从2002年开始，同济大学国际文化交流学院招收汉语言(经贸方向)本科留学生，2006年7月首届本科生顺利毕业。今年是这些毕业生毕业10周年。为了纪念2006届毕业生毕业10周年, 学院组织2006届的亚瑟同学对班级同学进行了系列访谈。在访谈中同学们回顾了10年前自己在同济大学国际文化交流学院的学习生活，并讲述了毕业以后的发展和感悟。我们将陆续发布2006届同学的访谈录。
亚瑟 （Asen Velinov），保加利亚人，现在上海工作，注册律师
Q1: Back in 2002 we were part of the inaugural international BA in Business Chinese class of International School at Tongji University. It goes without saying that there have been immense changes in China and the world since then. As you are answering the questions please keep in mind we are very interested to hear about expectations vs reality at each stage of you academic and professional career and life in relation to China.
One of these areas of change is that there are many times more international students now in China, and many more Chinese students abroad - with the background of this ongoing process of globalization of university education, let us talk about what brought you to Tongji in the first place - what was your academic background at the time and how did you choose the program and the university.
A1: In 2002 spending a semester in China was already quite common, but pursuing a full degree was less popular. The Tongji BA Program in Chinese Language with focus on International Business and Trade was a very good fit for me - I had strong interest for the language and culture and the opportunities here, but did not plan to become a career linguist or sinologist - thus the degree was more "practical" from my perspective than one purely in Chinese language and culture. I was lucky that Tongji university inaugurated the program the year I started exploring studying in China - and I took advantage. As to Tongji, there is little need to explain why the university is attractive to foreign students - its ranking, its location in Shanghai and the distinction and benefit it has of long lasting close ties with European and American universities, were all factors in my decision.
Q2: Do you remember your immediate first impressions after your arrived in Shanghai and the school - we know that some of the changes with most impact might be surprising - from the food to the weather
A2: I arrived in late August and it was my first time in China. My inevitable first impression had to do with the wet heat. Arriving to campus was another small shock - everyone there was in military uniforms and marching . We didn’t know we had arrived during the freshman military training. I had the complicated feeling of “what did I get myself into?” the first few days. As to the food, I most clearly remember trying “麻 ma” for the first time and not liking it at all, without being able to define why - but it is now one of my favorite flavors. Also, one of our first days a couple of us went to a small restaurant near the school that had no English menus and we blindly ordered whatever had at least one character we could recognize - the dishes we got were all differently prepared green vegetables.
Q3: Tell us about your memories of the professors and classes.
A3: I have great memories from most of the professors and classes. In my case the stereotype was true and as a western foreigner I found speaking and listening classes a lot easier than the reading and writing ones, so I remember struggling with characters throughout my study, and enjoying the classes that had to do with current events. I stayed in the dorms and my classroom and apartment were on the same floor in the same building – which meant it was not very acceptable for me to skip classes.
There were moments that stood out - I think the most awkward moment of our program was when the Chinese culture professor had us watch an old movie about the Japanese occupation - she cried during it, the Japanese classmates found it very uncomfortable and the rest of us did not know what to think - experiencing cultures in unplanned ways is always interesting. Some other memorable moments were Prof. Liu giving us the “My God, I am pregnant” said the Queen, “I wonder who did it” in creative writing class and discussing with Ms. Ye new expressions and slang that we got from news programs and shows we watched in Chinese media class - I have been remembering some of these now that I am consulting on a TV program. Prof. Liu and Prof. Ye are also the professors I have kept in touch with since graduation.
Q4: Could you please list the top 5 things you learned from your Tongji classes - and share examples of how some of them might be still useful in your life or career now.
A4: From a purely “information retained” perspective, I learned the Incoterms from the international trade class - this comes up at work occasionally and always reminds me of the class and the professor. Incidentally the same professor had a couple of “life philosophies” that were new to me and I remember not as necessarily useful or applicable to me, but as a reminder that people can hold some very distinct and special beliefs and that should be “utilized” when communicating and negotiating with them - he for example had the idea that everyone should learn to 吃苦 to prepare for potential future poverty (so he’d give his high school aged son 20 yuan a month in pocket money) and he also believed that he had found the optimal way to publish books - asking twenty students write a chapter each, twenty more edit to them, an assistant do another round of edits and he himself would go over the final version and put his name on it - which he insisted made everyone happy and him capable of publishing a couple of books a year. While I disagree with the lack of recognition the actual authors received for his books, I have come to greatly appreciate collaborative writing and publishing. I cannot give credit to one particular person for the approach I take to speaking Chinese (and the advice I give to anyone speaking a foreign language): speak quickly and a little bit more quietly than you should - it automatically causes people to pay more attention and focus on content rather than accent and tones (or lack of tones). I also learned some translation and fast reading techniques that I still use daily.
Q5: For many of us, being a part of the Tongji class was about being exposed to more than just Chinese culture - we had classmates from different countries and cultures we perhaps had not known much about prior - are there any examples or anecdotes of how this multinational/ multicultural environment was interesting or memorable to you?
A5: It was interesting to see different cultures as well as the dynamics within these groups - and that indeed varied across nationalities and went beyond the classroom walls. This made speaking and discussion classes especially interesting as the cultural contexts varied and so did opinions and thoughts and inputs - in addition it was interesting in what different ways Chinese people approached European classmates and the ones from African and Asian countries - the most valuable lesson here was that this “reality” is a permanent part of the China environment. I thought it very interesting for example that our classmates from Mali would prephase most of their statements with “everyone is different and has a different opinion.” It was also interesting to discuss with the Japanese classmates how character use differs and how some Chinese words had unexpected meanings in Japanese - to a western person to whom characters are forever a bit of an abstraction and a mystery this is fascinating.
Q6: What were some of the hurdles you had to overcome during your study and stay in Tongji - feel free to tell us both about objective and subjective ones.
A6: Getting used to a relatively inflexible curriculum was a bit of a hurdle - the program was very good but it lacked the customizability that I was used to - this is not just a problem for Tongji, it is an issue in most Chinese universities that offer classes for foreign students - there aren’t too many electives or opportunity to customize one’s major with semesters away. It was also not a very viable option to participate in university wide activities and student government - while that was not “forbidden”, it was also not particularly encouraged. Passing HSK 8 to graduate was a very objective “hurdle” as well - I to this day find handwriting in Chinese very difficult (luckily for me, it seems even Chinese people do now - typing and smartphones have changed the way we produce written language). Lack of career services and alumni organizations that include foreign alums in school events are also some issues that universities are only in recent years starting to pay attention to.
Q7: If I might take you back to your area of research and your graduation thesis - what were they and could you please comment on them - e.g. if you made predictions for future developments in a certain area, how accurate were they, if you discussed cultural, societal or business matters or practices, how have they evolved since 2006.
A7: I wrote about the differing concept of time between the western and Chinese business cultures - in a relatively general way given that while western societies do not all share the same concept of time and time management there are some differences within China that have impact on business and negotiations. I remember being interested about the topic because Chinese time words were different – 上 shang and 下 xia (suggesting to me at least that the time line is vertical in Chinese) and there were some other time expressions that I found striking. Of course, there is also the fact that there are no tenses in the Indo-European grammar sense of the word in Chinese. I wanted to look into both the reasons and the implications of this difference for international business.
I also suggested that increased awareness of these differences and making allowances that there would be issues potentially could benefit both sides. This still comes up in my work to this day, and I am also careful and advise clients about it, but also advise them not to attribute everything on cultural differences - in international business no one is exactly at “home” so any behavior that is particularly unexpected or makes one uncomfortable does not necessarily need to be ignored and accepted due to cultural reasons - I find that negotiating and committing to timeframes with reasonable penalties for not following them through without good reason is very helpful.
Q8: What about your career post-graduation - what have you been doing since and how have you been using your degree and your affiliation to Tongji.
A8: Since graduating ten years ago I continued studying for a long while - I immediately pursued a degree in Chinese Politics and Diplomacy in Fudan and shortly after that a joint law degree I created for myself in a US law school with a year in SJTU. In 2012 I passed the California Bar exam and the morning after the third day of the bar exam I flew back to Shanghai - I have always believed that real opportunities for exciting career are here. Since then I have been working in the legal field, in some of the largest law firms in the world, with focus on investment related services, particularly on OBOR (一带一路) and 16+1. I also teach university classes and consult on a TV program that deals with international trade, investment and the Free Trade Zone.
Q9: If you could give a piece of non-obvious advice to new students and recent graduates from our school, on both maximizing their time in Shanghai and maximizing career opportunities, what would that be? Also, both from your personal experience and general impressions what careers are the best fit after graduating from the program?
A9: Be creative with the opportunities the city and the university offer - it is easy to get access to options that wouldn’t be available elsewhere if you plan carefully. The appeal of China worldwide is still very strong, even if actual opportunities for stable jobs and career growth for both recent grads and local hire expats might be limited – but the time in university provides opportunities to line up options, experiment with business ideas and do internships without the stress of visa arrangements. Also, partying and networking in Shanghai allows expats to meet actual influencers, entrepreneurs and successful professionals and that should be taken full advantage of.
Upon immediate graduation from the program I believe that given that a business consultancy job would make the most sense - many classmates from the program have gone on to have successful careers in trading, relocation, hospitality, marketing and some have started businesses. I understand there are interesting opportunities in e-commerce and that the government is developing policies that favor entrepreneurship and innovation by foreign graduates.
Also, hopefully there will be more opportunities for alums to meet, network and learn from each other.
Q10: How about opportunity in general for China experts nowadays? The Chinese government is redefining "foreign talent" and entrepreneurship in recent months - any thoughts? What were some of the areas that perhaps were not as open to foreign talent as expected?
A10: The fact that we are talking about the efforts to redefine what "foreign talent” stands for is an indication that something is missing - I class the foreign China experts in three “generations” - in the 80s and 90s to be a foreign expert it was enough to be foreign and the need expanded to almost every industry and position. Nowadays foreign experts are defined as people that bring complete innovation or are direct entrepreneurs in China - our generation of China educated professionals has not been “cultivated” and facilitated to reach its potential and in some fields, particularly mine - diplomacy and law there is a very low glass ceiling still - and unfortunately it does not seem that is going to change in the short term within China, but is changing in global context as China invests and “goes abroad” more now than it did a decade ago.
Q11: Our major was a combination of language/ cultural and business classes - please discuss briefly how you think both of these areas have evolved in relation to China - how has the international significance of China evolved both through culture and language exchanges and in the world of business.
A11: It is not necessary to point out how much of a world power China is - it has always been one and in recent years its economic significance has grown even more. The most relevant to my career development is that Chinese companies are now major international investors, and that is reshaping and influencing industries worldwide. This affects the cultural and soft power of China - while also leading to backlash sometimes (my master thesis was on the topic of the Demonization of China internationally - which was the actual wording that was briefly used a few years ago). In general however, Chinese culture has become a lot more mainstream globally (which is being further perpetuated by the attractiveness of the domestic market - to attract Chinese viewers and to be able to reap the benefits of a coproduction status global movie studies incorporate Chinese storylines, locations and actors in Hollywood movies, which in turn further exposes global audiences to Chinese culture). Business exchanges have also grown and so has the image of Chinese made products and Chinese brands.
I heard an interesting observation not long ago - China’s image is 3 to 5 years behind its reality. Staying aware of all these influences is very important for successful transactions of all types and at all levels.