Back in Beijing

I’m going back! This time for a year – two semesters at Tsinghua University (清华大学), taking Mandarin literature and business focused classes with Inter-University Program (IUP). I want to thank the Richard U. Light Fellowship for making this possible for a second time. I would otherwise not be able to take on this adventure, and I’m beyond excited to do so.

This will be my third time in China, with my last visit being the summer I spent at Beijing Language and Culture University (北京语言大学) with Harvard Beijing Academy during the summer of 2008. The previous posts on this blog are from that summer, and while I treated the blog mostly as a requirement for the Light Fellowship the first time around, I hope to expand more on my life both as a foreigner and as somebody of (half) Chinese decent in modern China this time. At the same time, however, I am a recent college graduate with varied interests. While I hope to draw some insight to the inevitable realms of Chinese politics and business, I will also be sure to report on shopping, sports, music and food!

The Confucius quote up top is, I guess you could say, the lens through which I see China, and my life there, as of now. My previous experiences in this city have been defined mostly by confusion and contradictions – never have I experienced more pleasure and angst, simplicity and difficulty, reception and exclusion, and straightforwardness and ambiguity all at the same time. Many people say that the more time you spend in this country, the less you understand it; I believe this quotation speaks to this truth in many ways, and while I’m still unclear as to which side of the simplicity vs. complicated spectrum I see as my goal, I hope to make some sense of the complexities and contradictions I experience over the next year and gain a new, if not deeper, understanding of Chinese culture in the process of doing so. More on this to come...

Unlike (what seems like) everybody else in Beijing, I have no idea where I will end up after a year at IUP. I have no plans for afterwards, and to be honest, am not even sure what I hope to be doing. I will use this to my advantage, however, and explore and take in everything possible, so please join me for the ride. Feel free to post comments, as I would love your feedback!

Bailey

*For those of you who don’t know me, I recently graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in East Asian Studies. I also spent most of my time there competing for the Yale Track and Field team and participating in the sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta. This will be my third time in China and second time studying in Beijing. I am of half-Chinese decent and originally from the Boston area.