After we graduated, the Department of East Asian Studies (DEAS) in Durham University was officially closed. However, no one expect those few individuals who decided to close it down would say it’s a sensible decision to close such an important department. It’s clearly a mistake, so I believe some day in future people will realise and do something about it. But while they are doing that (it might take a while), we need something to remain the existent of the department, also for students who graduated from it to look back in memory. So a website might be a good idea, I thought.
This idea has been in my mind for a long time. I talked about that with the teachers and the dean. They are very supportive. So with some sponsors from the department, I bought our domain DurhamDEAS.org and start working on it now. Yesterday I went to the department to collect some documents from the past newspaper about the closure of DEAS. The teachers had a campaign against the closure and I looked over the volume of the campaign archive, it was tremendous! I was shocked by that fact that even though letters from embassies, local MP, business bodies or individuals sent and went against the closure, the mind of those insensible people didn’t change.
Although I’m going to start working soon, but I will still spend some time in the weekend to build and maintain the website, simply because I love this department and I think it’s meaningful to do so. When you are alone aboard you will find some community to attach to, like sports team, colleges, societies. But to me, the department is the most important one.
I made a video in my first year when I was told about the closure. And now, I want to contribute more to keep it. Hopefully the day of reopening will come soon.