It's a Chinese history project. I've combined my interest in politics with my interest in military history to look at the People's Liberation Army. I'm writing an examination of the tension between military professionalism and the revolutionary army. I do not speak or read Chinese which denies my ability to do primary research. I access information on the Internet and travel to the Fairbank Institute of Asian Studies at Harvard.
Asian history is left on the sidelines or ignored in the American classroom.
I think it's very valuable in that most of the information I'm learning is completely new to me. The chief thing someone has to do academically is to find what interests them and pursue it. You'll find that the workload isn't a problem when your interest is heightened. The most compelling motif or lesson I've learned while studying history is the variety and omnipresence of oppression. I suppose that's heavy-handed but nonetheless that's how I see it.