A Blog on McConnell Center Life

Alicia Humphrey Class of 2017 To a large extent, it is still true that American women are constantly bombarded with images of photo-shopped models: tall, blonde, tan and cellulite-free, in clothing stores, at makeup counters, in magazines, on billboards, online and on TV as a representation of what it means to be beautiful. These undeniably gorgeous women are simply meant to sell products—clothing, makeup, jewelry, even food. However, the lack of a diversity of body types seen in advertisements has been recently recognized as damaging, communicating the idea that being thin is the only way to be beautiful. Although we as a nation are nowhere near a truly representative modeling industry, many companies have contributed to a growing body-positive movement, including women of different shapes and sizes in their advertisements as Dove has done, or refusing to photo-shop models, as Aerie does. The underlying idea is that one body type should not be held up as ideal, and that all wome...

Alicia Humphrey Class of 2017 Upon being advised to avoid even discussing the topic of Taiwan in a political context while studying in China, I immediately became curious about why a small international player that so few people in the U.S. concern themselves with is such a hot topic in China. I found that Taiwan, regardless of its place in the public policy sphere in China, the U.S., or Japan, is in fact incredibly significant on the foreign policy scene. Taiwan has dramatically influenced the relationship between these three players for years, straining the China-U.S. relationship as well as the already tense China-Japan relationship, and strengthening the Japan-U.S. bond. In fact, the U.S.’s traditional hedging of growing Chinese power has much to do with the nation’s position against Taiwan’s independence, while the U.S.’s strong ties to Japan are strongly correlated to the two nation’s shared position concerning Taiwan. However, despite these differences and the taboo nat...

Diana Lalata Class of 2017 Climate change has been a hot topic of concern in the media and on the agendas of many politicians seeking to foster better relations between the United States and China. When reflecting on the topic, my mind jumped immediately to images of busy streets in China’s megacities with crowds of people equipped with blue face masks to prevent the inhalation of China's "not-so-great" air quality. Many who have visited China, specifically past McConnell Scholar classes, have warned about the smog that covers Shanghai and Beijing, which makes it difficult to breathe, or on some days, to even see the full skyline of the city. Before coming to China, I knew little to nothing about China's climate change policies, much less the politics of climate change between China and the United States. After reading about and researching more on the topic of climate change in China, I gained a better understanding of the difficulties that lie behind legislati...

Diana Lalata Class of 2017 "English is quickly becoming the world's lingua franca," stated my linguistics professor in my History of the English Language class this past spring. A "lingua franca" is defined as a language that is widely used as a means of communication among speakers of other languages. Although past languages have battled for the privilege of serving as the world’s lingua franca, progressive academics in the linguistics field have aspired to create a new language which fuses multiple languages together and uses a new set of grammar rules. There are arguments for and against English as the "world language," yet most linguists can agree that the English language is rising in the ranks of international usage. From my own travels throughout China, I found this observation not only true, but also extremely interesting, as I saw both the benefits and burdens of the spread of English.  Upon my arrival to the Xi’an Xianyang Internatio...

Aaron Vance Class of 2017 While our journey in China is drawing to a close, and it can easily be said that I have much to write on the experience alone, I want to take this blog and turn it outwards to the world of international relations. Following a seminar I shared with my fellow classmates and Dr. Hua over Ch. 5 of our book, Getting the Triangle Straight: Managing China-Japan-US Relations, I want to return to the idea of the Thucydides Trap. Andrew Oros, writing the chapter a few years before Graham Allison’s publication of his essay on Thucydides Trap conjures a similar situation that focuses on the rise of a great power in a system that has only one major stable power. And, while it is easy to put the pieces together and draw a conclusion from a simple equation, it is much more evident that such thinking may not hold true in the 21 st century; specifically between Sino-American relations.  Noting that there is much to be said on the history of stable-power and risi...

Miranda Mason Class of 2019 You are what you eat.  We've all heard the old cliche which is meant to remind people that what they take into their bodies defines their health.  However, many people haven't considered that you eat what you are.  Food is a reflection of the culture of the people who make it and intake it.  I never understood this valuable correlation until I came to visit Athens, Greece, which has a rich cuisine befitting the rich history and values of the Hellenic Republic (the official name of the country most of us call “Greece”).  Imagine that you arrive to a table with water and utensils set out.  As soon as you are seated, a basket of bread takes its rightful place next to you.  It might be pita bread, fluffy white bread or coarse brown bread with sesame seeds.  You begin to eat the bread, and after half the basket is empty, appetizers begin to arrive.  There are fried zucchini bites, cheese pies, leafy salads, Gr...

Jacob Abrahamson Class of 2017 Beijing has perhaps been the most enlightening part of my visit to China, and it is the perfect culmination of a month-long trip where I have been beginning to understand Chinese political culture a little bit better.  One topic that came up often is that one obstacle to U.S.-China relations is ideological differences. It will always be easier for the U.S. to work with other democracies, so China is seen as less friendly to our national ideals. In my view, we already have close economic ties, but I agree that we will never really be friendly to one another as long as we have this ideological difference. That is why seeing the cultural and political sites in Beijing has been some enlightening: they have shown me how powerful rhetoric is in China, but how far it can be from reality. On day one in China you see that every common piece of paper money has the same picture of Mao Zedong on it. One of the most famous spots in Beijing, the Tiana...