Emily Hackett

Ghost Years Emily Hackett

In 1995, an American college student embarked on a unique study abroad experience: to enroll as an engineering graduate student in China's most prestigious technical university. As a student and as a woman, Emily Hackett found a way to see unique aspects of a culture and political system that was, at the time, mostly closed to outsiders. Twenty-five years later, inspired by China's subsequent descent into authoritarianism, she has decided to share her story. In this collection of short essays originally written in 2000, Dr. Hackett explores a China that has been nearly erased by subsequent development and censorship. She also reflects on the friendships she forged during that time and the development of her own sense of privilege and cultural sensitivity through her experience as a white person in an Asian developing country.