HDS communications reached out to our 2022 graduating students to hear from them in their own words about their experiences at HDS, the people who've helped and inspired them along their grad school journeys, and their plans for the future.
How I've Changed
One thing that hasn’t changed since my undergrad days is taking more classes than I can handle every semester. But since starting at HDS, I’ve gained a better understanding of myself: why I do what I do (especially what I see as mistakes), what I enjoy dabbling in, and what I can see myself studying professionally (the last two aren’t the same).
Most importantly, I’ve come to accept the importance of self-care and my own limitations as a human being. The “heavy-metal” playing style of my favorite soccer team doesn’t translate well to my academic life. I’ve been looking for ways to work both hard and smart, with more emphasis on the second part. “Passion and precision” is my motto for now, but I’m still looking for the devil in the details about where exactly I want to claim competency and expertise for as a scholar.
Memorable Moment
Besides waking up at 5:30 am three days a week throughout my entire first year to Zoom into my first-year Chinese class, it has to be making new friends and rekindling old friendships under all kinds of circumstances.
For example, last spring at the HDS Library I ran into a classmate from a German class and we became good friends. One time, I accidentally bumped into an old friend from Berkeley while running from one class to another. And someone I met at SOAS in the U.K. three years ago came here as an exchange student and became my apartment mate.
Whenever I think of these friendships, the world is re-enchanted for me. As a rock song goes, “better to save the mystery than surrender to the secret.” With this sense of awe, I’ll keep being a student of life, which has its own sense of humor and mysteries to reveal.
Favorite Class or Professor
I see this question as an opportunity for special shout-outs to two professors I've studied with every single semester.
All the classes I’ve taken with Professor Hallisey have taught me how to become a critical, demanding, and imaginative reader of Buddhist literature, canonical and otherwise. The cherry on top is making students read Pali in Thai script. I’ve always wanted to study Thai and the cultural-religious interactions between pre-modern Myanmar and Thailand, so knowing the script is already one crucial step in that direction.
On the other hand, the entire two-year literary Chinese series at the EALC department has opened for me so many doors including but not limited to understanding my own heritage as diasporic Chinese and appreciating Chinese literary, philosophical, and religious traditions. One of my fondest memories at HDS is reading Ming-Qing sources on China-Myanmar relations with patient guidance and insightful feedback of Professor Sena.
Message of Thanks
-My advisor Professor Hallisey
-Professor Robson for moderating talks on Myanmar and initiating me into the study of East Asian religions
-Beatrice for teaching me Pali and checking on me because of the political situation in Myanmar
-Staff at GSAS Student Center and Harvard-Yenching libraries for creating warm work environments
-My peer mentors Phuong, Sakiko, and Steven
-HBC friends (Chantal, Eva, Justin, Keila, Liem) for spiritual friendship and practice
-Herr Sena for keeping me company at work and nourishing me with home-cooked-āmiṣa-pratisaṃstara
-Qi for her dhamma-paṭisaṇṭhāra with all matters Sinological
-Máire for dragging me into study of Shaivism and Vedic Sanskrit (you only succeeded with the latter)
-Peter for basking in the glory of Liverpool F.C. by watching their games with me at The Phoenix Landing
-Liverpool F.C. for inspiring me with their quadruple dream
-My parents for their unconditional love
-My sisters for sharing cute photos of their cats
What I Hope to Be Remembered By
I hope I’ve been consistently kind, helpful, and respectful to everyone that has crossed my path. At least that’s what I aspired to be, like this sage: “When he was ill, the ruler paid a visit. He lay with his head facing east, covered with his court robes, his sash laid across them.”
Future Plans
I’ll be working on my PhD applications in the fall. I’ve spent two years studying East and South Asia at Harvard to work on Southeast Asia in the future. I hope to study literary works from pre-modern Myanmar, taking inspiration and theories from the voluminous research that has been done on Indic and Chinese literature—on the one hand, how Burmese authors exploited features of Burmese like their Chinese colleagues did with a similar language and, on the other hand, how Pali and Sanskrit literature have been influential to the rise of vernacular literature in Myanmar.
Other than that, I’m planning to study Japanese during the gap year so that I can read Japanese scholarship on Buddhist studies and Myanmar. I’ll also be helping the Harvard-Yenching Library with their Tibetan collection in the summer. Dabbling in Sino-Tibeto-Burman linguistics is another rarefied pleasure in life that has appeared on my horizon.