China
2019-03-27T04:07:02.061Z
My fingers run along the rice paper pages as my eyes trace the inked lines for three characters: Yan Ji Ci.
2017-05-16T04:05:49.712Z
When artificial intelligence rushes toward a near-perfect state and dominates all facets of human life in the coming decade, there may be only one trait to distinguish us from our artificial counterparts: love.
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2016-12-06T18:00:05Z
Barnard returned to China over spring break to host its fifth annual global symposium, titled "Women Changing China," the same name as the first symposium held in Beijing in 2009. Held in Shanghai this year, the symposium brought administrators, faculty, alumnae, and current students together in China to discuss female leadership in the country.
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2016-10-19T04:19:21Z
Wood Auditorium opened its doors on Friday, Oct. 14, for a panel on the "Museum Boom in China." Organized by Jeffrey Johnson and John Rajchman and supported by Columbia's Weatherhead East Asian Institute and the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (Columbia GSAPP), the panel aimed to discuss the recent phenomena of rapid museum growth in China.
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2016-09-10T02:00:02Z
To the editor:
2015-11-24T14:00:02Z
Columbia and the East Asian Languages and Cultures department officially inaugurated the Tang Center for Early China, which aims to advance the understanding of early Chinese civilization, its richness, and its contemporary importance, on Friday.
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2014-08-26T00:01:04Z
Given that the perfect girl is petite, thin, and porcelain-skinned, has straight, jet-black hair, plays piano, and has a 4.0, which best describes you?
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2014-08-25T17:00:02Z
There we were, ensconced in a not-so-cozy corner of Butler library, sipping on a Blue Java coffee, when a friend of ours stumbled upon us.
"What's up, guys?" he said. "Still up 'n' about?"
Indeed, it was 2 in the morning. Just another Sunday night at Columbia, saturated with the rigors of combo Lit Hum and UWriting due dates and a time-killing programming assignment. Not the most agreeable situation, but don't we all manage?
"Not much," we replied. "Just got some serious loads to kill."
There had been plenty to get used to—the food, the laundry dryers, names of places, half a dozen tips on staying safe and oriented on the subway. It wasn't so many strained Sundays ago that all of this seemed like life on another continent to us. In fact, it literally was. We are among the restless believers of a different and meaningful education, crossing over from "the other side" of "the other, larger pond" in pursuit of our vast and varied dreams at Columbia. From the moment we passed the poker-faced immigration officer, who languidly stapled a (crucially important) funny white card into our passports, we were henceforth labelled as "international students from China."
We have the surrealist reality of living a drastically different life than we would have had back home.
However, as latecomers to the United States, the biggest challenges were not rolled out as macro-level dissimilarities but rather ambushed in matters of absolute triviality. The encounter in Butler was vividly reminiscent of many an NSOP scene, like when we met a new friend in an elevator conversation—and who we were sure would have already forgotten our tongue-twisting names.
"What's up, guys?" he greeted us with a grin.
We stumbled. It is mundane things like this interaction that our education back home in China did not prepare us for. Hailing from a place where a simple smile and nod would suffice as a greeting, this whole new courtesy paradigm frequently catches us off guard. It's as if every greeting is a brain teaser of some sort, and for quite a while, we have to think outside the box to say, "Not much, just hangin' around. What've you been up to?"
Nonetheless, we try, despite the initial unnerving encounter. Hanging out shouldn't, after all, be an intimidating enterprise. But sometimes, as hard as we try to contribute to a conversation, we feel ill at ease when bombarded with things we know direly little about. In our world, there is "The Big Bang Theory" and "Gossip Girl," there's NBA playoffs and Wimbledon and soccer, but not much in common with this world otherwise. Every casual conversation is an adventure, an empirical lesson on U.S. college life trivia. Both of us have enjoyed this second-culture acquisition that our best American buddies make possible. We have nevertheless lived through moments where the initial meet-and-greet excitement (tacked, perhaps, with awkward loss of words when it comes to "what's up") gradually fades into unintentional estrangement.
It's hard on both sides. Special attention would be unfair, as it merely proposes an understanding on the surface, a deferral to misunderstanding. The two of us, then, resolved to ourselves that we shall always take the initiative in active engagement in the larger community. Just like any other Columbians, we—and other Chinese fellows aplenty—aspire to attain what lies far beyond classes and exams and GPA. Among us are Model U.N. leaders and mathematicians, writers and researchers, Christians and coders, literateurs and linguists, individuals and interesting persons. But most of all, we are just like all Columbians, with diversified backgrounds, a common belief in mutual inspiration, and a multitude of dreams and visions.
This has been a morphing experience. It gives us agency to assimilate the West while all along musing on what we stand for as Chinese international students. What is certain is that we do not see ourselves as merely a dazzling diversity statistic on a Pantone blue admission brochure. The inevitable difficulty for us to blend in at first made us all the more missioned to foster mutual understanding between the 2,254 of us and the rest of Columbia.
Despite all the alienation of employment ineligibility, of our alma mater's need-sensitive admission process, of being at the center of the debated game of playing politics with international students, we would like to propose the contrary. What is to be played should not be a miniature U.S.-China rivalry, or a contention on whether Columbia should better serve its nation by letting fewer of us in—but an embodiment of trust, genuine interest, personal connection, or perhaps even just a few more "what's up"s. And all we ask is a bit of extra patience—especially if that "not much" happens to take more than a second to come along.
Lingzi Zhuang is a first-year in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Shen Qiu is a first-year in Columbia College.
To respond to this op-ed, or to submit an op-ed, contact opinion@columbiaspectator.com
... "What's up, guys?" he said. "Still up 'n' about?"
Indeed, it was 2 in the morning. Just another Sunday night at Columbia, saturated with the rigors of combo Lit Hum and UWriting due dates and a time-killing programming assignment. Not the most agreeable situation, but don't we all manage?
"Not much," we replied. "Just got some serious loads to kill."
There had been plenty to get used to—the food, the laundry dryers, names of places, half a dozen tips on staying safe and oriented on the subway. It wasn't so many strained Sundays ago that all of this seemed like life on another continent to us. In fact, it literally was. We are among the restless believers of a different and meaningful education, crossing over from "the other side" of "the other, larger pond" in pursuit of our vast and varied dreams at Columbia. From the moment we passed the poker-faced immigration officer, who languidly stapled a (crucially important) funny white card into our passports, we were henceforth labelled as "international students from China."
We have the surrealist reality of living a drastically different life than we would have had back home.
However, as latecomers to the United States, the biggest challenges were not rolled out as macro-level dissimilarities but rather ambushed in matters of absolute triviality. The encounter in Butler was vividly reminiscent of many an NSOP scene, like when we met a new friend in an elevator conversation—and who we were sure would have already forgotten our tongue-twisting names.
"What's up, guys?" he greeted us with a grin.
We stumbled. It is mundane things like this interaction that our education back home in China did not prepare us for. Hailing from a place where a simple smile and nod would suffice as a greeting, this whole new courtesy paradigm frequently catches us off guard. It's as if every greeting is a brain teaser of some sort, and for quite a while, we have to think outside the box to say, "Not much, just hangin' around. What've you been up to?"
Nonetheless, we try, despite the initial unnerving encounter. Hanging out shouldn't, after all, be an intimidating enterprise. But sometimes, as hard as we try to contribute to a conversation, we feel ill at ease when bombarded with things we know direly little about. In our world, there is "The Big Bang Theory" and "Gossip Girl," there's NBA playoffs and Wimbledon and soccer, but not much in common with this world otherwise. Every casual conversation is an adventure, an empirical lesson on U.S. college life trivia. Both of us have enjoyed this second-culture acquisition that our best American buddies make possible. We have nevertheless lived through moments where the initial meet-and-greet excitement (tacked, perhaps, with awkward loss of words when it comes to "what's up") gradually fades into unintentional estrangement.
It's hard on both sides. Special attention would be unfair, as it merely proposes an understanding on the surface, a deferral to misunderstanding. The two of us, then, resolved to ourselves that we shall always take the initiative in active engagement in the larger community. Just like any other Columbians, we—and other Chinese fellows aplenty—aspire to attain what lies far beyond classes and exams and GPA. Among us are Model U.N. leaders and mathematicians, writers and researchers, Christians and coders, literateurs and linguists, individuals and interesting persons. But most of all, we are just like all Columbians, with diversified backgrounds, a common belief in mutual inspiration, and a multitude of dreams and visions.
This has been a morphing experience. It gives us agency to assimilate the West while all along musing on what we stand for as Chinese international students. What is certain is that we do not see ourselves as merely a dazzling diversity statistic on a Pantone blue admission brochure. The inevitable difficulty for us to blend in at first made us all the more missioned to foster mutual understanding between the 2,254 of us and the rest of Columbia.
Despite all the alienation of employment ineligibility, of our alma mater's need-sensitive admission process, of being at the center of the debated game of playing politics with international students, we would like to propose the contrary. What is to be played should not be a miniature U.S.-China rivalry, or a contention on whether Columbia should better serve its nation by letting fewer of us in—but an embodiment of trust, genuine interest, personal connection, or perhaps even just a few more "what's up"s. And all we ask is a bit of extra patience—especially if that "not much" happens to take more than a second to come along.
Lingzi Zhuang is a first-year in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Shen Qiu is a first-year in Columbia College.
To respond to this op-ed, or to submit an op-ed, contact opinion@columbiaspectator.com
2014-08-24T13:34:56Z
It's late. You're up. It's finals week, so time to get in all that reading that you didn't do over the last few months. But before you crack open that Red Bull, check out these links: Colbert Nation: According to what is likely an exceedingly inaccurate poll, Stephen Colbert is the most popular choice to replace Jim DeMint as one of South Carolina's senators. News from the Future: According to a report compiled by the National Intelligence Council, China will surpass the U.S. as an economic power in 2030. 2030? Don't these morons know that the world is going to end in like a weak or so?more Just Google the problem: For those of you who were unable to access their Gmail or Google Drive accounts earlier today, here's what might be the reason behind the outage. And a funny video...
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2014-08-24T13:34:56Z
Good morning, Columbia! The sun will come out tomorrow, but also possibly later today. Otherwise, it's gonna continue raining and range from 37 to 54 degrees. Go ahead and play this on your computer all day. In Columbia news:
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