Yaran Zhou

  

Volume 9 | Issue IV | December 2025

Experimental High School Attached to Beijing Normal University ’26

Beijing, China

  

History has meant more to me than just a subject to learn at school. The complexities and countless possibilities it brings fascinate me, prompting me to look into it more closely and deeply. From a young age, I was captivated by the stories of the “Great People”, those who have changed the world or fought glorious wars. As I grow older, however, I become increasingly interested in the past of ordinary people like myself—the stories behind undocumented lives or voices that unequal power relations have distorted. This research project is my largest attempt to find and re-evaluate the “people without history”, as European colonizers often referred to them in their early centuries of colonization. The research project took me half a year to complete due to the scarcity of popular sources in this area of subaltern studies. After reviewing multiple publications and primary sources, I decided to focus my essay on refuting misconceptions in this historiography. I am also a lover of art and art history, interested in the works of Gustav Klimt, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, and the retrospective landscape paintings of Caspar David Friedrich. Additionally, I am passionate about fashion and earned a black belt in Taekwondo this year. My interests, both academic and beyond, motivate me to go further and live a life filled with meaning and passion.