Author Archives: Robert Li

When I received my acceptance letter from Directed Studies in the summer of 2006, I had no idea how I got in, or what was to come. My mom, a typical Chinese parent, was worried I’d commit directed suicide, or come out of my freshman year as a brainwashed humanities major obsessed with the dust »

I have often found it tricky to explain what exactly my major is to people outside Yale. “History and International Studies” sounds perfectly normal as a double major or as a combination of a major and a minor, but there’s a catch. It is neither: International Studies is a secondary major. I am not entirely »

“Dude, I really wanna go on that Reach Out trip and help the kids in Nepal; it’s gonna be so sick. But the problem is I just can’t afford the $2,000 air tickets. Do you know where I can apply for funding at Yale?” As a former trip participant, former trip leader and this year’s »

Through history, the American eagle has flown overseas and back, wrestling with a dilemma: How, and to what extent, should the United States be engaged in promoting its ideals around the world? From the first time America engaged countries abroad, realists and idealists have fought to make their ideas dominant in foreign policy. Some say »

Renowned pediatric neurosurgeon Benjamin Carson ’73 — known for cracking open skulls — promoted his investment in opening the minds of youth Friday at an awards ceremony for local high-achieving students. Four New Haven students received the Carson Scholarship for their outstanding academic record and community service work at a special presentation that took place »

As riots rage in Tibet, the call for boycotting the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing is becoming increasingly popular among politicians. Earlier this week, following German Chancellor Merkel and French President Sarkozy’s decisions to boycott, Sen. Hillary Clinton strongly urged President Bush to boycott the opening ceremony, since China failed to “live up to universal »

Partly because of his own mysteriousness and partly because of the time-honored Western romanticization of Tibet as an unpolluted Shangri-La, the Dalai Lama’s popularity has increased tremendously over the past five decades. He took full advantage of every opportunity to appeal to the media with benevolence, resulting in a Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. But »

Being critical is easy. One could be critical of every aspect of his life, ranging from the school he choose and the pen he writes with to the legitimacy of a state and the meaning of life. The hard part is to be critical on a reasonable ground and to refrain from twisting critical thinking »