My Diverse Academic Interests In Law, Politics And Economics

Choosing a university subject was quite a trouble for me, due to my wide variety of interest which stem from my personality as a quick learner. My expansive range of interest is hinted from the fact that I was the vice chairperson of the Hong Kong Joint School Mathematics Society and the honorary secretary of the Joint School Geography Association at the same time. However, when I first came across with the list of university undergraduate program, the multidisciplinary PPE have instantly grabbed my attention, besides Law and Urban Planning, as it perfectly covers my diverse academic interests.

I grew up in one of the most chaotic era of Hong Kong – the post-handover period, which sparked off my enthusiasm for studying law, politics, economics and philosophy. I wish my university course can deepen my understanding of these fields. During the umbrella movement that took place when I was form three, I joined the class boycott. I questioned why the universal suffrage proposal rolled out by the Chinese government in which candidates are screened is not democratic and why we should not accept it. This inserted me the concept that universal suffrage does not necessarily equate democracy. Therefore, I studied about the political system around the world including the UK’s where people do not directly vote for their own prime minister and the US’s where the candidate with less popular vote turned out to be the president. I read “Electoral Systems and Democracy” edited by Larry Diamond, Marc F. Plattner in order to answer my queries about why these systems are still considered democratic. During the movement, thousands of Hongkongese were sent to occupy the main roads. One of the organizers, professor Benny Y. T. Tai, a law professor claimed that the civil disobedience obeys the rule of law, while the government hold the exact opposite stance. I doubted why the protestors are explicitly breaking the law by occupying main roads but still to some extent our actions are in line with the rule of laws. To solve my problem, I read Tom Bingham’s “The Rule of Law”, and it inspired me to think about what gives the law its authority and legitimacy. Philosophy has been a huge part of my life since I became an English debater in form one. During the process of preparing motions regarding justice, I read Thomas Nagel’s “What Does It All Mean?”, and it took me to the world of philosophy. I am especially fascinated by the section on death in the book, which led me to think about what is death, how do we die, why creatures need to die, and whether we are aware of our nonexistence after we die. Although the DSE Liberal Studies course provided me with some basic of philosophy, it is very limited, thus I went on to take the Philosophy and Critical Thinking course (META101x) offered by The University of Queensland on EdX. The course has largely enhanced my philosophical thinking skills and led to my outstanding performance in my debating career and the role of vice chairman in my school’s English Debating Society.

Being a global citizen, I am a regular reader of the Economist. For the time being, I am particularly concerned about the US-China trade war as Hong Kong is heavily influenced by it. I tried to apply my knowledge learnt from my DSE Economics to analyze the issue, but I found it inadequate, so I moved on to read Ronald Findlay and Kevin H. O'Rourke’s “Power and Plenty” to learn about international trade. I do not share the belief with Donald Trump that Trade wars are good, and easy to win because protectionism ultimately harms export and weaken the industry, thus lowering both the quality and quantity of domestic products. I wish to study in the UK as it is where the top-tier universities are found and they will construct my unique viewpoints in the future. My 8 in IELTS and 6 years of secondary education mainly in English are clear evidence that I’m capable of studying in English.