I would like to gain entrance to Carnegie Mellon University Precollege program in art and design. It will also be used as basis for scholarship consideration
a one-page, typed essay answering one of the following topics:
Please describe in detail some special interest, experience or achievement that you would like us to know about.
Describe an intellectual, cultural or creative experience occurring within the past two years that has given you the greatest satisfaction.
What characteristics do you possess or what academic or artistic experiences have you had that sets you apart from most other people your age?
The Shanghai World Expo held in Pudong, Shanghai, was one of the most amazing cultural experiences in my life. The child of the son of a peasant and the daughter of an engineer, I moved to Guam when I was five, after my parents decided to make the move in search of a better life than that in rural China. The diversity and cultures of both the indigenous people of Guam and also the immigrants (mainly from Asian countries, predominantly from Korea, Japan, Philippines, and China) provide a plethora of divergent cultural mixing pot. However, though filled with resplendent cultural experiences and individualization, Guam is still very isolated in its location as an island in the middle of the Pacific.
The Shanghai Expo was my first real exposure to modern art and architecture. The many different art forms that each country had to offer were astounding. I studied art with a Chinese man who, after being present at the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, vowed to leave China for fear of being arrested. He had studied all art forms at Tsinghua University and graduated as one of the top art students. When he came to Guam, he started out with informal art lessons, one to two hour group sessions at a Chinese student's house, drawing pictures for the students to trace and copy. Because of the lack of art resources, museums, art shows, exhibitions, the only way one could learn was through taking a book of works of an artist and copy it, learning techniques by following other artists' (mostly well-known) works. The purpose of such exercises was not to get the drawing as perfectly the same as the original but to learn technique and develop creativeness and originality.
Prior to my visit to the Shanghai Expo, I had never stepped inside any kind of museum, much less see the different art that they offered. My first glimpse of original art was in the France Pavilion where the pavilion had shipped in five of the Louvre's paintings, many that had never been seen in public before. I stood in awe at the masterpieces of the great masters; although a three inch thick glass wall and a foot kept me at a distance, I felt inspired and deeply humbled by the sight of such great art, works from painters that included Van Gogh and Manet. The famous Impressionist painting, The Balcony, impressed me immensely arousing my inner artist. The luscious and vivid brushstrokes of Van Gogh's Bush, although tiny, held an especial interest as I gazed intently, pondering on the hardships and the genius of such authentic works. Pictures, no matter how clear, in books could never replace such passionate and almost holiness experience of standing near the actual painting, taking in the beautiful pastel colors and the eroding pieces of paint.
The Shanghai Expo provided me opportunity that I never had, to experience first-hand the richness and uniqueness of each country. I visited at least a hundred pavilions, from all of Africa, to most of the Americas, Europe, Australia, and Asia. For example, in the Egypt Pavilion, I saw the relics of the pharaohs and the artifacts dug up from pyramids, loaned especially by the Cairo Museum. The Belgium Pavilion made this special cracker that mixed lotus, chocolate, peanuts together and gave it to every visitor. The Indonesian Pavilion had a special waterfall cascading from its three-story rendition of an Indonesian hut, and at the end, had a petition for signatures to help save the endangered Kimodo Lizard. Each pavilion was designed to conserve energy and the displays were shown in the most technologically advanced projections and computers possible for all 192 countries present.
Using the limited Spanish I learned at school, I was able to converse, much to their surprise, with the South American volunteers at the South American pavilions. I had a great conversation with a Bolivian volunteer in Spanish, English, and Chinese about the Expo, it was an excellent cultural exchange. A volunteer from Turkey was so intrigued to learn that I could speak English and Chinese that he gave me a discount on one of the products displayed just to learn where I lived. All in all, everything was amazing; the Shanghai Expo truly opened my eyes to the possibilities of this world and the innovative advances as we progress in the 21st century. This event was one of a kind and definitely, one event of a lifetime.
