Who Are We
A profile of Chinese Students in Philadelphia By Yuxuan Jia
Copyright © 2015 Yuxuan Jia All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or in any means – by electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without prior written permission. Printed in the United States of America By Fireball Printing 3237 Amber St Box 3 Floor 5, Philadelphia, PA 19134
To us all, who crossed the Pacific Ocean, and landed on United States of America. 谨以此书，献给每一个漂洋过海，来到 这“美利坚合众国”的学子。
Content Part 1: The Facts --------------------------------------------- 11 Part 2: Students --------------------------------------------- 21 Part 3: Organizations ---------------------------------------- 71 Part 4: Q&A with Director of International Admissions at Temple University ---------------------------------- 95 Epilogue ---------------------------------------------------- 105 Special Thanks ---------------------------------------------- 107 Sources ----------------------------------------------------- 108
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Part One: The Facts
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Visiters are taking photos with the Benjamin Franklin sculpture in the University of Pennsylvania campus.
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United States as a diverse society, has a reputation of accepting people from all over the world. The scene from the movie The Legend of 1900, which people on a passenger liner pointed at the Statue of Liberty and yield “America,” is an expression of the wide acceptances of American. Now, people are still keep coming to America all over the world everyday, some of them are immigrants, some of them just come for visiting, business or studying, and those who enrolled in an America academic program, but not a U.S. citizen are called “international students.” The first origin country of International Students is China. According to a report released by Brookings Institution, which is a “private nonprofit organization devoted to independent research and innovative policy solutions,” at Aug 29, 2014 said the size of Chinese F-1 Visa (student visa for those who study in America school) holders was 284,173, which took 25 percent of total international students with F-1 visas during this period. During the 2013-2014 academic years, Chinese international student held 31 percent of total International student population, which was 19 percent more than the second country India (Open Doors). The number of Chinese students who studying in American is also keeps increasing every year recently. There were 274,439 Chinese students in American during the 2013-2014 academic year, 235,597 during the 2012-2013 academic year, 194,029 during the 2011-2012 academic year, and 157,558 during the 2010-2011 academic year.
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Same with the national tendency, Chinese students group in Pennsylvania is keep growing too recently. In 2014, 35.8 percent out of 41,446 international students were Chinese students, 32.4 percent out of 37,280 in 2013 were Chinese students, and in 2012, Chinese students occupied 29.2 percent out of total 33,398 international students. As the fifth largest city in American and one of the largest college towns in the nation, the great Philadelphia area was the eighth most popular metropolitan destination for international students, which had 24,346 international students during 2008-2012 (Brookings). Chinese students group also is the biggest in the international students group here, which the number was 7,150 during 2008-2012. From the Drexel University annual Factbook, it shows that there were only 713 Chinese students during the 2012-2013 academic year, then it raised to 1,005 during the 2013-2014 academic year, and during the current 2014-2015 academic year, there are 1,019 Chinese student currently enroll at Drexel University. Temple University has the same kind of increase. According to the Director of International Admission Office Jessica Sandberg, there were 1,100 Chinese students in fall 2014, and in fall 2013, there were 880 Chinese students at Temple. Therefore, as a continuing increasing group in America, and specifically in Philadelphia, who are they, why they are here, how they are living here, and where they are going? Those are the questions that this book trying to answer.
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The Language and Communication Center at Drexel University is provided by Drexel University with highest quality English language instruction and support services to English language learners. Temple University has similar English learning program, called Intensive English Language Program.
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Chinese Students in Philadelphia Source: Metro Chinese Weekly, a local Chinese news paper serving the Chinese population of the great Philadelphia area. Sample size: 158; Time: summer 2014.
Medical Science 11 (7%)
Others 13 (8.2%)
Business 63 (39.8%)
Media and Communication 16 (10.1%)
Major Liberal Arts 14 (8.8%)
Science and Technology 33 (20.8%)
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Art 8 (5%)
What is their plan after graduation Find jobs in America
98 (62%)
Apply for further Study
29 (18.5%) Back to China
25 (18.4%) Other
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Part Two: Students
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I used to be a really out going and social people, and I really enjoy hang out with my friends. I can’t even have diner alone. But ever since I came here, I became more enjoying spend time with myself.
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Guan Wang, 24, from Beijing in China, is a graduate Human Development major student in University of Pennsylvania, and she has been here for two years.
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Guan Wang, 24, from Beijing in China, is a graduate Human Development major student in University of Pennsylvania, and she has been here for two years. She was graduated from Beijing University, one of the best universities in China, before came to study in the U.S. She always wanted to come to American when she was a kid. However, as she growing older, this thought was becoming more and more blurry. Until her exboyfriend in college started to plan study abroad, so she started to plan with him. They broke up in the end, but she kept this part and finally came here. This is the second time that she came to the States. The first time she was here was at her junior year at college. She came to Columbia University at summer for both taking courses and tour around the city. For this time, she has been here since August 2013, and has never been back ever since. “I missed home a lot in the first year… but know I’m getting use to it.” Before she came here, she thought study in here should be more fun than it really is. Because now she gets a lot of readings and assignments, and the workflow is over her expectation. Also, because everything is in English, and her English writing is not that well, so that is a challenge for her too.
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“I pretty much under a lot of pressure at the first year, and I when to the hospital pretty often.” But the second year is definitely better, because she is not taking any courses this year, and she is only working on her thesis so that she can graduate in this May. She thinks this study abroad experience definitely make her more independent, more able to rely on herself for different things. When she was back at home, her parents, friends and relatives will take care a lot of things for her. “When I first came here, I ordered a bunch of furniture from Ikea, and they were having trouble delivering those things to my apartment. So I slept on the floor, for a whole week, I even went there to argue with them about this issue. Finally they apologized and didn’t change me any delivery fee. I learned to live in the States, you need to really fight for the things you want.” She also learned some other things from staying here, such as you need to work out and take care of your body, which is something she was not really paying attention when she was in China. However, there is also something not quite positive too.
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“I used to be a really out going and social people, and I really enjoy hang out with my friends. I can’t even have diner alone. But ever since I came here, I became more enjoying spend time with myself, or I just stay at my apartment, even the whole day without coming out. I start to appreciate that I can just be alone, and I don’t really need to force myself to social with other people. It’s almost like a pressure back in China, you feel anxious if you stay alone for too long. Now I don’t feel anxious anymore.” She is not sure if it is a good thing or bad thing for her, “you don’t have as many Chinese people here, and all your Chinese friends are not necessary had the same courses, same schedule with you. I don’t know if this life style is good or not, but I don’t feel bad with it. It’s just a change.” Also, one thing surprised her about here is how Americans can manage to stand that upbeat and happy. “Coming from an Asian culture, which very much appreciate the beauty of sadness… But after I came to the state, not only my American friends, but also the songs, the movies, and everything same are to try to make you happy. So if I really like a Asian movie and recommend it to my American friends, they probably will not really understand it.”
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About the question that weather it is worthy to study in America, she thinks it is totally worthy to come over here. “I think it’s definitely worthy. I’m thinking about getting a PHD degree after this program, and that definitely is a decision I made after I came here. My life and my study here make me want to stay here longer.” Two years are not a long enough time for her to get the sense of belonging in here, but it did make her loose her sense of belonging to China. “Since I haven’t been to China for two years, I start to feel like I have a certain distance from my mother land.” She is going back to China this summer, and she is a bit afraid that she will feel strange about her hometown, “but still, going back home feels good.” Then she will return to America before next fall semester, and start her new study in North Carolina as a Dcctor student.
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It is interesting to experience western culture in America first.
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Haojun Liu, 24, from Guangdong Province in China, is a graduate Television Management major student at Drexel University. She came to America four years ago.
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Haojun Liu, 24, from Guangdong Province in China, is a graduate Television Management major student at Drexel University. She came to America four years ago. The first time she came here was as an exchange student, and went to a university at New Mexico. She thinks it is interesting “to experience western culture in America first.” The reason she came to America was because she felt like she already live in China for a long time, and she always wanted to try new things, “since my parents also allowed me to do that, so I came.” In Haojun’s opinion, she thinks she got a lot culture experiences here, but she is not quit satisfied with the education experiences that she received here. “The first school I attended here are not quit satisfactory for me. Part of the reason was that I didn’t think through and prepare myself enough to go to a very good university in here before I came to study here.” Since she already here, she tried to experience new things, went to a lot of places, and talked to a lot different people. Therefore, from this perspective, she thinks it is worthy to come here.
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One thing that surprised her about here is the freedom that people have in here. “Last week, I went to shoot the guns, and the boss over there allow me to try the big guns even I just a beginner and never touched a gun before. And the boss told me that ‘cause I feel like you really like guns, and here is America, I can do what ever I want.’” However, if she is in China, her parents may not allow her to do those things, such as Scuba Diving, Sky Diving. Even she gets the chance, there still are not enough facilities for her to try those activates. “Chinese focus too much on studying and earning money.” Another thing gave her a strong impression here is the dating culture. “In China, people usually will be friends for a long time before they finally in a relationship. But here, people can just start dating in the first place, and then to see if they want to be in a relationship or not.” She does quite enjoy living here, because there are all kinds of different races in here, so she do not really feel she is a stranger. “I feel like I can belong here too, and everybody have their small community.” Yet, she does feel that racism still exist in this society. “Before I came here, I thought racism was not a problem in here already, but in fact it still is. People will still usually hang out with people who have the same skin color with them.”
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She currently has an internship, and probably will see after a year if it could become her job. But she is not really satisfied in the same position, and it is really hard for Chinese people, especially for Journalism or media major students to find a job here. “So, I really wanna go back to China, and start my own business. And I also have my family there. The only thing is that I have a boyfriend here, and I haven’t figure out what to do with that.”
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If you really want to know how everything works here at the States, and if you really want to know yourself better, I think it’s worthy to come over here and get away from you comfort zone back in China.
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Zehua Li, 25, from Shandong Province in China, is a graduated Engineering major student from University of Pennsylvania, and he graduated last May. He came to U.S. three years ago.
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Zehua Li, 25, from Shandong Province in China, is a graduated Engineering major student from University of Pennsylvania, and he graduated last May. He came to Philadelphia three years ago, in September 2012, to attend graduate school at University of Pennsylvania. The reason he chose this college was because “Penn offered me a great opportunities to set my plan, my future, with great program, great environment and great people. I really enjoy study in here, especially the contents of the courses, which are good and updated, and some of the classes really interest me.” He is confident about himself, English and communication is not problem for him, and he really like studying here, especially working with a team. He can have a really deep cooperation with other people, and he made a lot of friends through that. “It’s not just helping you to get good grades, it also help you male good friends in professional life and personal life. Working with team is the most enjoyable thing for me… You are really doing something great with your team.” This is not the only thing he learned from here. “I think study in here make me more realistic. Allow me sometime to take a step back and think what I’m actually doing right now, and what I will do next.” He thinks this study abroad experience definitely make him a better person.
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However, there is one thing he thinks it does surprised him, which is the pragmatism of the society here. “Because many people like what I was, had some dreams and fantasy about the life here. Some people may even think study here is one of their goals. But in fact, those fantasies are just fantasies when you facing the pragmatism here, especially when you come down to look for jobs here.” Still, he found his payment and time here definitely worthy, and he thinks he totally deserves this level of education. He also gets a clear image about how American work as a society. “If you really want to know how everything works here at the States, and if you really want to know yourself better, I think it’s worthy to come over here and get away from you comfort zone back in China.” After four years in the U.S., he did find his belongingness here, but it is not Philadelphia or University of Pennsylvania gives him the sense of belonging, it is the community he associates with. “During the first year, I’m in touch with all kind of people… Then I realized that it’s really important to have your own community, no matter where you come from. So it’s not the place, city or nation that I feel belong to, it’s the community that I belong to. The people that I work with, I live with, I hang out with that I belong to. So I don’t feel like I belong to Philadelphia or certain city, but I certainly have a lot
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of friends that I can rely on” After graduation, he asked his professor, which he took class and got a good grade with, if he can work for him, so that he could stay in America and keep looking for jobs. The professor agreed, and he started to work for him as a TA. “I definitely miss home, and I think everybody here miss home. Or at least you will miss your family anyway.” He is not thinking about going back to China yet. He just got a new job in California, and he is leaving Philadelphia soon. He will keep trying to achieve his life goal in this land, and he does believe America can help him achieve that.
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At the time, I have no idea what I’m going to go through here.
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Zhaolin Chen, 25, from Inner Mongolia, is a graduated International Marketing major student from Saint Joseph University. He graduated at 2013. He came to America four years ago.
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Zhaolin Chen, 25, from Inner Mongolia, is a graduated International Marketing major student from Saint Joseph University. He graduated at 2013. He came to America four years ago after he graduated from college in China as a Broadcasting major student. The reason he decided to study in the U.S. was because after his graduation, he found out that he was not really having a great chance in the TV station, so he thought he need to find a “ice-breaker.” Also, his parents really supported him to study abroad, based on his cousin got a great job after finishing study in Texas. “At the time, I have no idea what I’m going to go through here,” he said. He decided to change his major when he was applying graduate school, because to do broadcasting in here was almost impossible for him based on his English skills and accent. Even journalism here is really different with what it is in China. “Even my English is improving every day, but I can ‘t get rid off my Chinese accent, which make me almost impossible to be an American host.” After he graduated, he got a job at Fleetway Capital, which is a full service leasing Company, as an Account Executive. However, he quitted after a year, because at the point he got his H1 visa (the working visa for foreigners in America) already, and if he wanted to stay in American and get the Green Card (permanent residency in America for a foreigner, which allow them to live and work in the United States), he would need to work there for five years.
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“But working at a small company for five years was not something I wanted at the time.” Therefore, he quitted the job, and told his family, which still live in China, gave him one more year to try things out. During the life here, he did feel that he was changed a lot by this study abroad experience. It broad his view, and made him to be a more independent person. The experience here also made him treat his friends and family more valuable. “After I came here, I realized how important they are to me.” However, not everything about living here is positive. Sometimes he will really feel alone, such as the point when he was going to quit his job, his boss was not treating him well, and his work was not going smoothly too. He was not really able to talk to anybody, because all his coworkers were Americans, and he did not even feel like he had a lot of friends. “It’s totally different with study in school.” He didn’t really have a Chinese friend who could understand what he was going through at the time. “I never feel alone when I was in China. I have a lot of friends. But in here, I do feel alone.” He could not tell his parents either, because he didn’t want them worry about him. He does not know if it is worthy to study in here yet. “It didn’t pay back yet. But I don’t think it’s a bad idea (to come here). Because what I have been going through really teach me a lot, and I grow a lot. Cause everything you need to figure it out by yourself in here, no one can really help you like what you parents did to you before.”
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He only went back to China once during the four years, so he really missed his home badly. Now, he is starting a business with his friend, which is running a food trading website. He made up his mind, and decided to give himself one more year, and try to make it work. “If it’s not working, I will go back home, with my parents. At least we are together.”
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I think the intention of study abroad is very important. If the parents want their children to study here, I think at least they should bring them here and show them how’s the life in here, visit a campus, experience the atmosphere.
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Li Jiang, 30, from Beijing, is a graduated Advertising major student from Temple University. She just graduated at December 2014, and she already been here for four years.
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Li Jiang, 30, from Beijing, is a graduated Advertising major student from Temple University. She just graduated at December 2014, and she already been here for four years. “Actually I graduate from College in China many years ago, and I worked three years in Beijing. But then I felt a little bit boring about my job at the time. My English is not good, so I was thinking about to go outside, to see different place, to experience different culture. So I came here, learned English, and studying College.” She has been experienced college education in both China and America, and she thinks it is really different. “When I was in China study in a Chinese college, we just need to go to lectures, do some homework at home. But in here, we have to do a lot of research before we go to classes, and you need to speak up when you are in class, you have to learn how to express your opinion. You need to manage your own study schedule, and this is very different with China. “ She also found out that how to respect others, both in and out of class. It is different in China that everything only has one correct answer. After her graduation, she found a job in an International Student Consulting Company in Philadelphia.
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“We help high school international student about their English skills, American Cultures, and help them apply college. We also have different camps for them during breaks. My position in the company is a marketing assistant. We are a very young company so we are trying to start our marketing development.” Because of this job, she also got some thoughts about Chinese parents sending their children abroad to study. “Many Chinese parents really like to make decision for their children. I know some of the Chinese students are not really happy about study in here. They were sent here by their parents. So I think the intention of study abroad is very important. If the parents want their children to study here, I think at least they should bring them here and show them how’s the life in here, visit a campus, experience the atmosphere. If they wanna start a new life, they will be happy to be here. Even they will face some problem, they will be happy to solve them by themselves. But if they don’t want to stay here, everything will become problem.” Even though she already got a job in Philadelphia, she still thinks she will not stay here for too long. “I don’t think I belong to anywhere, even Beijing my hometown. Because I’m not that kind of people to stay in one place for a really long time. So I will like to go to different places, meet different people, to experience different culture, to explore the world.”
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It made me almost going crazy. You are facing so many documents and so many problems. But only you can take care of them.
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Wanyu Wang, 24, from Beijing, is a graduate Television Management major student at Drexel University, and she is about to graduate this summer. She came to America in August 2013.
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Wanyu Wang, 24, from Beijing, is a graduate Television Management major student at Drexel University, and she is about to graduate this summer. She came to America in August 2013, and it was her parents who pushed her to study abroad in the first place. They wanted her to get more experience, both life experience and work experience. The life here is really different with the life in Beijing, “study here makes me more independent, and I do learn a lot from living in a different country. You need to take care of everything, every detail in your life when you studying here.” Her student status is something she worries the most. Her visa status, and the OPT (Optional Practical Training) application she is doing recently, are the most complicate things she and some other international students need to take care in her opinion. “It made me almost going crazy. You are facing so many documents and so many problems. But only you can take care of them.” English is another big challenge for her, “you need to studying in English, speaking in English and listening English.” It did spend an amount of time for her to get used to it.
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During the time she lives here, the friends she made are the people who help her the most. “Before I came here, I know nobody in Philadelphia.” After she got those friends, every time she feel lonely or depress, they will bring her out and cheer her up. She does like Philadelphia a lot, “It’s a city that you can catch up with friends easily.” She called Philadelphia a “nice and small” city, compare with Beijing, which she said sometimes will cost her more then two hours to meet with friends in the city. Every time she starts missing home, those benefits will suddenly gone, and she will just want to go home immediately. Fortunately, that situation did not happen a lot in the past. However, if saying weather it is worthy or not to come over here, she thinks it is still too early to make a conclusion. “I think if I can work here for at least two years after my graduation, it probably will be worthy.”
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That’s the moment I feel like maybe there is a culture difference, and maybe I couldn’t speak English that well, but I still can make something impress other people, and still make good things without say it out loud.
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Yuchao Feng, 22, from Fujian Province in China, is a senior film major student at Temple University. He came here four years ago.
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Yuchao Feng, 22, from Fujian Province in China, is a senior film major student at Temple University. He came here four years ago. “When I was young, I was like a huge film fan, so I was thinking that my career should be making films. But one thing in China is that for a lot of Chinese parents, film is kind of art. And in their opinion, anything relate to art is not gonna make money… I’m glad my parents are one of the kinds that they don’t really care, as long as I’m happy. Besides, film industry in America is so big, like Hollywood. So I just figure that American is the place that I should go.” When he first came to America, his life is not easy at all because of his poor English. He was like a lot of other Chinese students in here, not really talking to Americans because of the fear of presenting his language skills to others, and tried to do all the work by himself. Than, a turning point came to him, his film was presented on a local film festival. About four hundreds people watched his film, and they really loved it and started clapping in the end. “That’s the moment I feel like maybe there is a culture difference, and maybe I couldn’t speak English that well, but I still can make something impress other people, and still make good things without say it out loud.”
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He started to hang out with his film major friends, which are all Americans. It kinds of changed his personality, and that was how he improved his English in the following four years. “It’s a big moment for me.” Now he has a lot of American friends, and his roommate, who also is a close friend with him, is American too. He does not think that Americans and Chinese cannot become really close friends. “There will be culture barriers for sure, but it can be something fun too… (Me and my roommate) will always talk about those stuff, we will talk about Chinese food and American food, also something like how Chinese do certain things and American do things here. That adds something to our relationship, and between Americans, they will not have those kind of conversation.” In his opinion, language is something that scares many international students away from trying to communicate with Americans, but it totally should not be. “Some people always think that ‘I’m from a foreign country, and I can’t speak English well.’ … I think even you can’t speak really well, but if you do try to communicate with people, they will still understand you.”
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Still, he admitted that he did spend sometime to find a solution for this problem. When he first came here, he was not really opened himself to talk because he felt like he would embrace himself. But soon he realized that it is not about the language, it is about if you are open mind enough to talk to people around you and break the wall that Chinese students sometime will put out there between themselves and Americans. For those who think it is hard to make friends with Americans, he gave his advice to them, “you can watch how American talks to each other, like people talk about movies and everything. So if you want to talk with someone and you know he’s into film, you can start the topic with movies, and they maybe lead into a deeper conversation… If you over come that, making friends with Americans will be just like making friends with Chinese.” Yuchao will graduate after this semester. After four year of studying here, he thinks it is definitely worthy to come over here. “Before I came here, I spent my entire life in China. But Chinese style of education is just really pushy, and there are not really creative aspect works… So I feel like this four year I have been here, one of the most important thing I learn is that do think differently… if I want to accomplish something, I have multiple way to achieve that.”
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However, after all those year he lived in here and all the friends he made here, they still not able to provide a sense of belonging for him. “Even though I feel lot more comfortable to be in this environment, and I have a lot of American friends. But speaking of sense of belongingness, I still feel like China is my hometown, my family is there, my past life is there. It’s just different. I still miss the food in China a lot. But because I live in here now, so American is my home for now, but China is my hometown.” He already got himself into a documentary filming group after graduation. Then, he thinks he will go to Hollywood, and try to find a place for him over there.
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Part Three: Organizations
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Three Fellows is a video program created by a bunch of Chinese students who are studying in Philadelphia in 2012. “We want to make a show about Chinese Student in America, and they want to make it to videos so that they can play it in Chinese website, and Chinese people can see what’s the life like to be here as an International student,” Yuchao Feng, one of the founders of Three Fellows said, “A bunch of graduate Chinese student from University of Pennsylvania came to approach him with the idea of this program. They don’t have a video person to help film the show, and U Penn don’t really have a film school. Temple has a really good film program, and that’s how they found me.” Yuchao listened to their pitch and felt it was a really good project, so he joined them. “It’s really good that we have this opportunity, because it’s not just about students, our parents can see our life in here too.” Soon, Three Fellow became one of the most successful projects made by Chinese students in America, and they got a good number of audiences in China. One time, a famous Chinese TV show even made an episode discussing a topic brought up by them.
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Guan Wang and her team recorded their last new edpisode for this semester on April 4. Photo by Three Fellows
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Guan is in charge of a constellation show now, which is a program about interviewing Chinese student based on their Zodiac, and their hobbits. She also is the anchor of the show. Photo by Three Fellows
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The target audiences for this show is Chinese, and they talked about things happened in the world, including culture barriers between China and America in some of their episodes, and how things are done differently between here in the States and China. “Once, when the Chinese government announced that you can’t run through a yellow light when you in traffic. And we make this episode about how American think about it. We went to the street and ask random people about how people will do in here when they face a yellow light.” Because this was a really huge topic in China at the moment, and many people in China thought this rule was unfair, and even can be dangerous sometimes. So it got a really huge hit in China, because they could get a reference that how American people does. After the founders graduated one after one, more and more new Chinese students joined the show. Guan Wang, joined Three Fellow last July, and she is in charge of a constellation show now, which is a program about interviewing Chinese student based on their Zodiac, and their hobbits. She also is the anchor of the show.
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“Three Fellows have grown a lot in the past year, in initially, we only have one well know product, which is three people sitting there talking about issue happen in the world. Now we have three different teams, which focus on different things. So I’m in charge of team B. And team A, they ask American people on the street about a lot of different things, more like interviewing random people on the street. Our program is only focus on Chinese audiences because we are talking Chinese in our show. And there is a team X, which is a flexible team, so they handle stuff like filming shorter documentary and stuff for different purpose. Within each team, we have like producer, an anchor, scriptwriter, several photographers, and than an editor.” The first time she tried to join Three Fellows actually is last spring, and was not accepted at the time. During the summer, Three Fellow is thinking about opening a new show, and changed their team structure to what it is now. Therefore, they approached Guan, and asked if she wanted to be the anchor of this new show, which is a more entertaining show. In fact, “entertaining” is the main theme for Three Fellows this year. The reason they have this shift was because their cooperative channels in China gave them this kind of requirement. Because they said many of their past shows were really informative but not really entertaining, and did not have a good amount of viewers. For them, not matter what you are talking about in the video, you need people really checking it out first. So they make this shift based on really realistic reasons. “We are trying to make a good balance,” Guan said, and entertaining became one of the goal of them, especially for Guan’s team.
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However, not everyone like this change, and Yuchao is one of them. “They kind of make the show more entertaining, but not necessarily good, and not necessarily what we want to do in the first place.” The new “Three Fellowers” think differently, including Guan. “I don’t think entertaining is bad word, entertaining basic means you make something basic on what audiences needs, that’s the way you trying to entertain them. Not entertaining, to me it means you consider more about what you want to say, what message you want to send, and you are not considering weather the audiences what to hear them or not.” Also, considering the team structure they have, she think that not all of them are being more entertaining, they still have shows that talk about American opinions in many stuff, stays quit informative, which like the shows they made before. “Maybe some really serious viewers want to see serious stuff, but most of the viewers don’t like to spend that much attention on a show. They only willing to spend six or eight minutes. If it’s longer than their attention spend, they probably will just close it. We try to squeeze as more as information in their attention spend, and trying to make their attention spend longer by being more entertaining.”
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Because many people in Three Fellows now are graduating, so the future of this show become not that certain again. But as long as people sill want to watch the show, they will continue doing it.
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Penn Chinese Theater is a student theater group based on University of Pennsylvania, which focuses on promoting Chinese theatric culture by presenting one production every semester. The theater was found in 2013. At that time, the only College in the U.S. that had a Chinese theater was Princeton University, but there were a lot of Chinese students all around America, including University of Pennsylvania. Therefore, a group of Chinese student at University of Pennsylvania came up with the idea to found their own Chinese theater. Most of the members are students at University of Pennsylvania, but sometimes one or two of them are from other Universities. This semester, one member of the props group is from Philadelphia University. A lot of them did not have any theater experiences before joining this Chinese theater, but they were doing really well after couple rehearsals. The first show they presented was “Love is not Blind” on April 15, 2013, which is a famous romantic comedy from China about the process of a young woman recovered from the breaking up of a seven-year relationship. They got a really good name from this play. However, what made them became popular, was their second show “The Red Rose and the White Rose”, which was adapted from the same name novel by Elleen Chang (a famous Chinese female writer during the 20th century).
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The play they presented this semester was “And Then There were None”, which was adapted from Agatha Christie’s same name novel, but in a Chinese background.
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“A lot of the members in our theater now were joined after they saw this show,” Shiyun Hu, the chair of Penn Chinese Theater, said. She is a Communication and Religious Study major student at University of Pennsylvania. After this success, they kept bringing more and more good Chinese stories to the stage here in University of Pennsylvania. After this semester, they have presented five plays to the audiences already. “We only have one show each semester, because all the members are still students, and they need to take care of their courses first. So we usually only rehearse at weekend. Only on a week before the show, we will do more rehearsals at night during the week days.” They only perform once for each show too, because the rental fee of the theater is expensive. It usually will cost about two to three thousands once. Besides, they are performing in Chinese, and not many Chinese here are very into theater, so a lot of their audiences are actually friends of the performers or staffs. Also, the Ibrahim Theater, which is the theater they usually rent at 37th and Chestnut Street, can hold over 300 audiences, and that is totally enough for them already. All the shows they presented are in Chinese, “we make this as our basis, because the majority of our audiences still are Chinese. But sometime we will invite professors to our shows, and people who are interested in Chinese culture will come to watch the show too. Therefore, we put a slideshows on the background with simple black base and white English subtitles, so that non-Chinese speaker can enjoy the show either.”
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A scene in “And Then There Were None.”
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A scene in “And Then There Were None.”
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The translation of the scripts usually is done by their members who have been living in America for a long time and familiar with both cultures. “But translation is not a easy job, especially for this semester. We didn’t find a suitable person this time, so it was translated by our marketing team. Language is not a problem for them, but because everyone has their own style, so it’s not easy to combine all of their works together.” The tickets usually will not over $ 10, such as the price for the show “And Then There Were None” this time, the ticket is $ 8. “We are not trying to earn money, our goal is just make both ends need.” However, there are many things need money, such as the theater rental, the costumes and props. Therefore, besides the founding they can get from the school, they will need to bring in advertises so that they can get enough money. They have a marketing group to take care of this part, and they always did a really good job. They usually can get more founding during the fall semester, so they will be able to pick some shows that are more serious. However, the main factor of the script picking still is depending on director, if they can find a suitable director with a story that the director interested, they will just go with it.
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The biggest challenge for them still is the ticket selling, “I have faith for our directors and actors. But if we spend this much time and hard working and people are not seeing it, that will be so petty. So our marketing team works very hard every time, and they try to do something new every semester. Such as this time, they registered an account on Wechat (a popular Chinese social media app), and sent out trailers and posters to the public.” The play they presented this semester was “And Then There were None”, which was adapted from Agatha Christie’s same name novel, but in a Chinese background. The rehearsal started at the end of January and showed on April 12. Because some of them are graduating this semester, so this will be their last show at Penn Chinese Theater. None of them want to leave, but they know some fresh blood will be helpful for the group. They believe, with all the endeavor they put in, no matter who join the theater later, they will definitely become better and better.
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The mobilization before the show start.
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Part Four: Q&A with Director of International Admissions at Temple University
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Jessica B Sandberg Director of International Admissions of Temple University
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1. The growth of Chinese student enrollment is visible, but we want to get the numbers right first. How many currently enrolled students are from China? Could you provide statistics from last year and the year before to compare? 2012: 595 Chinese Students (2331 total international students) 2013: 884 Chinese Students (2787 total international students) 2014: 1106 Chinese Students (3213 total International Students)
2. What factors do you think contribute to the change of numbers? How does the university feel about the change, and how is it reflected onto its admission strategy? The increase in Chinese student enrollment at Temple reflects the national trend across the US. Many students come to the US because they are attracted to an American education. Students are dawn to Temple specifically because it is a comprehensive public research university, because it is located in a major city on the East Coast, the cost of living is affordable, Temple’s programs enjoy many high quality rankings and accolades, and the university offers a classic urban American experience (beautiful campus, residence life, diversity of people, variety of academic programs, and immersion in the city life – shopping, arts, sports, etc.). In support of these trends, Temple opened an office in Beijing in 2012 and began meeting with Chinese students around the country to showcase all the advantages that the university has to offer. We created transfer and exchange partnerships with prestigious universities. We translated many of our key marketing materials into Chinese (for parents). We opened social media accounts on RenRen and Weibo (which are popular Chinese social media websites). And we also communicate with Wechat and QQ (popular Chinese communicating apps).
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3. Your office has representatives in China. As an admission officer, have you been to China? What do you and your colleague perceive as the reality behind Chinese people’s choice to study in America? Yes! Many members of the OIA (Office of International Admission) department travel to China regularly for various reasons including student recruitment, educational conferences and presentations, university partnerships, and exchange programs. Temple has an office in Beijing and representatives travel throughout the country to various provinces and cities. While travels are focused on business, the experiences of learning the culture and meeting the people are incredibly valuable and enjoyable too. Favorite experiences are including visiting Forbidden City, shopping at the silk market, etc. And for me specifically, I want to return to Chengdu to see the Pandas. My impression is that Chinese students pursue a US education for several reasons, which is the high quality education we can present, collaborative experiential learning style we have in here, culture and linguistic experience, campus community experience, career advantages with a US degree. Because of the distance, I think that Chinese students face challenges in making distinctions between the many universities across the US. Many families rely on ranking for their decision, but these distinctions aren’t always the best way to find a match. At Temple, we feel it’s important to meet students in their country, to show and tell about our university through staff and student testimonials. We try to explain what it means to be a Temple student and be “Temple Made”, and also the Philadelphia experience, the success storied, and the internships and jobs opportunities, even the sports event we have like ice skating, eating local foods, etc. We often share stories and videos of other Chinese students to illustrate what we mean.
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The board is inside Ms. Sandberg’s office, with souvenirs include things from China.
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4. Since most international students are new to Philadelphia, what has been done to accommodate them from the University’s end? We are proud to bring students to a school that really cares about their welfare and success. And those are the things we provide to them - Staffs in the writing center, which can help international student with their writing and communicating skills; - Conditional Admission Program for Undergraduate students; - Dedicated advisor in Academic Resource Center; - Dedicated staff increase, which is 9, of International Student Services Staff; - Global LLC program; - Football 101, Homecoming, Thanksgiving event for international student; - House check-in, first month live in a pointed place by OIA, and guide them about living in Philadelphia; - Student Associations, such as International Student Association (OIA advises), Chinese Student Scholar Association, Asian Student Association
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5. What would you say that makes Philadelphia appealing to international students? I think Philadelphia is a fantastic US city. Its diverse, affordable (fraction of cost of NYC and DC), walkable, culturally and historically rich (with arts, cuisine, major sports teams), and geographically desirable (two rivers with capable of biking, rowing, running, and short distance to neighboring cities, beaches on the Atlantic ocean and mountain). We enjoy four distinct weather seasons, which bring snow in winter, flowers in spring, heat in the summer, and colorful foliage in the fall. Philadelphia is also a great student city, which is the second largest in the country, with over 100 colleges in the region. This diversity allows international students to have the comforts of home and the chance to try new things. For example, a Chinese student can enjoy their favorite foods in Chinatown, join the Chinese Student Association and celebrate the moon festival. However, in another week, that student can experience American Independence Day fireworks, attend a Phillies Game, and paint their face with the Temple T at a pep rally. This combination is a great environment for Chinese students to thrive.
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Epilogue We cross 11,640-kilometer to come to America, live in the opposite side of the earth, only because we are trying to find a way to catch the life we want. We are far from our families, unable to see our parents, bothers and sisters for a long time. However, in other side, we become more dependency to our family financially, because many of us become unable to be independent after adulthood base on the regulations that forbid us to work outside the campus. For many Chinese families, this is not a small amount of money. It cost huge amount of vigor to get use to live in a society that different no matter culturally or linguistically. Not like traveling, we cannot just ignore those differences, instead, we need to go through it, accept it, and get along with it, so that we can live here and finished our study here. We also sacrifice many things when we land here. Our friendship in China, the delicious food in China, and everything we hated and loved in China. After go through all this, we only hope that it is worthy, and we can use all of the things we learned here, both from classes and life experience, to help us make our dream come true.
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Special Thanks: Guan Wang
王冠
Haojun Liu
刘昊君
Zehua Li
李泽华
Zhaolin Chen
陈照林
Li Jiang
姜丽
Wanyu Wang
王莞菀
Yuchao Feng
冯宇超
Shiyun Hu
胡诗韵
Ms. Jessica B Sandberg With out the help from all of you, this book will never exist. Thank you. 如果没有你们的帮助，这本书就不会存在了。万分感谢
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Sources: “Drexel University FactBook.” Drexel University. Drexel University. Web. 18 Apirl, 2015. http://www.drexel.edu/provost/irae/factbook/drexel_factbook/ “English Language Center.” Drexel University. Drexel University. Web. 18 Apirl, 2015. http://www.drexel.edu/elc/ “Fact Sheets by U.S. State.” Institute of International Education. 2015, Institute of International Education, Inc. Web. 18 Apirl, 2015. http://www.iie.org/Research-and-Publications/ Open-Doors/Data/Fact-Sheets-by-US-State “Green Card.” .” Department of Homeland Security. Web. 18 Apirl, 2015. http://www.uscis. gov/greencard “H1-B Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Cap Season.” Department of Homeland Security. Web. 18 Apirl, 2015. http://www.uscis.gov/working-united-states/temporary-workers/h-1b-specialty-occupations-and-fashion-models/h-1b-fiscal-year-fy-2016-cap-season “Intensive English Language Program.” Temple University. 2015, Temple University. Web. 18 Apirl, 2015. http://www.temple.edu/provost/international/ielp/ “International Students: All places of Origin 2012-2014.” Institute of International Education. 2015, Institute of International Education, Inc. Web. 18 Apirl, 2015. http://www. iie.org/Research-and-Publications/Open-Doors/Data/International-Students/All-Places-of-Origin/2012-14
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“International Students: All places of Origin 2010-2012.” Institute of International Education. 2015, Institute of International Education, Inc. Web. 18 Apirl, 2015. http://www. iie.org/Research-and-Publications/Open-Doors/Data/International-Students/All-Places-of-Origin/2010-12 “Opendoors 2014 A quick Look at International Students in the U.S.” Institute of International Education. 2015, Institute of International Education, Inc. Web. 18 Apirl, 2015. http://www.iie.org/Research-and-Publications/Open-Doors/Data/International-Students/Infographic Ruiz, Neil. “The geography of Foreign Students in U.S. Higher Education: Origins and Destinations.” Brookings. 2015, The Brookings Institution. Web. 18 Apirl, 2015. http:// www.brookings.edu/research/interactives/2014/geography-of-foreign-students#/M105 “Student Visa.” U.S. Visas. U.S. Department of State. Web. 18 Apirl, 2015. http://travel. state.gov/content/visas/english/study-exchange/student.html “What is an F1 visa.” International Student Insurance. 2015, Envisage International Corparation. Web. 18 Apirl, 2015. http://www.internationalstudentinsurance.com/f1student/ what-is-f1-visa.php
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2015 Spring