Author: Kirsten Asdal 艾永勤

Kirsten Asdal graduated from the US Naval Academy in May 2013 with a B.S. in Chinese. She will complete a master’s degree in Contemporary Chinese Studies at Oxford University in 2015, then report to her first ship, the USS MICHAEL MURPHY (DDG112), to serve as a division officer.  My first four months living in Taiwan were very fruitful, and I am grateful for the new perspectives I developed through my experiences and studies. I have been taking a masters class on cross-strait relations, as well as auditing a Ph.D. class on Asia-Pacific security. Meanwhile, at Chengchi University’s MacArthur Center for Security Studies, I have been researching the new Chinese Coast Guard and related implications for regional security. I attended the annual conference of the Council for Security Cooperation in Asia-Pacific in Beijing, and I have been working on a subsequent research paper with a team of Young Leaders from the Pacific Forum on the usefulness of the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting.      Aside from my research, I have also been taking language courses. When I first began my Chinese class in early September, I could neither read nor write using traditional characters. Now, I can write responses using all traditional