Harvard College ‘07 (Cabot House)
AB, East Asian Studies
MA, Regional Studies East Asia
JD, University of California, Berkeley - School of Law
LLM, University of California, Los Angeles - School of Law
Tiffany Lee initially chose to concentrate in East Asian Studies because she was interested in Chinese culture. With a family background in EAS (her father had also pursued the concentration and worked for the U.S. State Department in China), the utility of the groundwork provided by EAS and its applicability was never in question.
For Tiffany, one of the most enriching aspects of the EAS program was its impressive variety of course offerings across countries. Despite an initial focus on China, after taking a course in Japanese history, Tiffany developed an interest in a culture she knew much less about, and took both Mandarin and Japanese language classes simultaneously. After completing a junior paper on fox spirits in both China and Japan, her undergraduate thesis ultimately focused on constructions of Japanese identity in literature and anime.
After graduating, the EAS degree helped Tiffany to gain work experience utilizing both Chinese and Japanese studies. For example, Tiffany worked as a researcher on Chinese law at the UCLA Law Library for a year and a half, and she also worked as a writer, reporter, and translator for the webzine JaME World (Japanese Music Entertainment) for several years.
The EAS degree also allowed Tiffany to begin a career in law and quickly establish a specialization within legal studies. Publishing articles on Japanese and U.S. copyright law and fan communities, she studied abroad at the University of Tokyo while working in the legal department at Warner Brothers. Currently a licensed attorney in California with a Master’s from Harvard in Regional Studies: East Asia (RSEA), Tiffany looks forward to embarking on a new adventure working at an education company in Singapore. Her EAS degree has allowed her to pursue diverse interests, enjoy unexpected career opportunities, and make choices based on her passions rather than statistical value.
[Since the time of writing, Tiffany began her new position at Prep Zone, a Singaporean education company. She began as a Senior Trainer in 2015 and is currently Head of Admissions, overseeing consulting teams for both the company’s undergraduate and graduate programs.]