I can, in particular, about the role of Chinese public opinion. Naturally, I hope to focus my research in this area on online LGBTQ communities in China and obstacles they may face due the state censorship and control of the internet. Finally, the work of Professor ____ in Comparative Literature could round out the interdisciplinary flavor of my education at Berkeley, putting her concept of ‘gender performativity’ to the test in the Chinese arena. I want to dedicate myself to researching social issues in China, organizing like-minded people for progressive issues in a human-centric manner, so as to maximize our spiritual and moral as well as material lives.
Despite a timeless prohibition in China of gay relations and the fact that the Communist State has always heavily promoted heteronormativity, same-gender attraction has never stopped thriving in numerous ways, always there as an undercurrent beneath the surface and most often in the closet. This itself breeds social disfunction, perpetuates unhealthy stereotypes, and does nothing for social progress towards a more harmonious society, supposedly, the central goal in China.
The strict one-child policy from the Maoist era is no longer with us. Now China allows families to have two children if one of the parents is an only child. This new two-child policy is designed to address the issue of aging in China. Among a host of issues in which I look forward to engaging is the lingering, widespread presence of female infanticide due the traditional preference – and aggravated by the one-child policy – of Chinese people for having a son instead of a daughter, particularly when they are allowed only one child. Family, sex, traditional values, and national policy are all entangled together in complex webs of social injustice and disfunction with repression breeding social and moral decay. Myself and my colleagues in the Chinese LGBT community have great hope that more liberal policies will take hold regarding sexuality in China, not so much because this is what justice requires, but because it is good for business and the economy.
MA Asian Studies Personal Statement Pursuing Equality in China
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