Maosong Wu - Appointed in AY2016

The reform and opening-up policy brought more than just wealth to China. The awakening of people's awareness of their rights was also an inevitable product of this policy. My research theme is the impact that changes in people's consciousness and actions regarding their rights have on Chinese political society. In particular, I have been examining the act and discourse of "weiquan" (a Chinese abbreviation of "weihu quanli," meaning "to defend rights").

The first time I came across the word "weiquan" was when I was reading a newspaper called "Southern Weekly" in my third year of undergraduate studies. At a time when the internet had not yet become a fixture in citizens' lives, "Southern Weekly," with its bold critiques and progressive discussions, stood out from the crowd, and reading it became a trend among university students. As someone living through that era, I had a firsthand sense of the changes in people's rights consciousness, and the moment I saw this word, I felt its potential to develop not just into awareness but into action. Since then, I have been tracking this word as it has spread along with the expansion of contentious issues, searching for related cases, and analyzing their impact and significance. This work led to my undergraduate, master's, and doctoral theses, and it continues to this day. It is fair to say that my current research is an extension of the late-night discussions I had with my classmates during my university years.

My research is driven by the motivation to analyze the weiquan movement and, through it, to organize my understanding of the dynamism of Chinese political society and the faces of "the people" who live within it, using my own perspective, thoughts, and methodology.

For me, "China" is both the country where I was born and raised and the subject of my research. My distance from and relationship with "China" are complex. To put it another way, there is a sense of affinity because I am an insider, concern because of my expectations, and a tension born from dispassionate analysis... I find the fascination of research in this complex engagement with my subject.

My starting point for studying political science is to think about the realization of peaceful values based on the individual, "the people," unbound by any single nation or ethnic group. This is directly related to my personal history: having ethnic roots in the Korean Peninsula, being born and raised in China, and now living in Japan. The issues I constantly ponder include "the independence of the individual," "the relationship between rights and power," and "the coexistence of majorities and minorities."

I believe that the significance of a university education, beyond imparting liberal arts, specialized knowledge, and practical skills, lies in enabling students to know the "self" by recognizing the "other." Through this process, they can establish pluralistic and multi-layered values while also acquiring the habit of thinking for themselves. Each person's thinking is a force for protecting peace and a source for creating the future. I look forward to discovering and discussing various "problems" with all of you, who are rich in imagination.

(Interview conducted in January 2017)