This year the Experiencing the Dynamic China program kicked off at the same time as Lizema – the strongest typhoon of 2019. On the morning of August 13, the opening ceremony was held at the Yifu Building. Wang Gang, deputy director of the East China Normal University International Education Center, and Mark Woolstencroft and Stephanie Rinaldi, representatives of the University of Manchester, joined more than 100 university students from 38 universities in the United Kingdom.
Experiencing the Dynamic China program kicks off.
Li Jialing from ECNU's International Education Center hosts the opening ceremony.
At the beginning of the opening ceremony, teachers and students from both countries reviewed some of the wonderful activities held over the years. By sharing the wonderful memories left behind by seniors before them, all the students gained new insights and expectations for the project.
Wang Gang, deputy director of the ECNU's International Education Center gives a speech.
Wang Gang gave a speech at the opening ceremony where he warmly welcomed the arrival of the teachers and students from the UK, and then led everyone to preview the development history of the “Experiencing the Dynamic China” project since it was first held at ECNU in 2008.
He also talked about the essence of the project: to understand more about China. It helps British students understand China's past and future, tradition and modernity, provides another perspective to understand China's development, and provides opportunities for young people in this era to interact with each other, he said, in order to find a brighter future for the development of the world and also of the individuals.
Mark Woolstencroft, representative of the University of Manchester
Stephanie Rinaldi, representative of the University of Manchester
The project leaders of University of Manchester Mark Woolstencroft and Stephanie Rinaldi expressed their gratitude to ECNU for their preparations on the project. They also talked about their interesting experiences in China and encouraged UK students to take full advantages of these three weeks to immerse in Chinese culture and enjoy Shanghai.
Representative Warren Alexander Stanislaus, a British doctoral student of Oxford University.
Representative Warren Alexander Stanislaus, a British doctoral student of Oxford University, introduced himself to everyone in fluent Chinese. He said that he had developed a strong interest in Chinese culture in the past decade . He also felt lucky to be selected from more than 1,000 candidates to participate in the project between University of Manchester and ECNU this summer, so he particularly hoped to take this chance to improve his Chinese and promote his understanding of Chinese culture.
Guo Chenyu, an undergraduate of ECNU gives a speech as volunteer representative
On behalf of all the volunteers, Guo Chenyu, an undergraduate sincerely offered some suggestions to the students from UK. “Don’t keep yourselves from trials and experiences. Instead, you are welcomed to engage in the profoundness of Chinese culture.” Meanwhile, she represented all Chinese friends, to state their willingness to provide assistance to British students any time, allowing Chinese and UK students to learn from each other and have a better understanding in communication.
The opening ceremony.
“Experiencing the Dynamic China” project is sponsored by the British government and co-organized by the University of Manchester and the East China Normal University to foster a future generation of British diplomacy and corporate elites. From 2008 to 2019, there have been 14 batches of more than 1,600 university students from the UK and from the EU who have come to ECNU through the project; it has brought together like-minded individuals from different cultural backgrounds to Shanghai and ECNU. The students then are able to immerse themselves into Chinese culture and thereby actively participate in Chinese society. Importantly, the results of this project demonstrate how Chinese students take part in the aspects contributing to globalization and hence improved upon their intercultural communication skills, which is paramount to the understanding and knowledge that is necessary to extend friendship between the university students of the two countries.
Translated by Siyuan Zhang Proofread by Joshua Mayfield Reviewed by Wenjun Guo
