Personal Statement
My curiosity for Chinese Studies originated from my upbringing, and my journey toward
graduate school has been shaped by a variety of experiences, including years of academic study
and invaluable professional activities. As far as I can remember, I have cultivated the habit of
reading classical novels since I was in elementary school. There are many Chinese classical
literary works on my bookshelf at home, many of which were purchased by my parents in the
bookstores and some of which were recommended by my teachers. In the beginning, I did not
know how to appreciate the beauty and mystery contained in ancient texts, and all I did was
flipping through the storyline. When I came across an interesting story, I would read it several
times, following the characters' experiences in the story, feeling the ups and downs of their
emotions, crying for them, and laughing for them. This experience inspired my curiosity and
interest in Chinese culture and classical literature. Whether in my overseas study trip or my
work experience in the literary and educational fields after returning to China, I have always
been exploring the spiritual power and cultural heritage behind the Chinese stories, hoping to
achieve self-enhancement and spiritual enrichment in the hustle and bustle. At the same time,
I want to help more young learners to discover their interests in Chinese culture and become
literature lovers.
My academic study at the University of Manchester helped me advance my language
proficiency in Chinese and English while giving me new insights into Chinese in the context
of the collision of Chinese and Western cultures. I learned how to study Chinese culture in a
new cultural context by studying several language courses. For example, I studied Chinese
Language and Introduction to Classical Chinese in my undergraduate program. Thanks to these
courses, I realized that learning Chinese is not simply a matter of exciting stories narrated in
fiction but also requires a rigorous knowledge base and serious documentary research to
integrate the development of Chinese classical novels. Meanwhile, to explore the different
stories' ideological content and artistic characteristics, it is necessary to evaluate them from
different perspectives, such as the psychology of creation and narrative techniques, thus
exploring the social environment, commercial development, and cultural elements they reflect.
This academic experience laid a solid foundation for my Chinese studies. It gained me a deeper
understanding of Chinese as a language, which also became a doorstop for my following jobs
as an editor and a Chinese language teacher in China.
In addition to my academic efforts, I have actively sought professional opportunities to
accumulate experience in Chinese literature creation and language teaching for many years.
My first internship was to assist in Chinese lessons at the Confucius Institute in Manchester,
where many local students were eager to learn about Chinese. During this working experience,
I learned a lot about Chinese culture that I had not learned in junior and senior high school in
China. Moreover, I also got to know some prejudice and stereotypes about Chinese culture
from western perspectives, which strengthened my determination to understand Chinese
culture more deeply and contribute to improving the present situation.
My second relevant working experience with Chinese studies was being an editor at Shanghai
Literature and Art Publishing House, which allowed me to work with text editing, reviewing,
and literary reading for almost two years. Since I had never done anything like it before, I admit
that when I first started this job, I found that reviewing, typesetting, and proofreading text day
after day was a very tedious task, making me feel exhausted. What's worse, this work even
made me doubt whether it was the right decision to choose this Chinese-related career.
Gradually, thanks to the guidance and encouragement of my superiors and colleagues, I began
to enjoy the work from another different aspect. For example, it was also my job to search for
attractive literature works and seek potential authors for cooperation, during which I felt like I
went back to my childhood days of reading classical novels. Sometimes when I dug up some
interesting stories and good writers, I could not help but feel a sense of joy and pride from the
bottom of my heart. I gradually realized that perhaps this is the value that the Chinese language
and culture can bring me, allowing me to find a comfortable and relaxed balance between my
work and myself.
Following is the third but the most valuable work experience for me: teaching Chinese to pupils.
I want to emphasize this teaching experience because it helped me become more interested in
Chinese studies and discover my possibility in Chinese language teaching. Through my 5-year
work experience in Dongfeng primary school, I gained a lot of exposure to teaching Chineselearning children of varying ages and backgrounds. While preparing for Chinese teaching
courseware, I have done thorough research on the levels of Chinese learning and tried my best
to find out the most appropriate depth and ranges of literary reading for children of different
ages with different learning needs. While providing Chinese lessons to students, I have
accumulated a lot of real cases about children's Chinese learning problems and made efforts to
adopt different Chinese texts and literary works to kindle students' interests in studying Chinese.
However, as I tried to venture into more advanced Chinese language teaching courses, I
realized that I had many limitations in Chinese studies. For instance, I am limited in knowledge
of Chinese history and traditional culture. Therefore, when I attempted to figure out the origin
and development of some Chinese characters from the writings in classical Chinese, I often
had to consult a lot of materials before elaborating on them to students. Also, whenever I
participated in weekly Teaching and Research activities, I was unable to give constructive
suggestions that could help enhance students' knowledge of classical culture, which motivated
me to learn more about Chinese studies at a deeper level. Upon learning that HSUHK offers a
MA program in Chinese, I see that this program is exactly what I need to enhance my ability
to appreciate the Chinese language, history, literature, and culture and lay a solid foundation
for my future career.
I chose HSUHK to pursue my Master's degree in Chinese for several reasons. First of all,
HSUHK enjoys a renowned reputation worldwide and provides students with a holistic,
transformative educational experience. Moreover, I took some time to explore this program,
and I became intrigued by the program's curriculum objectives and course content. I am
particularly attracted by one compulsory course called The Essentials of Sinology. This course
allows students to study the origins, development, and current status of Sinology and
understand the spread, evolution, and influence of Sinology internationally, through which I
feel that I can get to know more about traditional Chinese studies. Therefore, I am eager to join
this program to get the education and training needed to conduct more profound research into
the Chinese language and culture.
Overall, I am confident that my enthusiasm, motivation, and abundant professional experiences
in Chinese studies that I have already gained, have fully prepared me for my postgraduate study.
Suppose I am fortunate enough to become a successful applicant. I will make all the efforts to
succeed and become an expert in passing on and promoting excellent traditional culture to
Chinese literature lovers.