News

Panel brings together students of U.S., China

In print | March 6, 2008

Last Friday afternoon, the college hosted “China Meets the World: Olympics, Modernization and Beyond,” two back-to-back discussions titled “China, U.S. and the World” and “China and Transformation.” During the panels, eight student representatives from the college and seven Chinese students from two of China’s leading universities, Peking and Tsinghua University, discussed global issues concerning the sociopolitical and cultural issues currently important for China and U.S.-China relations.

According to Alice Xiang ‘10, one of the event’s primary organizers, the discussions were part of a series of debates in the 2008 LENOVO-IMUSE tour in which visiting Chinese students were given the opportunity to tour several American colleges and universities, including Yale and Georgetown, to speak with American students in debates and discussions.

“I felt like the sponsor thought it was a good opportunity,” Xiang said. “Most of [the Chinese students] had never been out of [China] before … I think it was just a fun chance for them to tour around.”

The event was organized into two separate panel discussions moderated by George Yin ’09 and May Maani ’10 in which the students were presented with questions that asked them to reflect on several current issues of China. The discussions were then followed by a question and answer session with the audience.

Swarthmore students were solicited to participate in the event through Reserved Students Digest e-mails. The only requirement was that interested students show a clear awareness of China.

The panelists ranged from long-time students studying Chinese to those simply interested in Chinese-U.S. political relations. Xiang and fellow organizer Yimei Zou ’10 also recruited panelists from amongst their own friends.

“was to give students here an opportunity to directly communicate with students from China,” Xiang said. “You hear a lot about China through mainstream media, but … the main purpose was to give Swatties a chance to talk to those students about some of the issues that both were interested in.” In the first panel, participants were asked to think about the effect the Olympics may have on the everyday lives of Chinese people and whether it would modify the current global perspective of China.

Other questions asked students to think about the reasons for the increase in the number of Chinese students coming to study abroad in the U.S., the differences in educational systems and each country’s awareness of the other.

Katherine Lam ’11, one of the student panelists, reflected on the differences between the American and Chinese students in terms of their willingness to express their own personal opinions — as opposed to feeling restricted to represent only the views of their entire countries whether or not they agreed with their governments.

“One of the biggest things that I noticed was how different our world views were,” she said. “I feel that, being a Swattie and an American, I can basically say everything I want to … but I felt like the Chinese students were a lot more restrained.”

In one specific instance, the Chinese panelists talked about their government’s preparations for the Olympics in Beijing but seemed resistant to discuss the specific morality of the actions of their government, according to Lam.

The second panel consisted of questions on Chinese nationalism through sports and figures like Yao Ming, a Chinese-American basketball player for the Houston Rockets, the transition of China’s economy to a consumer economy similar to that of the U.S., the socioeconomic gap in China, particularly between rural and urban populations, and pressing environmental issues such as global warming and pollution in Chinese society.

“Oftentimes, [the Chinese students’] responses were pretty diplomatic. They are very good at giving non-controversial answers to controversial questions,” Yin said.

Andrew Dale ’08, another student panelist, enjoyed the overall experience but understood that perhaps the quality of the debate was different from discussions that he has had at Swarthmore.

He also emphasized the importance for future U.S.-China relations to have events such as these to promote dialogue between countries on an individual level.

“I strongly believe that relationships between countries are built at the level of relationships between individuals … I was really happy and I enjoyed participating in this, but … compared to some classes the quality of debate was just not as high as I had hoped, especially considering how smart they are and the achievements that these students have,” Dale said. “They’ve done a lot. These students are intense and undeniably intelligent. It’s eye-opening for both people.”

Yin said that China’s colonial history may have affected the ways in which its citizens feel they should discuss China, leading to issues of miscommunication, differences in interpretation and unparalleled dialogue in these discussions.

“I sort of feel that the Chinese students were not open to criticism enough from the U.S.,” Yinn said. “I think that actually reflects that China, in a sense, still can’t really escape its past … it also shows that they are still in the process of extracting themselves from their colonial past.”

“I don’t want to say that we were on opposing sides but … it was like two ships passing in the night,” Dale said. “Both these boats were really close to each other but neither could see where the other one was … We weren’t really talking about the same thing.”

Lam understood that there were inherent differences in the ways in which both groups of students would interpret and respond to the questions, but also looked at it from the perspective of her Chinese heritage. “I took into account the cultural differences coming from a Chinese background … I feel, in some ways, that what they were talking about I can see how my family had to deal with similar things,” Lam said.

“In the end, the question that the Chinese students had the most difficult time with was the one about the dating scene in China,” Yinn said. “If they answer that, it means they would be experienced … I asked them after the panel and they told me that was the hardest question for them to answer. Pretty amusing I think.”

During the Q&A session of the second panel, two Falun Gong activists stood up and began to speak about the history of Falun Gong practitioners in China, among other things. Their comments were lengthy and only loosely related to the topics discussed at the event, and time had to be reserved for other audience members to ask their own questions, so at some point they had to be cut off, according to Laura Post ’09, a student who had attended the event.

“Basically, the guy stood up and expressed that he was a practitioner of Falun Gong and proceeded to say how the Chinese government had imprisoned, tortured and killed a number of Falun Gong practitioners … Everyone at the discussion was kind of dumbfounded,” Post said.

According to several of the panelists and organizers, the visiting Chinese students admitted that their debate at Swarthmore was the most challenging one they had to face out of all the Ivy League and elite colleges and universities they had visited.

“They were really surprised,” Xiang said. “They felt like the Swarthmore panel discussion was the most challenging one they faced. The Swarthmore delegates definitely had given a lot of thought to the issues they were talking about.”

After the event, student panelists and organizers were invited to have dinner together. This allowed the students to “mingle in a more informal setting,” according to Xiang.

“I hung out with all these people after the event for a long time and played Mahjong,” Dale said. “I enjoyed hanging out with them and it was a very good experience. They were very willing to spend time with us after the event.”

¥Disclosure Note: Yimei Zou ’10 is a photographer for The Phoenix, but had no role in the production of this article.