Yes, loyal blog-followers, you read that right. I am now sharing a name with one of the biggest personalities in children's breakfast cereal. Unfortunately, this captain doesn't get the plethora of benefits (i.e. the hat, the ship, the moustache) that come with the title. The only thing I'm crunching on is work. It's that period in life we all love to bemoan: crunch time. To be fair, it's not the worst I've had. The workload at GSSM was significantly greater, but here the temptation to do other things is so much higher! Face it, one of the perks of studying abroad is the chance to travel and go sight-seeing--if only just around Hong Kong. However, potential adventures involving Hong Kong cultural and historic landmarks are on hiatus until January. As Arnold Schwarzenegger once so elegantly put it: "I will be back."
Just as a little reassurance, starting the final crunch this early is actually self-imposed. I don't have any tests until December. Experience has shown me that pacing myself is key, and that's exactly what I intend to do for my first round of finals at CUHK. The competition's tight, considering that CUHK is ranked 4th among Asian universities for 2010, and 42nd world-wide. I've had the best possible training, though, and I have faith in the mad crazy study skillz that once earned me a (gasp!) Wagner Chemistry Pencil. As a side-note, I still intend to have said pencil encased in gold and put in a bulletproof display case to pass on to my children and grandchildren. Thankfully, none of my work for this semester requires the 1.5 month-long round-the-clock studying and problem-working that I put in for that test on Chemical Equilibrium 3 years ago.
Here's the "upcoming events" in my academic life:
Nov.27th--Finance Assignment 2 Due (status: complete!)
Dec.1st--Statistics Final Exam
Dec.2nd--Management Final Exam
Dec.3rd--Putonghua Final Listening Exam
Dec.6th--Finance Final Exam (pray for me!)
Dec.8th (or10th)--Putonghua Final Oral Exam
Dec.9th--Political Economy in Asia Final Paper Due
Dec.10th--Management Final Group Paper Due
Sounds fun, right? I've been cycling my notes around for the classes in which I have final exams, especially for Statistics and Finance...with certain emphasis on Finance since it's the most difficult class for me.
I've also been working rather diligently on research for my Political Economy in Asia paper, considering that I want to have it at least mostly finished before exams begin. The paper itself is a 15 page paper on a topic of my choice--as long as it's related to Asian political economy issues--and the teacher's rule-of-thumb is at least one resource per page. I've found 17 sources worth using so far, and my goal is 20, so all is going well in the research phase. As for my topic, I'm studying ethnic conflicts in China's Xinjiang Province between the national majority, Han Chinese, and Xinjiang's local minority (which is the majority there), the Uyghurs. About 99% of China is Han Chinese, but in Xinjiang it's almost 50/50 Han and Uyghur, although before the 1990s, it was closer to 90% Uyghur. This is a rather hot topic right now in Asian politics, and is extremely controversial--even in the US! But that just makes it more interesting, doesn't it?
Here's about as short and simple as I can make it: Uyghurs say they've been in Xinjiang for 6000 years, and the Han Chinese say they've been there for 2000. The Uyghurs are ethnically Turkish, speak a special Uyghur language (which is in the Turkic language family and uses an Arabic writing system), and practice Islam. The Han are, well, Chinese, speak Putonghua, and usually practice either Buddhism, Taoism, or no religion whatsoever. The PRC (People's Republic of China) provides preferential education, employment, and religious and cultural freedom to the Han. Most job applications even have printed at the bottom: Non-Han Need Not Apply. Schools teach only in Putonghua, and the few mosques that haven't been forcefully shut-down by the government are under constant surveillance. Needless to say, there are some rather angry Uyghurs around the ancient Silk Road area. Several times in Chinese history, Xinjiang has successfully separated from China, the longest period being for almost 1000 years and the shortest being less than 1 year. The PRC regards Xinjiang as an ancient and inseparable part of China...which probably has a lot more to do with massive oil deposits than cultural heritage. On top of resource exploitation and social policies reminiscent of the Jim Crow laws of early 20th-century America, China also made Xinjiang the country's official nuclear-test site in the 1990s. Although no test bombs have been set off since 1996, the number of people--especially Uyghurs (the testing sites were all close to predominantly Uyghur villages)--with leukemia, bizarre birth defects, and children with cancer have almost tripled in the years since. No official investigation of this is allowed, and doctors who state any suspicion, well...disappear. Many Uyghurs are pushing for separation from China and for the establishment of their own country, under the name of either Uyghurstan or East Turkestan. While most of them are good law-abiding Muslims, there are some groups that have formed (i.e. the East Turkestan Islamic Movement) that support active disobedience. Some of it is civil disobedience, but a lot of it has erupted into riotous violence--although in most cases, it's practically impossible to tell which side (Han or Uyghur) started it. There are also reports of Uyghurs escaping into neighboring Afghanistan to receive training from jihadist groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. A lot of people have died on both sides in Xinjiang, and because of that the PRC government has severely tightened control on the whole province--even shutting off the Internet and cutting all the phone lines for 10 months last year. Basically, it's a huge mess over there. The goal of my 15-page paper is to analyze the roots of the conflict and, based on my findings, come up with some policy-suggestions for the PRC government to employ in Xinjiang. I hope 15 pages is enough, but I somehow think I need more...too bad I can't go over. If anyone has suggestions about my paper topic, I'm happy to hear them!
The group paper for management won't be a really big deal. We've got the work split between 4 people. We have 3 sections decided on for the paper. The 3 guys are researching those and writing a few pages each on their given sections. I'll take the sections they wrote, add an introduction and conclusion, and then edit the whole thing to make it flow better. I also get the job of formatting the bibliography. I really don't like doing research, though, so writing and editing are a lot more appealing.
So, now that I've bored y'all to tears over the details of my academic life, I'll move on to upcoming events in the non-academic portion that makes up probably just over 2% of my life right now. On Wednesday evening, Su and I are going on a mini-adventure to Tai Po Market. It'll be only for about an hour so therefore a good study break, but the reason we're going is for one of Hong Kong's famous winter delicacies: snake soup. Mmm, right? I'll let y'all know how that goes since I've never had snake before. Here's a fun article from the New York Times about it: http://www.nytimes.com/1984/01/29/travel/snake-soup-can-be-a-charmer.html?pagewanted=1.
Thursday, as all my American readers are well-aware, is Thanksgiving Day. While you're all gorging on delicious turkey, gravy, stuffing, green beans, and...mmm...sweet potato casserole...I'll be having class from 8:30am straight to 5:30pm on my lovely Turkey Holocaust Day. Alas, missing out on Thanksgiving is one of the down-sides to studying abroad. Still, I have a lot to be thankful for. For example, JJ making reservations at Jimmy's Kitchen in Tsim Sha Tsui for an American IBCE student Thanksgiving dinner. Our reservation is for 8:30pm, which to me is really late, but I'm still willing to work around it. The only real drawback is that my Thanksgiving dinner will easily be the most expensive meal I've had in Hong Kong since it'll be close to US$45...yikes! All I can say is that it better be good. I'll be sure to take my camera so that I can share my Thanksgiving pictures with everyone.
On that note, I'm sorry for posting no pictures this time around. Nothing that I've been up to lately has been particularly photo-worthy. For the non-Hong Kong readers, expect things to pick up again on the picture-taking and slightly-more-interesting-blog-writing front starting next semester. As for my Hong Kong readers, I'll try to share a little more about my Christmas back in America, which should be an interesting cultural difference.
Last things last, I have my finalized classes for next semester:
MKTG2010: Introduction to Marketing
HTMG2010: English Composition
ACCT2121: Managerial Accounting
DSME2050: Information Systems and Statistics
CPTH4443: Level 4 Putonghua
Looks like no classes on Friday too. How sweet is that?
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