Hi Ethan,

I enjoy reading your essay! It really depicts the problem of population aging in Taiwan in depth. I especially like how you use powerful statistical data at the beginning to give us the most direct feeling of how severe this issue is in Taiwan. And you also clearly explain the reasons behind this issue with a variety of sources. But I want to hear more of your own voices, which can make your arguments even better!

You mention that population aging has a multifaceted nature, so given its complex essence, does it mean that the solution to this…

Over the past few decades, to meet Chinese high-school students’ growing demand to study abroad at overseas colleges, first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen have developed relatively mature international education systems with a variety of renowned international schools and overseas programs. But in small, less-developed cities like my hometown Hefei, the situation is much trickier. Hefei has struggled with implementing a well-designed, diversified international curriculum that can provide students with authentic internationalized education, particularly under the constraint of government censorship. In fact, Hefei is a microcosm of the dismal current state of many other cities’ international education. …

In my WP3, I explored how international education in my city Hefei is less competitive compared to that in first-tier cities in China. It pushes me to think of the bigger issue of education inequality — -who can get access to higher western education remains a question in Chinese society. Not just in China, but in many other countries in the world, there has always been an internal imbalance in educational resources and opportunities. …

Recently, a piece of breaking news hit my city Hefei: a student named Helen from Hefei No.1 High School was admitted to MIT, becoming the first student in Anhui province who ever got an offer from this Ivy League school. Besides her, the other seven Chinese students accepted to MIT all come from first-tier cities: Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. It seems not surprising that those students from big-city international schools can get the offer, but when it comes to the case in Hefei, a less well-known small city, it raises eyebrows. People ask: what is special about the international program…

Over the past few decades, China’s growing middle class and the newly affluent have increasingly sent their children abroad for higher education or enrolled them in international schools at home with the ultimate goal of entering overseas colleges. It’s such a common phenomenon in first-tier cities like Beijing or Shanghai, as they’ve developed a relatively mature international education system with all kinds of prestigious international schools and overseas programs. But in small, less-developed cities like Hefei, the situation is much trickier.

In the CGTN article, the author defines three types of international schools that are allowed by China’s Ministry of…

Unlike first-tier cities like Beijing or Shanghai that have very formal international education systems and many prestigious international schools for students who want to study abroad, my city Hefei doesn’t even have an international school, but it only has the so-called international department of a traditional Chinese high school. That means we don’t have a well-designed international curriculum, diversified extracurricular activities, or professional college counseling. Such a lack of a comprehensive international education system in Hefei reduces students’ advantages in competing for college applications.

For students like me, we are totally annoyed by such an inadequate system. We have to…

Hi Jessie,

Good job on your rough draft! As a K-Pop fan myself, I definitely agree with you that BTS’s influence in the Western world is unprecedented. I really like how you argue that the change in this band’s outfits and styles have challenged the predominant version of masculinity in the U.S. You offer many strong examples that can prove your argument well. And I think your argument about how BTS’s participation in the American Music Industry subjects them to the self-interested American imperialistic society and domineering Western popular culture is very interesting and thought-provoking! …

From the earliest days of the movie industry, very few superhero movies have developed a continuous storyline that could stretch for decades. Marvel Studios is among the few who have crafted a massive superhero universe. After a painstaking 21-film build-up, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has finally come to the end of its fourth phase with the worldwide release of Avengers: Endgame in 2019. China, as a key film market for Marvel Studios, was lucky enough to welcome this blockbuster’s premiere. Not surprisingly, the movie was an instant hit in China and became Hollywood’s most successful title and the highest-grossing film…