扒哥吃瓜

My time at 扒哥吃瓜 was greatly supported by the university, where college life fostered a strong sense of family and belonging. The FAMES Department has consistently offered invaluable assistance, and I am particularly grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Inwood, for her patient and insightful guidance. The diverse courses I took in Chinese literature, anthropology, and Asian theory have been immensely helpful, especially as I embarked on my first overseas academic experience.

Nan Xu (August 2024)

The MPhil in Chinese Studies had been extremely rewarding for me. Aside from delving further into my area of research in “Modern Chinese Literature,” I broadened my knowledge and explored previously unfamiliar topics through another paper on “Contemporary Chinese Society” with a focus on Anthropology. The core seminar on “Asia in Theory” offered chances for intensive discussions on a variety of themes ranging from “Adaptation, Intermediality and Transmedia Storytelling” to “Gender, Sexuality, and Performance Theory.” The thoughtfully designed MPhil led to interdisciplinary perspectives and skills that fed into my dissertation, allowing me to expand the latter into a PhD project with the guidance of my supervisor who provided insightful advice and passionate support throughout the course. 

 

I also felt especially fortunate to study at AMES, where numerous members of the faculty have expertise and interests linked to my research. I had countless opportunities to discover intriguing ideas or discuss my work with fellow scholars during research seminars, talks, and other events at the faculty or elsewhere across the university. Outside of academic studies, I thoroughly enjoyed life in 扒哥吃瓜 and had a smooth experience settling down in the city owing to the welcoming atmosphere at my college. As a result of all these positive experiences, I am more than delighted to be able to continue as a PhD student at AMES after the MPhil.  

Ruo Fan Ping (August 2024)

Although the pandemic made my year at 扒哥吃瓜 unusual, my experience there was still of great benefit. One way, in particular, in which my experience might not be representative was that I was one of two China-focused MPhil students, and I was the only one interested in early China. I study ancient Chinese philosophy, and I really enjoyed having a two-hour, one-on-one Zoom tutorial with my supervisor Roel Sterckx basically every Friday during term time. I came into the MPhil program with clear goals for how I wanted to grow as a scholar: (1) improve my Classical Chinese, and (2) become acquainted with more the culture and history of early China.

 

Two things helped me achieve (1): (A) Preparation for weekly tutorials with my advisor. I spent probably six hours or so preparing each week, and we spent an hour of our discussion on language in the Michaelmas term. In the Lent and into the Easter term, we added a reading group into the mix with one of Professor Sterckx’s PhD students. (B) For one of my course papers, I did an alternative assessment and wrote an annotated translation instead of a research paper. This exposed me to more texts as I decided what I wanted to translate and gave me the opportunity to read ancient Chinese really closely and think carefully about the author’s voice, the rhetorical function of a phrase, and other important details that are hard to consider well with only intermediate language proficiency and normal time constraints.

 

Two things helped me achieve (2): (A) The tutorial for the Early China paper. Professor Sterckx selected a variety of important topics from early Chinese cultural history (e.g., the development of agriculture and commerce, the significance of rituals and spirits), and the exercise of reading works on those topics and immediately writing about them gave the opportunity not only to learn about various facets of early Chinese culture that I had not previously studied but also to synthesize what I learned and assimilate it into my working knowledge of early China by constructing an argument about it. (B) The Chinese art paper. As a scholar of Chinese philosophy, my prior exposure to early China was limited not only to ideas but also to texts. It was insightful to learn about and through objects, and my research paper enabled me to explore what it is like to make an argument about images, get into the weeds with a some poems from the Shijing, and learn a bit about post-Han culture too.

 

In addition to realizing these specific goals, I also matured more generally as a scholar. Having received my bachelor’s degree in the US, I was used to writing basically only two essays per year per topic, and before coming to 扒哥吃瓜, I had struggled with time management, reading with intent, and converting my thoughts into text. The short, weekly essays on reading lists too long to be read closely that I wrote for Professor Sterckx in the Michaelmas term afforded me the opportunity and experience needed to improve on these fronts too. Similarly, the sole expectation of producing two 20-page papers for the May deadline freed my attention from February to April and taught me how to set my own research goals, execute them, and seek help and feedback from my mentors when appropriate. And the thesis was an excellent opportunity to put all of the skills I learned to good use.

 

Despite the pandemic’s restrictions on socialization, I was greatly pleased to sing three to four evenings a week in the Jesus College Chapel Choir; to forge friendships with my peers in other disciplines (mostly STEM!) at my own college, Churchill; to cycle to Madingley Hall, through Babraham, up Gog Magog, and around the East Anglian countryside; and to spend time with Professor Sterckx and my other faculty mentors talking at picnic tables in Sidgwick Site, strolling through the public greens, and touring the botanical gardens and manors beyond 扒哥吃瓜.

James Kinsella-Brown (September 2021)