IronDuke

My subfield is technically South Asia but I applied under East Asia because they don't have a separate category. The advantage of NYU is its excellent faculty in this area.

My philosophy is that anything that can potentially help your application, that says more about you and gives more indication of your interests, is good to include. I think you made the right choice. This paper can't possibly be so bad as to actually hurt your application...and what kind of program is this that doesn't require a writing sample anyway?