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Liverpool Graduate in China

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Tom in Shanghai
Above: Tom in Shanghai

Tom Dyson graduated from Liverpool in 2014 with a first-class Honours degree in Modern History and Politics. He subsequently won a British Council scholarship to spend the current academic year at a university in China. Tom writes below about his experiences during his year in China.

East China Normal University, Shanghai, November 2015

‘Mingbai le ma?’ (Do you understand?), my teacher asks. I hesitate for a moment. To answer in the affirmative is the easy way out. As a student, showing a partial understanding when confronted with something difficult, and then worrying about it later, has always seemed easier than speaking up and admitting: ‘I really don’t understand.’ But learning Chinese is changing me. Confronted with the task of memorising thousands of complex characters, training myself to distinguish between the four tones in Chinese, and studying grammar which makes me question how I express meaning in English, has made throwing lots of questions at my teacher a necessity, rather than something to be scared of.

I’m here at East China Normal University (ECNU) in Shanghai, studying for one year on their Chinese language programme on a scholarship organised by the British Council’s Generation UK scheme and the China Scholarship Council. It’s an opportunity I’ve been dreaming of since starting to study Chinese at evening classes at Liverpool’s Continuing Education Centre during the final year of my degree. My interest in China started even earlier than that when I studied Chinese history during an exchange semester to the University of Hong Kong. A lecturer teaching a module on China’s early contacts with the West impressed on us that to study China’s history properly, we had to go away and try to master the language first.

ECNU’s Zhongbei campus, here in the Putuo district of Shanghai, is starting to feel more and more like home. I received the warmest welcome from the staff at the international student office and the local students here. The five metre-tall saluting statue of Mao Zedong at the centre of the university takes some getting used to, but the rest of the campus, with tree-lined roads centred around the picturesque Liwa River, is a beautiful place to live and study. The university’s three canteens, which all students seem to frequent, are an excellent place to relax and socialise. Having the option to accompany classmates and friends to eat three good meals a day for a total of under £3 is something I really enjoy, and makes me wish that UK universities had something similar.

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Although I’m becoming familiar with the university and the surrounding area, I don’t know if I can quite yet claim to be a resident of Shanghai. My sense of location in this megacity is defined by the twin towers of the Global Harbour shopping mall, Shanghai’s largest and possibly most extravagant, lit up nightly in garish neon, which dominates the skyline of my local district. From occasional glimpses on the horizon of the Shanghai Tower and Shanghai World Financial Centre, the 2nd and 9th tallest buildings in the world respectively, I have a vague idea of which direction I’d have to go if I wanted to reach the Bund and the Pudong waterfront on foot. But in between and beyond is a seemingly unknowable concrete sprawl of high rise apartment blocks, more shopping malls, and truly spaghetti-like elevated intersections.

The draw of China is evident from the international mix of those studying Chinese here at ECNU. My roommate is the first person I’ve met from Kyrgyzstan, and my classmates come from everywhere from South Korea and Belarus, to Iran and Mexico. After my studies here are finished, I hope to maintain a connection with China, whether that be through further study or by working for an organisation with links to China. I think the Chinese government has much the same hopes for the increasing number of international students it’s inviting to study at its universities. China’s cultural influence is only going to increase as more and more people from all corners of the world gain some knowledge of Mandarin and experience what it’s like to live in China.

For now, ECNU and Shanghai is my home; but the rest of China beckons. The long winter break we have for Chinese New Year seems like a great opportunity to travel to see some of ‘real’ China and to test out my language skills. I know the Mandarin I’ll encounter in the rest of China will be far removed from the standardised, clearly spoken version I’ve become used to hearing in the recordings which come with my textbooks. But I’m relishing the chance to cross-question people in the inevitable situation when I don’t understand what’s being said, and to learn more about this fascinating country in the process.

Tom Dyson, BA in Modern History and Politics (Liverpool, 2014)