Rachel White

Wow!  What a week it’s been.  I’m happy to announce that my cultural research project on Cher Wang is complete.  I’m thrilled with how it turned out.  I’ve had lots of help from peers, OSU librarians, and the instructor to bring it all together.  The easiest part of the project was gathering information and images.  There seems to be an abundance of information on Cher Wang because the amount of recent interviews with her and articles published in her business decisions.  Of course, this meant I had the task of sifting through all this information and deciding what deserved a place on my web pages.  Prepping the images was easy.  I plan on starting up a blog this summer to mark my progress through my favorite video game, so having experience with uploading media will be good to have.

The hardest part of the project was formatting and determining what information went where.  I had a difficult time distinguishing between what belonged in the culture and trend sections of the project.  After looking at some examples and asking the instructor for help, I think I’ve figured it out.

This project gave me a lot of new experiences in regards to writing a paper.  Up until now, I’ve never used the OSU librarians for help.  I didn’t even know I could email them and ask them for help in finding resources for a paper.  I almost felt like I was cheating.  This exercise really helped though; I was able to write most of my culture and trend sections using the three articles provided to me.  I also had never used SafeAssign before.  My experience with it for this project is pretty small; after submitting my paper, the database came back telling me it didn’t have enough entries on my subject to provide me with useful feedback.  I think writing instructors should make SafeAssign more prominent in their courses so students can add to the database and expand its capabilities.

Finally, I had my first experience using the Online Writing Lab at OSU to provide feedback on my paper.  I had heard about this, but for some reason had never considered using it.  The feedback I was given was incredible!  Jaime was able to point out some past and present tense issues in my biography section, and she also suggested places I could expand if I wanted to.  She confirmed that my organization and ‘voice’ of the paper were clear.  Now it’s time to take a sneak peek into what I’ll be working on next week: the gender lens project.  I shall now relate to you my experiences with LEGOs as a child.

When I was very little, I received two gifts for my birthday.  My parents gave me a large box of LEGOs, and my grandmother gave me a themed Barbie set (I think it was Barbie Dentist or something like that).  I was immediately drawn to LEGOs, while poor Barbie sat on my shelf and collected dust.  My grandmother, thinking I didn’t have enough Barbie sets to compliment my Dentist Barbie, bought be a Barbie Dreamhouse (again, names are approximate).  After that, I only played with Barbie when I had friends over who wanted to play with her.  I always preferred LEGOs.  I guess I always liked the fact that my imagination was the only limitation on what I could do with them.  Even as I entered middle school and high school, I kept them around (until my junior year actually).  I continued to purchase sets so I could have access to specialized pieces, and then I would build large extravagant mansions and vehicles.  I would customize my own little LEGO person, and then my best friend and I would roleplay a variety of situations where we would trade stuff, build additions to our mansions, or go on crazy adventures.  I could sit on the floor for hours with LEGOs.  It’s one of the best childhood memories I have.

After several days of intense researching and writing, my cultural research project on Cher Wang and her Taiwanese culture is now live.  Please keep in mind that the content is under review and only a rough draft; content and functionality of the pages are likely to change in the upcoming weeks.

The hardest part of this process for me was organizing the research into the four pages that comprise the project.  I had an abundance of sources to take research from; the most difficult part was deciding what was relevant and where it belonged.  I was a bit perplexed for quite some time what the differences were between the Culture and Trend pages of projects.  After looking at projects from previous years and emailing the instructor, I think I’ve got a good grasp on it.  I’m very please with the way everything turned out, and I’m looking forward to taking the next couple of days to make everything perfect!

This week was dedicated to more research on Cher Wang and her culture.

I’m really quite excited about this project because of the implications it has both for me and  other female engineers/scientists.  There aren’t many female role models in the STEM fields for young girls to look up to and wish to emulate.  Part of the reason is the lack of girls taking up these fields, but I believe another part of it is that females who are in these fields are relatively unknown.  I hope that by writing about Cher Wang, I bring another role model to the front of readers’ minds.  There ARE women out there; you simply have to look for them.

With that aside, I contacted an OSU librarian this week to receive help on my project.  I contacted Natalia Fernandez, the multicultural librarian, because I wanted more perspective on what it would be like to be a female technologist in Taiwan.  Many studies conducted on why there are so few women in these fields focus on the United States and the Western world in general.  I was eager to gain insight into what it would be like in the East.  Natalia happily obliged by sending me two articles and a link pertinent to my topic as well as tips on what databases to use in the future and the kinds of key words I should be using.

The first article is titled “Women Scientists in Tawain”; while I haven’t had the opportunity to read the article all the way through, a quick skim revealed this is exactly what I was looking for.  The article essentially compiles data from several studies about women technologists in Taiwan, including a compilation of statistics and responses quoted from interviews.  It really gives me a glimpse into the Taiwanese perspective of women in STEM fields, and it will prove invaluable in writing about the cultural perspective.

The next article, titled “Why Aren’t women Sticking with Science in Taiwan?” is also extremely pertinent to the cultural aspect of my project.  This paper explores the factors that cause women to leave the science fields and why men dominate the top positions in this area.  The paper’s abstract mentions the pervasive masculine culture that Taiwan has, so I’m very excited about what I can gain from reading it.

Finally, Natalia sent me a link about gender bias in the IT industry.  This paper is more general, but it helps illustrate what women have had to do to get around persistent gender bias in their fields.  I’m hoping to gain a general perspective from this paper and use it to begin my cultural analysis for my project.

Overall, I was extremely pleased with my interactions with Natalia.  She gave me some great advice and provided three resources that will prove invaluable.  Even as a sophomore, I never realized what great resources were available to students conducting research at Oregon State.  I admit I’m somewhat ashamed I haven’t taken advantage of these sooner.  From now on, I will make a point of it.

I am very excited to be doing my Cultural Research project on Cher Wang.

Cher Wang is the CEO and chairwoman of HTC Corp., the Taiwanese tech giant and maker of tablets and smartphones (like the HTC Incredible, Thunderbolt, and Evo 4G) (Entrepreneur).  Cher founded this company in 1997 (All Things Digital), and since then the company has grown immensely.  Currently, HTC has partnerships with Google and Microsoft to produce mobile devices utilizing the partners’ mobile operating systems (Android and Windows Phone, respectively) (Entrepreneur).

Cher got her start in selling computer chips, but became tired of lugging around large computer systems to show customers the performance of her products (All Things Digital).  Instead, she dreamed of mobile devices that could do all the things computers do but in the palm of the consumer’s hand.  Cher says the one thing that helped her the most in breaking through the technology business was a relentless focus on meeting the needs of the customers (Entrepreneur).  She says, “Since the beginning, HTC has focused on developing strong research and development capabilities and keeping a close eye on consumer, market, and technology trends” (Entrepreneur).

In her native Taiwan, the Wang family is considered a “technology dynasty” (New York Times).  Her late father, Wan Yung-Ching, founded Formosa Plastics Group, which focused on petrochemicals and plastics (New York Times).  According to Forbes magazine, he was the second richest man in Taiwan (New York Times).  Cher Wang is also chairwoman of VIA Technologies, which develops silicon chip technology; her husband, Wen Chi Chen, has been chief executive there since 1992 (New York Times).  Even though she came from a rich background, Cher has decided not to let her wealth (either her family’s or her own accumulated riches) define who she is. She came from a strict upbringing, and was encouraged by her father to study abroad (New York Times).  This is how she came to Silicon Valley and received her Masters in economics at Berkeley (New York Times).

I originally decided to do my cultural research project on Cher Wang because she’s the chairwoman of HTC, and I’ve had an HTC cellphone for quite a while.  Despite pursuing chemical engineering, electronics design and engineering has always fascinated me.  The more I learn about Cher Wang, the more I realize she could be such a great role model.  I’m excited to learn more about her personal life and her philanthropic ventures.