Student Testimonial: Annabelle (China: Beijing)
Annabelle’s Bio: Annabelle is a third-year student majoring in International Relations, with minors in Anthropology and Education & Society. For Annabelle, the SOC393 course in Beijing was a great opportunity to learn from guest speakers, gain knowledge about Chinese society relevant to her programs of study, and improve her Mandarin ability. Read Annabelle’s interview below to learn more about her experience in Beijing.
What initially attracted you to SOC393 in Beijing? Was there something about the course or location that piqued your interest?
As someone who is ethnically Chinese, I was drawn to the course to both improve my Mandarin abilities and learn more about a place that my family is very attached to. I especially wanted to take part in SOC393 specifically because it emphasized its intention for us to really experience Beijing for ourselves, allowing us to make connections between personal experience and academic frameworks - and I think it definitely achieved that intention.
What was your favorite field trip from this course?
I enjoyed the senior home (Taikang Community) that we visited as a class. We had ample opportunity to ask questions and get answers, and I feel like we learned a lot about Chinese culture through it. My experience was definitely enhanced by being able to speak to a guest staying there, who happened to be Professor Zhang’s friend. Being able to speak to someone who had lived experience of the place gave me a lot of insight into how life was like there, and being able to experience the place with my friends made the whole thing more enjoyable.
Throughout the course, we had many guest lectures given by scholars of very different academic backgrounds, from demography to environmental studies. Of the guest lectures, is there one that particularly stood out to you, and why?
I really enjoyed every single guest lecture of the course, and I personally think the guest lectures were the highlight of the entire trip. From personal experiences to academic findings, all of them were incredibly interesting and eye-opening.
Out of all of them though, the lecture from Dr. Yu Jia, of Peking University, really stood out to me. She talked about family and gender dynamics in China, which is a topic that I am quite interested in, and I was shocked by the amount of raw data that she had to pull from to quantify her arguments and findings. Her presentation was clear and insightful, and I feel like I learned so much just from a little over an hour. Her presentation had so much impact on me, that my friend and I asked whether we could meet up with her, and she kindly arranged for us to meet her in Peking University, which was a tourist destination in itself. When we met her, she shed light on how academic and sociological research works in China, as well as further details about her lecture topic. It was really a treat to meet her and to experience Peking University in person.
Even though you are not a sociology major, are there any sociological insights you gained from this course that you find relevant to your current programs of study?
I am an International Relations major, with minors in Anthropology and Education & Society. My minor in Anthropology specializes in the socio-cultural aspect. As such, I found that the essays, research and analysis required for this course were not completely foreign to me, as a social science/humanities major. This course definitely related to my Anthropology minor, introducing me to contemporary Chinese culture both academically and ethnographically by placing me in the environment and culture that I was learning about. While I didn’t gain credits towards any of my programs, I think it definitely helped me gain context about Chinese history and Chinese culture that would help me understand things like current events or policy changes when thinking about China.
As a non-native Chinese speaker, how was your experience navigating Beijing? Did you find the language barrier to be a challenge, and if so, how did you overcome it?
As a non-native Chinese speaker, I expected to have difficulty navigating the city. My Mandarin level is akin to a third grader, meaning I can speak enough to just get by, and read enough to guess, but not enough to be truly confident in it. However, I think my Mandarin abilities improved by leaps and bounds in the month I was there, so it got easier over time. My abilities improved not in vocabulary, but more so in confidence, pronunciation and ease in forming sentences. It definitely helped that when my Mandarin abilities were inadequate, locals would ask where I was from and would immediately praise my Mandarin ability upon learning that I am from Malaysia. It became easier when I didn’t have the pressure to be perfect, and people were incredibly kind to me before and after they realized I wasn’t local (though I tended to interact with shopkeepers who wanted to sell me things, so take that as you will). I think Beijing is quite difficult to navigate without knowing any Mandarin, but the train systems and a lot of street signs have English on them, so it’s not as difficult to navigate as some other places, but much more difficult than a usual tourist town. I think at least a rudimentary amount of Mandarin makes the experience ten times better than walking in blind.