Having lived in the US for a combined 7 years, Woo Chan is a close-native speaker of English. He likes
pholosophy. As our school does not have a philosophy program, he did a lot of reading on his own, and
attended an International Philosophy Olympiads, being given a bronze medal on this occasion.
He wanted to do a research project on the philosophical background on the Hippie movement, which in
the course of his research turned into the paper commented on here.
His paper narrates the history of the Hare Krishna movement from its beginnings in Bengal to its
establishment and genesis in the U.S. As the topic is rather unfamiliar to the ordinary English-language reader,
Woo Chan added a glossary to his paper. His is a concise, yet detailed narration and analysis. With a topic
of this kind - too recent to use archive material; its roots in a society the languages of which neither Woo
Chan nor myself comprehend, he was rather dependent on his sources. The paper narrates the history of
the movement, but does not place it into a socio-political context - which is probably too much to ask for a
high school research paper. Woo Chan does manage to answer his original question regarding the
philosophical foundation of the Hippie movement - to his disappointment, he found none worthy to mention.
Woo Chan worked for about a year on his research paper. It compares to a third year college presentation
and would provide a solid foundation for a seminar discussion on the topic.
November 10th 2006
Alexander Ganse
