In this term, I want to explore and research the relationships between countries from a citizen/ordinary person perspective. Spending my days in China and the United States, I witnessed people with various cultural backgrounds and ethnicities gathering together at a place that is far away from their hometown. However, what are the factors that make the people of this world willing to leave their homes and choose to come to various superpowers in search of development? Are large countries really the final destination in life that many citizens of developing countries think they are? With this in mind, I chose to paint a rough map of the world on the Statue of Liberty sculpture to illustrate how powerful and recognized the big countries are in today’s world. But behind all this, is it really a good thing that people in developing countries are choosing to leave their homes?

Update:

After the whole semester of research on my keyword “interconnectivity,” I gradually perceived a more diverse side of different perspectives of interpreting the characteristics of interconnectivity in globalization. My initial purpose in choosing painting colors for “Statue of Liberty” as my avatar was because it reflects the “final destination” dream of most people from third-world countries. In fact, due to the difficulty of getting a first-world countries visa, such as in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden, and so on, the final destination always serves as a beautiful vision and ultimate dream to them. The general reasons why most African and West Asian people decided to go to China instead of countries like the United States are heavily related to visa issues, the trade environment, living expenses, business opportunities, etc. Yet, China’s strict immigration rule and unfriendly ethnical exclusionism will make these foreign immigrants see China not as an inclusive first-world final destination but as a transit point.
After these thoughts, I would consider adding a shackle to the book “The World” in the hand of the Statue of Liberty. This symbolizes that our aspiration and longing for a global commonality in human society are almost unattainable in real life. The United States and China, as the two largest countries in the world, both struggle to truly embrace this belief of interconnectivity in human society. My point is not to criticize these nations for their faults, as each country’s political power has its own ideology, thoughts, and plans. However, from an objective reality perspective, humanity is still far from realizing the concept of “interconnectivity.” The United States is a symbol, China a junction, and people from third-world countries spend their lives chasing their dreams, only to find themselves overwhelmed when confronted with reality.