#1 Introduction to a Series of Lectures on China

Vroom Vroom!
Getting Ready to Power Up My Steem Engine.

Hello Steemians. Ps: If you're running out of time, I suggest you scroll down to the very bottom of the post where you'll find a paragraph of an announcement bolded. But if you're interested in my story, I welcome you to read on =)

In my first introductory post last week, I mentioned something about studying abroad in China during my junior year. And I’ve decided to start writing something from there.

To be exact, I was at Peking University, Beijing from Autumn 2016 till the end of Summer 2017. That period of time turns​​out to be one of the most formative experiences I ever had in life. Not really because of the structure of the ​curriculum , rather it was mainly due to the experience and opportunity of being there, studying in one of the most well-connected campuses in planet earth.

Of course,​ it started out with struggles and challenges. To obtain a second degree within a year, we need to take 48 credits of (International Relations) IR courses all taught in Chinese over the course of two semesters, that converts to 24 hours of in-class lectures per week, compounded with the stress of learning new jargons related to the field, writing essay reports, reading assignments, presentation preps, and memorizing tons of historical facts just to prepare for our finals (as you probably know, eastern education is largely based on rote memorization and meritocracy). Putting burdens aside, they did push my brain to its extreme. And so I muscled my way through the first semester and after getting used to thinking and expressing myself in mandarin, I decided to try something new: audit public lectures around the campus.

Perhaps because time was limited, I wanted to grab hold of every single opportunity.

Peking University lives up to its reputation of being one of the most elite collegial institution in China - a well of wisdom to tap in. Here you can find list after list of international events and speakers lined up every week and best of all, they are almost always free! Back in December 2016, I attended a talk on rural education in China by a​ guailou professor from Stanford University. He spoke with gusto and passion about the social problems that rural students face in China, from health illnesses to lack of nutrients, parental love and intellectual stimulation due to a separation from working parents in cities etc. All these factors led to one burgeoning problem:

The widening gap of IQ scores between urban and rural kids.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, we learned that

a tiny "little difference leads to an opportunity that makes that difference a bit bigger, and that edge in turn leads to another opportunity, which makes the initially small difference bigger still—and on and on until (the person with an initial comparative advantage becomes) a genuine outlier. But he didn’t start out an outlier. He started out just a little bit better.”

In other words, urban kids who make up only about 25% of total Chinese kids are on their way towards rich elitism, just because they had the luxury of being with their parents and thus enjoy a headstart in early childhood education.

What about the other 75%?

I was anxious about the problem, but more than that I was curious if there was a solution, and Stanford as I found out seems to be working with major universities around China to come up with one, or at least one of the many solutions through “experimental economic means”.

After the lecture, I took down the name of the professor and three months later I sent him an email:

Dear Professor XXX (Just to be mysterious for now giggles)
Hi, my name is Jin. Last December, I was fortunate enough to attend your talk…it made me reflect upon my own upbringing … and decided to try my luck and inquire you if I can be given a chance to intern with your organization…I am deeply passionate about education, especially in the field of education..Looking forward to hearing and hopefully to be able to meet you guys in the coming future. Thank you!
With gratitude,
Jin

The next day, I received an email from him

Thanks for your​ email. I am teaching a class on Thursday afternoons at Peking University at 3 to 6 pm. One idea is to join the class and u can learn a bit more about how we view the world and then we can discuss some volunteer work. Best

Boy. Sometimes we never know what’s gonna happen next.

The following week, which is the start of a new semester, I found my way to his class and discovered an entire institution with its own systems and facilities​: the Stanford Center@Peking which offers a whole range of different classes for Stanford students on exchange in China. Excited and frankly speaking a little intimidated, I mustered up my courage and started cold-emailing every professor on the list, asking if I can also audit their classes.

Turns out, another two professors​ replied and allowed me to take their classes! So in total I did 24 + 9 credits = 33 hours/credits!

Those classes were:

1. China's society
2. China’s economy
3. China’s media

And since you need a foundation of history to understand almost anything, all three classes were in fact related to:

1. China’s history &
2. China’s politics etc.

Over the next 6 months, I will be sharing every ounce of knowledge that I’ve gathered in those classes here on Steem It! Since I’ve taken lots of notes in or of China, I guess it’s about time I revise and restructure them into an "all in one": China 101. This will include my personal thoughts and understanding of China as a country, derived from the seminars of different professors from the US, Japan, and China.

I will also be connecting the study of China to other disciplines and make similar analogies, hopefully,​ =) So if you’re interested, please check out my next post and share it with other Steemians out there.

Best regards,
Sherab Jin