June 8, 2011, The Student Committee of International Relations Department Tsinghua university held its first culture and current issues exchange. More than 20 students were in attendance for free food, good friends, and entertaining and thought provoking presentations. We had 7 presentations from Chinese and foreign students. We even had two students from outside the International Relations Department give presentations, so it was very informative and fun! The 7 presenters gave presentation ranging from China’s rise and China’s diplomacy to travel experiences in Paris and Inner Mongolia. In addition, we had a presentation from a graduating MBA student Dipak Sundaram who told us about the advantageous of a Tsinghua MBA degree.
Veronica Kovacs from the Masters program in English started off the presentations with pictures and video of her trip from Beijing to Budapest, Hungary. Her experiences with her time in China and Inner Mongolia were eye opening and we even got to see how dinner is made in Inner Mongolia. This started a wonderful set of presentations.
Students who presented include Hu Ruoyu who is also the International News Editor at Xinhua Magazine. Hu gave us a presentation about China’s rise and problems and efforts in China’s diplomacy.
Undergraduate student an SAGA creator gave us a very good presentation about how China is not rising but reclaiming its previous position. This sparked a debate among the students as to what are Chinese intentions and if China truly been its own power throughout history. Masters student Frasier Lowell gave a presentation about his experiences being an American in China. His experience was one that many foreigners understand and can relate to a roller coaster of emotions. He concluded that although China is not easy to live for a foreigner the longer people stay the more they can understand and learn to like the new experiences China gives them.
Laura Paide, an exchange student from the country of Estonia in Europe gave us a wonderful presentation about her country and the very large public music festivals every year. We had the opportunity to watch concerts of thousands of people singing together, it was very remarkable. Sun Shuang from the Chinese program studied in Science Po Paris, France recently and gave us a short presentation of her experiences. She explained that like in China, foreigners in France must learn to speak the language and their life will be much better.
We hope to see more students next year as this was a special, fun, and intimate way to meet more classmates and develop lifelong friendships.
The Student Committee of IRD
