So, my topic was about how China was coping with the numerous catastrophes of 2020 and how it was changing as a result. The main reasons why I picked this topic, a foreign topic is twofold:
The first reason why I really did not want to do a domestic topic. Doing domestic topics are too prone to get political and personal. I do not like when topics get political when talking about the modern era because things get personal and nasty and eventually it becomes a glorified political screaming contest in the form of written papers. I also do not like to do personal or interpersonal projects as when people do personal projects it mentions the daily lives of people, which is fine and all, but I tend to find such topics somewhat dull. Unless there is something special about this particular person’s life or this one practice had earth changing consequences it all feels mundane and every day. It is just so similar to my own life that I feel like I’m still stuck in my own everyday grind and not in another place and time. Not to mention that it tends to get awfully depressing.
The second reason I picked my topic is that I am fascinated by higher end history, that is to say political, diplomatic, and military history. Because whereas in popular history things tend to be mundane and most details don’t matter in the grand scheme of things, whereas in political, diplomatic, and military history are more eventful, for instance depending on who won a particular battle the would could change drastically in a single day (look at how the one day battle of Manzikert lead to modern Turkey). And given that China is a great power looking to become a superpower how it acts and behaves could shape the future of the world for at least 100 years, with ramifications to be seen for hundreds of years more (at least).
To put it into simple terms I’m studying the effects of COVID-19 on China because the entire world would be living with the results of this crucial time for the next hundred years (like how today we’re still dealing with the effects of the fall of the Soviet Union).
This probably has something to do with me being a white male catholic, which means that minority issues don’t hit me on a personal level or have as much of an emotional effect on me. But I think that the bigger factor in my interest is that the first histories I ever read were the campaigns of Alexander and Julius Caesar. So after having gotten accustomed to the high-level view of history I’ve found it impossible to get invested in the much less impactful popular history. Especially as most people in every race, religion and creed don’t do anything that will be remembered after 100 years. Even the vast majority of revolutions and rebellions are waged by those who already have some power.