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。
卓瑜琪（Yuqi Chock），马来西亚人
现为马来西亚一家博物馆管理员。
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 globalisation 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: I had just finished my Cambridge A Levels in Economics, Accounting and Law, and had taken a year out to figure out what to do next. I had always known I would go on to university, but was not sure what I wanted to study; much less what kind of career I wanted. I ended up with a part time job answering phone inquiries at a private hospital, and started a degree in Law – but after one semester realised that I was not cut out for a career in legal matters. My father saw the advertisement in a local newspaper inviting candidates to apply for degrees in China, and thus, thinking that becoming proficient in a foreign language would be useful, I applied to the programme at Tongji.
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 food to the weather
A2: I remember thinking that it was a huge city… it seemed to take ages from the airport to the hotel I was staying at in the first few days before moving into the university dormitory. There were a lot of buildings, cars, people – a lot of everything, especially dust!
Q3: Tell us about your memories of the professors and classes. 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.
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?
A3: I’m not sure if I can list 5 things in a particular order, but I can list some things that have had a big impact on me. To start with, yes, getting to know people from other countries during those years at university has had a huge effect on the formation of my views and ideas. There were a large number of students from France, Germany, Korea and Japan especially, and it was interesting to observe and compare the singular behavioural traits and mannerisms that students from each country displayed. Of course each person is an individual, but you cannot help but show in the way you walk and talk patterns that are unique to your culture and country. In the end, we all still had many things in common; being young our main goals were to have as much fun as possible and try out as many new things as we dared… and these goals of course were the main thing uniting us. As for anecdotes, well I tried Korean food for the first time in Shanghai, and recall that initially I used to get headaches every time after eating it because of the spiciness. I got over that and it has since become one of my favourite cuisines. I had also never met someone from North Korea before living in Shanghai, and so meeting North Korean students and getting to know their way of life and daily practices (mostly through hearsay and observation of course, I never managed to develop friendships with them) was particularly eye-opening. That introduction to a very different way of life from what was experienced from most people on the planet was fascinating to me.
Q4: 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.
A4: I feel initially the main issue was trying to communicate in Chinese, and adapting to Chinese customs. Certainly there were a lot of clashes in terms of coming face to face (nearly every day) with practices that I just never saw at home. But that is part and parcel of living in a foreign country; learning to accept things as they are and not to be too critical in a negative way.
Q5: 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.
A5: My graduation thesis was on how the branding campaigns of big multinational companies had affected Chinese youth. Which in retrospect, was a terrifically wide-ranging topic for a Bachelor’s degree thesis. My main struggle during the process lay in writing a thesis in Chinese, and in the end I compromised by first writing it in English and translating it into Chinese. It being my first thesis, I had problems with structuring the essay and was vastly inexperienced in figuring out how to conduct research and obtain results for a useful discussion. I also felt I didn’t do a good job at the oral examination – I was a little nervous and lost my ability to speak in Chinese… however, I passed the exam somehow. Since then, I have completed two Master’s degrees in English and while the dissertations for both of them were challenging to write (as dissertations always are), but nothing compared to the huge struggle of my first thesis.
Q6: 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.
A6: After graduating, I embarked on a job in Shanghai with a fast fashion retail company in operations management. It was a tough sector to work in; huge pressures to attain sales targets, managing staff, late hours and hardly any days off. I moved to Nanjing and later Beijing with the same company, and my Chinese language skills as well as global outlook attained on the programme at Tongji came in handy during the three years I worked in this line of business. In the end, I decided I wanted to switch to a creative line of work, and took up a course in furniture making in Scotland. That has led to a second career in museum conservation, and I am now employed as a Conservator of Frames and Furniture at a museum in Malaysia. My Chinese language skills still come in handy, when conducting research on Chinese furniture, art, history and Chinese people I meet along the way are always impressed to hear I graduated from Tongji University.
Q7: If you could give a piece of non-obvious advice to new students and recent graduates from our school, on both maximising their time in Shanghai and maximising 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?
A7: I would say, speak to as many Chinese people as possible, try to understand their thoughts and outlook on life. And at the same time, really work on learning to speak the language like a native. I know you would already be spending a lot of time in classes, but picking up the nuances of language can only be done by holding lots of conservations in Chinese with Chinese people. Use the time in the country to get as good as you can in the language.
It would seem that people who are aiming for a career in business or trading with Chinese companies, or planning to work in the corporate world with close links to China would be ideal candidates for the programme.
Q8: 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?
A8: I’m not sure if I can answer this as I’ve not been paying as close attention to business developments in China in recent years!
Q9: 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
A9: I think China’s presence in the rest of the world has become much more notable than 10 years ago, but this had been predicted back then as well. Everyone expected China to occupy a looming role in business affairs globally. You can see the boom of Chinese language classes for children in Western countries as well as the rest of Asia. However, I think in terms of culture, Chinese culture as a whole has yet to really make an impact on a global scale. There has been a rise in interest in Chinese art, both traditional and contemporary) as we can see from the growing scale of art auctions and presence of Chinese artists in art and design fairs, but the apogee in terms of development in today’s market is some way off yet. The same goes for foreign interest in Chinese history and heritage – the heritage sector has grown leaps and bounds in recent years in terms of developing excavations, technical research, conservation and museum management, but there is a lot of work yet to do to attain levels similar to countries like the US and UK who have a long history of working to develop this field. There is a lot of work and money being pumped into this sector though, so when the zenith is reached, the culmination of it will be awesome thing to behold.