S.O.P. - China and my Plan of Study

As threatened, I'm posting my brain storm / brain dump for my statement of purpose. Unedited, all I've done is try to make headings. I'm estimating this is about 75% of the basic thoughts that have led me to my decision to attend graduate school in IEP. I divided it into 7 sections. It's a bit long. About 3500 words. Yeah. So it needs to be about 500. Any advice on how to cut, or maybe better what to keep, and in what order the topics should go, would be appreciated and really helpful... I'm actually feeling a bit stuck. Every section seems of utmost importance to me, and my application. How do I cut out 6/7s of it?

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WHY EMPHASIZE CHINA?
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I am incredibly fortunate to be born to two former teachers, and a culture that prizes education. They moved to America when I was four to take advantage of the land of opportunity. I grew up speaking Chinese with my grandparents, and my mom made it a point to have books illustrating different aspects of Chinese culture and history around the house. I have watched, fascinated, as China has grown, economically, politically, even populationally (is that a word?!) in the last ten, twenty years. And I've discovered that their smallest action makes a large impact. Two events brought this home for me. About ten years ago Big Tobacco was sued by the American public, and as a result, they went on a huge publicity campaign encouraging healthy habits. I was in China, and remember hearing a statistic that mentioned the number of people who take up smoking every year. I remember being staggered by the number and realizing how Big Tobacco could afford to lose money in cigarettes in America, as long a portion of people in China (and around the world) continued to smoke.

Recently, I learned that China has banned the use of certain items like disposable chopsticks in restaurants, and plastic bags in some stores. Now, to get disposable chopsticks in a restaurant, you need to ask for them. Everyone generally shows up with their own travelling chopsticks. I have my own. I also have a cloth bag that lives, folded up, in my purse. It's such a tiny thing. But imagine a billion people doing a tiny thing, every day, every week.


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PLAN OF STUDY
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In my graduate school career, I wish to absorb everything I can about modern Chinese political culture and the differences between how China and the U.S. create policies, and how American environmental organizations can use this knowledge to their advantage and engage in the most effective dialogue with local Chinese leaders to make the most positive, tangible impact.

It seems to me that among those who will be the best in making effective changes will be the smaller non-profit organizations. They are flexible and agile enough, and small enough, to enthusiastically dealing with this issue that a larger name-brand non-profit or a governmental body may have difficulty navigating bureaucracy through. I want to be able to give them the tools to make their job easier. In the next few years I expect to interact and learn how and what things are being done to make China and the world more environmentally pro-active.



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WHY ME? -MY CHINESE ROOTS
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something else I bring to the table is being Chinese.

In another way, I also feel fortunate to straddle the two cultures in a precise way that allows me the full advantages of both. I was born in Taiwan, a circumstance I think that gives me a fuller appreciation of Chinese culture than my California-born sister. As an only child for seven years, I lived with grandparents, aunts and uncles and experienced more Chinese culture than other Chinese kids around me. Learning Chinese is from the outside is not the same as being Chinese on the inside. I look at my Caucasian classmates who have an enviable Chinese vocabulary, and yet I don't feel they can truly conceive, as they were not instilled with, the same values that millenia of Chinese parents have imparted upon their children.
On the other hand, moving here at the age of four, soaking up America culture, devouring English language books, I was also the lucky product of a first-class education in competitive California schools, I feel that duality gives me a rare insight to both cultures that is difficult to learn.

With these two, I feel I am in a unique position to understand, and translate, a Chinese way of thinking and priorities and relate this to an international goal. How to show that an environmentally green future is in their best interests and yes, in the interests of their (and our) future generations.


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